December 23, 2004

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Pioneer High School students make a difference to family in need

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

With all the rushing and preparing for the holidays, Pioneer High School’s leadership class took time out recently to adopt a needy family and make their Christmas a little bit brighter.

Pioneer’s Leadership class. Back row, Greg Peterson, Evan Crane, Steven Pinheiro; middle row, Jeff Higashi, Robert Steinberg, Nadia Berdai, Katee Shean, Jennifer Ng, Allison Scott, April Ham, Guilette Bernard; front row, Stephanie Morales, Amanda Nasar, Justine Kirkeide, Lisa Pancoast, Julie Angelo, Jennifer Snyder, Angelique Roman (in hat), Dena Zlotziver, Jessica Thompson, Megan Bommarito, Jessica Miller, and Jessica Brandt. Photos by Jeanne C. Lewis

Providing a hand up, not a hand out, the students raised over $2,000 along with donations from the community for the family of soon-to-be 12.

Working with the Adopt a Family Organization, which targets families in crisis, Mr. Miritz’s leadership training classes chose two to assist. One had nine children with another child expected soon; giving toys to the kids, aged four to 17 and providing other needed items—blankets, towels, toiletries and gift cards. The presentation was made at Pioneer High School this past week where the adopted family came to receive the gifts and enjoy a potluck lunch provided by the sophomore, junior and senior students.

“This is incredible,” Adopt a Family charter member June Stark said. “This family can really use everything the kids are giving.”

The Pioneer High School program, under the auspice of the leadership classes, fosters community outreach.

“This comes under the 40 hours of community service required,” teacher Amy Douglas said at the event which featured three Christmas trees and holiday decorations. “The kids learn what it means to work hard and give.

There is real benefit and value in learning to help others. And it gives such hope to the family.”

And the kids came up with very creative ways to raise donations throughout the school and the community.

“We had a canned food drive and a toiletries and soup drive,” Julie Angelo, one of the leadership students said.

“But we do things all year round. And, there was the AIDS walk in October where we raised $500.”

But the kids didn’t stop there. Buckets were put out to collect money from fellow students on the school grounds.

They asked retailers to contribute and received even more than they expected; Wal-Mart gift cards, Sears supplied comforters for the whole family and Babyland donated the crib for the new baby expected in January.

Student Chris Heinzelmann donated all his Christmas gift money to the adopted family.

“I’m giving my family Christmas cards that say their gift was donated to the family,” Heinzelmann said who dressed as Santa Claus for the event. “Whatever I can do to help the kids, I’ll do.”

A midnight wrapping party by Megan Bommarito, Dena Zlotziver, Jennifer and Jessica Miller created a truckload of festively wrapped gifts.

The young adults involved with the proliferation of Christmas cheer and handmade goodies to celebrate the family’s holiday windfall wore black t-shirts inscribed on the back with “Leader to be or go first; to show the way.”

“It really is a feeling of accomplishment,” leadership student April Popescu said. “It is most rewarding to make a change in someone else’s life. And we had a lot of fun.”

The family was surprised and overwhelmed by the students’ generosity when they opened their many presents.

They are shy but excited and maybe, a bit more hopeful about the future. One family whose Christmas is a whole lot brighter because of a group of young people who really care.

Simonds’ third graders receive best present of all—dictionary

Gift is part of California Dictionary Project

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Mathematician and computer engineer Haimin Jin shared his love for the dictionary with a group of second and third graders at Simonds Elementary School last week.

Simonds Elementary School student Sanjay Nichani practices reading a word from his new dictionary in teacher Anna Hreha’s class. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

The Chinese immigrant was among many business leaders who distributed 4,300 dictionaries to students in the San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) the morning of Dec. 15 as part of the California Dictionary Project, a nonprofit organization working to improve the state’s literacy efforts by donating the valuable books.

“It’s an absolutely wonderful thing,” said Simonds Elementary School Principal Linda Kakes. “The kids love these dictionaries. They love the fact that they can keep them, write in them, mark them up and underline the words they use.”

Jin, an Intel design engineer, taught children in teacher Anna Hreha’s class the value of the dictionary. This was the fourth year the school received the dictionaries. This time the school received 110 dictionaries.

On Dec. 17, Councilwoman-elect Nancy Pyle also visited third graders in teacher Cathy Crowell’s class to discuss the importance of the dictionary.

While third grade is a critical time to capture a child’s focus and curiosity about words and language, according to educators, 53 percent of third graders across California read below national grade level. Touting the motto “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader,” volunteers tried to get students excited about learning new words and their meaning.

