Youth of the Year

Youth of the Year Brittany Barksdale with her family.

On January 9, we hosted our annual Youth of the Year competition to select our official youth representative for 2014. The event included the Youths of the Year for our San Pedro Club, Port of LA Club and Wilmington Club competing for the coveted spot. We are proud to announce that Port of LA Club member, Brittany Barksdale is the 2014 Youth of the Year for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor. 

In November and December of last year, our three Clubs held their own Youth of the Year competitions to select an exemplary youth who would represent their Clubs. Brittany was chosen by the Port of LA Club in December and by our organization earlier this month due to her hard work and strong values. She is a senior at Port of LA High School where she is the president of the Black Student Union and member of the cheer team. At the Port of LA Club, she serves as president of the Keystone group, leading her peers in volunteer activities for the community. Brittany will go on to represent our organization at the Youth of the Year competition for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles County and, if successful, will continue to compete in additional regional competitions.

The Youth of the Year competition is designed for the most dedicated youths in our organization. Ashley Escobedo was selected as the Youth of the Year for our San Pedro Club where she serves as president of her Keystone group and works part time in our high school center. She is a senior at CALPAC charter high school. Crystal Cabello was selected as the Youth of the Year for our Wilmington Club where she works part time as a staff and role model to our elementary school youth. She attends Long Beach City College and is also part of her Club's Keystone group. All three Youths of the Year demonstrate our mission in their daily activities. We are very proud of their accomplishments!

Selecting our Youth of the Year was a challenging process for our volunteer judges. A special thanks to Eileen Hupp of the Palos Verdes Chamber of Commerce, Betsy Brien of Phillips 66, Steve Faichney of Valero and Rosa Pesenti of Xerox who selected our Youth of the Year as well as Ryan Ferguson and Gabriela Medina of Councilmember Joe Buscaino's Office, Isaac Finch of Fin-wall & Associates, George Mayer of Coastline Equity, Oscar Salcedo of I Heart Wilmington, Joseph Kuban of LAPD Sheriffs' Dept. and Alma Ortiz of Hojas Tea House & Cafe for serving as judges at the individual Club competitions.

All three Youths of the Year from our organization.

F.O.C.U.S. Basketball Clinic

As we were wrapping up the semester and preparing for holiday break last month, our San Pedro Boys & Girls Club hosted the 1st Annual F.O.C.U.S. Basketball Clinic. The goals of the clinic were to help our youth basketball players improve their athletic ability and allow them to develop team-building skills. The program was open to our members, 8 to 10 years of age, with 48 young athletes participating.

A student testing her skills as her peers cheer her on.

Head Coach Phillip Redd led the clinic. Each day he and his fellow coaches introduced a new term, setting the theme for that day's lesson.

"F" focuses on “Fundamentals” - an important element to basketball. 
"O" focuses on “Opportunity” - playing any sport with a team is a very unique opportunity.
"C" focuses on “Character” - building character on and off the court/field.
"U" focuses on “Unity” - an important component of team building and team work.
"S" focuses on “Sportsmanship” - the one thing you have complete control over when participating in sports. 

The clinic was a great success and the youth involved will be able to build on the skills they developed this new year.

Coach Phillip Redd guides our students through their basketball clinic practice.

College Bound Alumni Seek Harbor Area Careers

Our College Bound program has helped a great number of youth graduate high school and go to college. Now, many of our college educated alumni are returning, hoping to share their educational and professional experiences with harbor area businesses. Thanks to the generous support of long-time friend of the Club, Mitch Harmatz of Plaza Automotive Center in San Pedro, our College Bound Director Yesenia Aguilar teamed up with International Trade Education Programs (ITEP) to organize the "Careers for College Graduates Mixer" on January 7 at the Warner Grand Annex.

Executive Director Mike Lansing with our College Bound alumni.

The event allowed over 50 of our College Bound alumni, who have graduated from college or will soon graduate, make connections that may have a significant impact on their futures. Port Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi, an alumnus of our San Pedro Club, opened the event by detailing the changes planned for the harbor area and the need for community involvement to revitalize the business sector. Our Executive Director Mike Lansing spoke next, motivating our youth to be active in their job search. "You have to be aggressive and make a difference in this community and for your own life," he said. ITEP CEO Amy Grat brought to light the many opportunities at the mixer by asking everyone in a particular industry to raise their hand so that young professionals could more easily network.

Port Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi and College Bound Director Yesenia Aguilar.

The event followed Mitch Harmatz's vision of a more casual networking event as opposed the the job-fair environment that job seekers are normally faced with. Young professionals and employers conversed throughout the evening in a relaxed atmosphere as appetizers and refreshments were served. We received assistance promoting the event from our local political representatives including Octaviano Rios, Harbor Area representative for Mayor Eric Garcetti; Ryan Ferguson, San Pedro Field Deputy for Councilmember Joe Buscaino; Elise Swanson, District Director for Congresswoman Janice Hahn; and Miguel Cordova, Senior Field Representative for Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi who were all in attendance.

