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Scholarships, happy students, SRJC, overlooked colleges, summer camps

Education roundup

I just returned from an incredibly eye-opening education conference in Texas last week called South By Southwest Edu (SXSWEdu). The focus was on innovations in education. Check the Our Schools page next week for a feature story on exciting changes in how curriculums will be delivered to our children in the future.

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Santa Rosa Junior College will be adding up to 500 courses next year to meet the demands of incoming and current students. Thanks to Proposition 30, the college can restore courses it was forced to previously cut. SRJC is focused most on adding courses needed by students to transfer to a four-year university or to get a technical education certificate. Many of the additional classes will be offered in the afternoon, evening, online and at the Petaluma Campus to make it easier for students to find classes with available space. For summer, priority registration begins April 29, and priority registration for the fall starts June 24. Find class schedule and registration information at santarosa.edu.

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Back in 1983 (my hey-day), 80 percent of 18-year-olds had their driver’s licenses, but 25 years later, that percentage has dropped to about 65 percent. Seventeen-year-olds decreased from 69 percent to 50 percent, and 16-year-olds slipped from 46 percent to 31 percent (source: DMV). I remember being so excited to get my license and thrilled with the independence and freedom it brought. What is going on?

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California is one of several states working hard to assimilate a rapidly growing population of Hispanic students. A new study of the five most populous states found that Hispanic student academic performance ranges widely by state. The New York Times reported on Feb. 21, “Hispanic students accounted for more than half of all eighth-graders in California in 2011, the highest proportion in the country. But only 14 percent of those students were proficient on eighth-grade reading tests administered by the United States Department of Education. In Florida, 27 percent of Hispanic students (who represent just over a quarter of its public school students) scored at the proficient level or above. And in Illinois, 23 percent of Hispanic eighth-graders were proficient in reading. In mathematics, Hispanic eighth-graders in California similarly underperformed their peers in other states, with just 13 percent hitting the proficiency mark, compared with 22 percent in Florida and 31 percent in Texas, where Hispanics make up more than half the eighth-grade student population.”

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For the first time in decades, aspiring teachers in California would be able to major in education as undergraduates and get both a preliminary teaching credential and a B.A. in four years, if a bill now in the legislature becomes law. Senate Bill 5 could mean a real change in teacher preparation. For the past 40 years, California has been one of the few state to require students wishing to become teachers in California to major in subjects other than education in college. After college, currently an aspiring teacher must pass a content test in the subject they plan to teach, take courses in teaching techniques and intern as a student teacher in the classroom.

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Do you have a child with special needs (of any variety)? There is an amazing list of 100 apps for children with special needs, organized by grade level and subject as well as by area of concern (organization, motor skills, etc.) See commonsensemedia.org/guide/special-needs.

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I found perhaps the ultimate list for college planning information, thanks to the Independent Educational Consultants Association. This is one to print and save: iecaonline.com/PDF/IECA_Antonoff-Resources-List.pdf.

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The 2013 Steve Silver Foundation/Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship for the Arts invites Bay Area high school seniors to complete for a scholarship in singing, acting or dancing. Nine finalists – three from each category – are selected by a panel of performing arts professionals. Finalists will perform their three-minute piece live at Club Fugazi in San Francisco on June 3 in front of a panel of celebrity judges. One winner from each category will receive $10,000 check. The scholarship is based entirely on talent; grades and financial needs are not factors. All entries are due April 26. Check beachblanketbabylon.com/scholarship. 

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The unigo.com 2013 rankings contain one of my favorites lists: the campuses with the happiest students (students are asked to rate their own happiness at school). So here we go –  in order starting at 10: Vassar College (New York), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carleton College  (Minnesota), Colgate University (New York), Brandeis University (Mass.), George Washington University (D.C.), Grinnell College (Iowa), Boston University (Mass.), Barnard College (New York ) … and in the number one slot: University of Wisconsin at Madison. Hmmm. Where are the West Coast schools? Maybe weather isn’t a factor for happiness.

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Sonoma Valley High School’s engineering, technology and design pathway held an event for freshman in late January, and more than 50 freshman turned out to participate (almost half were female). Students enjoyed working in groups of three to construct towers with given materials (straw, tape, etc.) that would hold a golf ball successfully for an allotted period of time. The group of students with the structure that held a golf ball at the tallest height won a pizza party. The winning team was freshmen Geiddy Padilla, MacLean Meyn, and Andy Purdom. Also, congratulations to freshmen Teresa Chvez, Nichole Pho and Salvador Chavez for placing second in the competition. A new flyer about the pathway program is available in the school office and on the school website.

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Shmoop is offering free SAT, ACT, PSAT or AP test preparation. Go to zinch.com/shmoop-prep to sign up. Students must sign up by the end of March to receive six months of free test prep. Grockit is another great free test-prep site that also has a free smart phone app.

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Now is the time of year when seniors are frantically searching for scholarships to help chip away at the considerable tuition costs they face over their college years. In addition to the many scholarships that local Sonoma organizations generously offer each year, students and their families should be scouring the web for other sources of scholarship money. To that end, here are some of the best  – free – scholarship websites: Scholarships.com is easy to use and organized into different searchable categories. CollegeBoard.org, the site that runs the SAT testing, lists around 2,300 scholarships with a value of closing in on $3 billion. FastWeb.com is another favorite, offering around 1.5 million scholarships totaling around $3.4 billion in funds. This site makes a big effort to delete scholarships whose deadline has passed. And finally, CollegeNet.com lets you search for scholarships based on your personal information and characteristics.

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The Presentation School is offering a new session of after-school classes starting Tuesday, March 19, open to all students in Sonoma. The classes run from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. The classes this trimester are: Pre-engineering with Lego, Cross Fit, Chess Club, Jewelry Making, German, Clay Pinchpots, Mathletes, Jewelry-Making, Paper Arts and Yoga. Most are open to ages 5 and up. To place your child in a class, call 935-0122, ext. 111, or email Gretchen Armer at garmer@presentationschool.com. Classes range in cost from $100 to $130 for six weeks. The complete flyer is at: presentationschool.com/student-life-perks.html.

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It is time to start thinking about summer camp, and two new exciting offerings have been announced. Justin-Siena High School in Napa is offering a new summer theater workshop for ages 6 to 14 starting June 10 at the Lincoln Theater in Yountville. Justin-Siena.org. Sonoma Academy is offering its first-ever Jazz Academy at SA (JASA). This weeklong workshop for 13- to 18-year-old musicians will be held Aug. 5 to 9 on the Sonoma Academy campus in Santa Rosa (sonomaacademy.org).

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Save the date for the annual Boosters Bash on Saturday, May 4, at Hanna Boys Center. Donations of silent and live auction items are needed. The Boosters support almost every elective, extracurricular club and sport at Sonoma Valley High School. Email svhsboosters@sonomavly.k12.ca.us to donate.

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Kenwood Preschool and Child Care Center has been operating on the Kenwood school campus for 25 years. Former parents and students are invited to share in writing a brief memory or experience from your time with them (include the program and year(s) you attended). Email messages to jjimerson@kenwoodschool.org by Friday, March 29.