“We’re constantly stressing writing,” Kakes said. “One of the things that starts happening is that students go from very simple sentence structure to really using adjectives and adverbs effectively, broadening their vocabulary and using powerful words that paint images in people’s heads.”

For his part, Jin was happy to give the dictionaries to the children. “This is a very meaningful event,” he said. “The dictionary is a powerful tool that children and adults need to use. Vocab-ulary is very important. It’s great for kids to start early to learn new words and how to look up definitions.”

Born and raised in China, Jin immigrated to the United States in 1991. He earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Connecticut. He also has a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois.

He recalled how as a young boy in China he began learning English words and the alphabet, soon progressing to the dictionary, which he used daily to discover and explore new words and begin forming sentences and paragraphs. Without the dictionary, he said, he would not have learned English.

Hreha was grateful for Jin’s visit to her classroom. Students took turns reading, pronouncing and learning the meaning of different words.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this ambitious effort with the California Dictionary Project to provide resources for the children to engage in additional language learning,” said SJUSD Superintendent Don Iglesias. “Improving students’ reading skills has always been a major goal of the SJUSD and the efforts from the CDP and volunteers around the community truly make a difference.”

This year’s San Jose distribution was donated by the Severns Family Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting Northern California community needs in the areas of education, arts/culture, healthcare, social services and environmental management.

The CDP has distributed 45,000 free dictionaries across the Bay Area since October 2002. The founders of the CDP were inspired to create the organization as a result of the work by Mary French, a South Carolina woman that began a nonprofit to buy dictionaries for every third grade student. Her efforts have been the basis of similar programs in more than 40 states.

Holy Spirit School Brownie troops adopt a family for Christmas

Holy Spirit Brownie Troops 275 and 789 led by school parents Jacqui Hajost, Ingi Ibarra, Vani Aboud and Aliceann Ceruzzi recently participated in the annual Adopt-A-Family program.

Shown at their Brownie gift wrapping meeting are Therese Abely, Kalyani Aboud, Alyson Beaulieu, Kristin Baer, Susan Baillif, Cayana Bergado, Diana Carrillo, Rebecca Ceruzzi, McKenzie Courtney, Katelyn Duprel, Kristin Gill, Eildh Hajost, Hannah Hajost, Isabel Ibarra, Megan Johnson, Shaylyn Joice, Kathryn Kinkhorst, Alyssa Teixeira and Christina Veziris.

The program is a joint effort of the Santa Clara County Bar Association Women Lawyers Committee and the Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children’s Service. The Child Abuse Prevention Center administers the program, and matches organizations and individuals with less fortunate families to “adopt” for the holidays.

The Brownie girls were asked to perform chores and good deeds to raise the money for the adopted family. They generated $240 to purchase a bike, roller blades skates, a Christmas tree with decorations, and gift cards for groceries, clothing and other general items. The two troops spent an afternoon happily wrapping presents at their regular Brownie meeting at Holy Spirit School. The gifts were presented to the needy family on Dec. 8. The parents have two children, a six and eight year child.

Leland thespians perform scenes from ‘Steel Magnolias’

Leland drama put on its second play of the year, excerpts from “Steel Magnolias” on Dec. 13. They also presented “The Odd Couple” earlier in the year. The class is taught by Steve Dini, who also directs the Pioneer program and stepped in when it looked like Leland’s program would be shut down. From left, Bonnie Liu, Alicia DePalma, Krista Gaffney, Randi Janes, and Gina Sotelo (who also student directed) act out a scene. Jessica Golden, not pictured was also in the play.

—Photo by Michael Janes

Early Christmas gift for lucky Leland freshman

Leland freshman Seth Anderson with Vice Principal Mr. Yllana and Mike Janes of the Leland Booster Club, shows off his new iPod mini music player.

On Dec. 15, the Leland Booster Club announced the winners of its eScrip registration contest. Freshman Seth Anderson was the lucky winner of the iPod mini, with his name pulled from the proverbial hat by Vice Principal Yllana at a lunchtime rally.

Seth was one of more than 40 students who turned in five or more eScrip registrations from family and friends to qualify for the drawing. The group winner with highest participation rate was the boys’ frosh/soph basketball team, who won a pizza party. By registering your grocery card (for example Safeway and PW) or credit cards with eScrip, Leland receives a contribution from participating merchants for purchases you already make anyway, which goes 100 percent toward student programs.  

If you are interested in participating, the Leland Booster eScrip ID number is 6660623. eScrip forms are available in the Leland office or online at www.lelandathletics.com, or you can enter your card numbers yourself securely online at www.escrip.com.