Companies represented at the mixer include Boeing, Port of Long Beach, Port of Los Angeles, PS2 Engineering, Wells Fargo, Toyota, Total Terminals Inc., and Valero. We look forward to what's next for our College Bound alumni!

Chinese New Year at the Club

On January 28, the Wilmington Boys & Girls Club hosted a Chinese New Year celebration for our elementary and middle school members. Students from our San Pedro Club and Port of LA Club attended the event which showcased the history and cultural traditions behind the popular holiday.

Fine Arts Director Sandra Avila explains the history of Chinese New Year.

Also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, according to history.com, Chinese New Year is, "the most important social and economic holiday in China." The holiday is very focused on family unity and joining together for celebrations. 

Fine Arts Director Sandra Avila coordinated the Wilmington Club celebration for our youth from all three Clubs to celebrate as a family. The event opened with our students receiving traditional Chinese New Year gifts including oranges and red envelopes with toy money while confetti was thrown as a much safer form of the traditional fireworks display. Our youth then settled down to hear about the history behind the holiday. The most popular legend of Chinese New Year is a story of how the villagers of a town scared away a monster by hanging up red banners, lighting fireworks, playing drums, wearing masks and marching with lamps which eventually became the new year holiday practices.

Music Coordinator Christine Mattera performs a traditional Chinese tune on a Dizi.

Our students learned about the musical traditions with a Dizi, Chinese bamboo flute, performance and a video of a group drum performance from China. The ceremony ended with a dragon parading through our Wilmington Club gym. 

Events, like our annual Chinese New Year celebration, give our youth the opportunity to experience popular cultural holidays and broaden their knowledge of international traditions.

The LA Kings and Raytheon Visit the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club

On January 10, Raytheon teamed up with the LA Kings to teach our students about the "Science of Hockey." Raytheon organized the event which combined the knowledge of their engineers with the talents of defenseman Alec Martinez and goaltender Ben Scrivens to demonstrate the science and math behind the sport to nearly 100 middle school students at our San Pedro Club. The event also celebrated Raytheon's generous $5,000 donation to improve and expand our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programming.

Alec Martinez coaches our students through applications of math and science.

Our students were given the opportunity to learn directly from professional athletes and Raytheon's engineers. They saw real world applications of the science and math lessons they are currently learning in school and at our Club. Former LA Kings players, Jim Fox and Daryl Evans, now media analysts for the team, kicked things off with a brief speech to our youth about the importance of the lessons they were about to experience. Exciting demonstrations of classroom lessons are very rare and unique opportunities. Events like Raytheon's "Science of Hockey," part of their MathMovesU program, inspire our students to be more engaged in their lessons and bring their studies to life.

Thanks for the generous donation to our STEM programming, Raytheon!

The LA Kings Chariot brought professional hockey equipment for the demonstration and the Ice Crew assisted as Martinez, Scrivens, Fox and Evans worked with Raytheon engineers to help students understand the teachings behind complicated hockey moves, like puck velocity. We definitely have more students interested in hockey and engineering due to the experience, and the LA Kings have many new young fans.

College Bound Evaluated by UCLA Independent Study

Our College Bound program was recently evaluated by Dr. Todd Franke, Professor and Chair in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Department of Social Welfare. The evaluation was funded by the MacFarlane Family Foundation. This third party report evaluates the program components which have made our College Bound program so successful in helping increase our graduation rate from below 50% in 2002 to 98% in 2013 with 97% of those graduates enrolling in a two or four year university.

In 2002, we launched the College Bound program to help our youth overcome the barriers that prevent them from graduating high school and going to college. Since then, the program has expanded considerably within our own organization and is now open to all youth members in grades 4 through 12. We have supported and continue to support the replication efforts of College Bound at 55 Boys & Girls Clubs nation-wide, 11 of which are in Los Angeles County. The Clubs that implement the program with our guidance are experiencing the impact. 

Dr. Franke's Evaluation of the College Bound Program was conducted through interviews and surveys of alumni who completed the College Bound program in 2011 and 2012. Of the participants, 70% identified as Hispanic, with 15% of 2011 alumni participants and 35% of 2012 alumni participants having indicated that they were the first in their families to graduate from high school. 

The evaluation noted the areas of our program which alumni indicated as proving most crucial in helping them graduate from high school and attend college. The one-on-one mentoring, intensive case management and individual assistance with scholarship and college applications that our program emphasizes, proved to be the most successful components. (Franke, 2013, p. 38)

The executive summary of the evaluation also notes the lasting effects of the College Bound program:

Over 96% of the 2011 and 2012 cohorts indicated that they believe they will successfully obtain a Bachelor’s degree. Notably, there were several participants in each cohort who thought they would earn a Master’s degree. Without the support of the College Bound Program, students indicated that they would not have been as successful in navigating the college application process and the transition to college life. Students in each cohort overwhelmingly agreed (85%) that the College Bound Program staff, “listened to what [they] had to say” and “believed [they] could do well in school.” (Franke, 2013, p. 3)

Read Dr. Franke's full evaluation at www.bgclaharbor.org/programs/college-bound.