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For Public Comments to the Commission, please click here
195
1 What happens then they become recruiters for the same
2 company. They've gone through the same system and been
3 sponsored and become mentors or models. It just sort of
4 takes a life of its own.
5 MS. ALVAREZ: I know there is a lot of
6 private organizations out there that offer scholarships,
7 and scholarship funds is a very good fund. In my
8 community there is a big fund-raiser. But I think one
9 of the other things for this particlular working group
10 is to maybe work on education on those type of entities
11 that it isn't just a matter of here is their money to
12 assist you with college because in all likelihood those
13 kids are going to go to college one way or the other,
14 whether it's because they got a scholarship or get
15 grants or other type of funding.
16 It may be time to get those private entities
17 to reach for the lower levels, to start those kids on
18 the track to have that opportunity. I think those kind
19 of organizations are getting them when they're already
20 there, let's see what we can do to get the community
21 organizations involved at the lower level, and I know
22 that -- I imagine this is done in places other than my
23 community, but we have partnerships with businesses at
24 the elements re school level.
25 All they do is offer them money to help buy
196
1 supplies, buy extras. They don't do anything to get
2 involved to further the student's education. Here's
3 money, let's buy a new computer or something like that.
4 Maybe if this particular working group could
5 work or look at how do we educate those students, to
6 help get those kids to realize that there is opportunity
7 for college down the road or for other opportunities
8 down the road.
9 MR. HANNA: One of the things, too, in our
10 working group discussions, we're talking a lot about
11 corporations and foundations and how they give out
12 money.
13 The fact is within our working group on
14 community partnerships we're also looking at
15 communities, partnerships of groups that don't, quote,
16 give out money.
17 You know, the President has emphasized since
18 he first took office the role of faith-based
19 organizations and they're among the leading
20 community-based partnerships, if you will. We normally
21 don't think of a community on a faith-based
22 organization, but to a degree that's what we're talking
23 when a faith-based organization ends up serving as a
24 center of the community, sometimes providing the
25 educational services directly, sometimes providing
197
1 mentoring services and things of that nature.
2 And so as we are surveying the landscape for
3 good models for community partnership, the faith-based
4 organizations and other organizations, for instance, we
5 talked some about a group that Norma was instrumental in
6 founding called -- it's called Browns, which is an
7 initiative by parents, this was not Ford Motor Company
8 saying let's put some money in the Hispanic community
9 so we get the benefits of them from a corporate
10 standpoint. This was a community partnership of people
11 who took an interest in literacy in that area.
12 I just want to make sure if this group is
13 thinking as the entire commission is thinking about ways
14 you can help augment our efforts within the working
15 group, that you realize we're not just talking
16 foundation and corporation foundations and corporations
17 who happen to give money to the effort but other groups
18 that are entering into community partnerships.
19 MS. MAZZUCA: Charlie.
20 MR. GARCIA: On the C scope, when you value
21 the programs, are you also looking at cost as a factor?
22 There could be programs that are great, but require a
23 lot of money, but others that are great, but don't
24 require a lot of money.
25 MR. PARET: We did -- it certainly falls
198
1 within the scope of the relevant research that we need
2 to do. I don't think we spent much time yesterday
3 nawing at that. It's just relevant to questioning.
4 MS. MAZZUCA: Miquel.
5 MR. HERNANDEZ: What I was going to say goes
6 pretty well with what we're discussing right now. I
7 think it is very, very relevant, directed partnerships
8 that are not necessarily asking for money.
9 For example, I think it's what the lady this
10 morning mentioned about Texas trying to get the
11 community involved out there. Organizations such as Boy
12 Scouts. They need the schools. They need those kids in
13 the schools.
14 The Boy Scouts, what are we going to ask them
15 to do? Are we going to ask them to give them, encourage
16 them that they can go and go to higher education or are
17 we going to ask them, assist them in learning how to
18 read or, you know, just being part of Boy Scouts it will
19 be something important.
20 The YMCA, they need the schools. In
21 partnerships they need to reach out more for Hispanics
22 and then encourage those kids to higher education and
23 say, yes, you can.
24 I think those are areas we need to reach as
25 well as areas that will provide monies.
199
1 The other thing, I believe corporation or the
2 corporate area is something that we have been involved
3 in from the point of view as students of the
4 universities most companies of this nation have the
5 students in the summer or one semester they come to work
6 at the company, and it's not that I or the company would
7 be providing scholarship money for that student.
8 Every year we have four, five, six, seven
9 students that come for three or four months and work at
10 the company. That is very important.
11 I think another thing and it is a mind-set,
12 changing your mind-set. It was, well, you know, we
13 bring those students -- it is important because we want
14 them to go graduate and come to work for us and we want
15 them to go over there and talk about the company and
16 that way we can recruit more graduates from that
17 university.
18 But there is a different mind-set that we
19 need to change that doesn't exist and it is related to
20 what I just mentioned somewhat ago.
21 The people that are working there, the people
22 that are professionals are working, they have to give
23 back, and that mind-set doesn't exist.
24 Think about it. When you are ready to
25 retire, go and help, whether it is full time or part
200
1 time. We have also asked people that are working. They
2 take some time in the afternoon and they mentor a
3 student. that is a mind-set you need to hammer and
4 hammer and change a mind-set in the corporate structure
5 of the United States that they need to do those kinds of
6 things.
7 The resource is out there, and I tell you
8 what. People understand what the problems are.
9 Corporate America understands that the graduates a few
10 years down the road are not going to be there. The
11 engineers we need, they are not going to be graduating,
12 so they are alarmed. They are ready today to do
13 whatever we ask them because they know that that will
14 depend on the fact that they will have or not have the
15 technical and qualified employment that they will
16 require ten 10, 20 years from now.
17 MS. MAZZUCA: I wanted to add a comment about
18 creating a dream. When you're looking at community
19 partnerships and when you're looking at making the
20 sciences meaningful, particularly at the level we're
21 losing kids, sixth, seventh grade, where kids are making
22 those other choices, the need to work with corporate
23 America, to enable not only the mentoring, but the real
24 life application of some of the curriculum that we're
25 looking at and how it translates into the world of work
201
1 and giving the kids the opportunity to again model the
2 folks that are in the workplace and oftentimes learning
3 skills that we call, you know, (Speaking Spanish) and
4 that doesn't mean it's something education, I think
5 that's real important for work, that the working group
6 is looking at and helping create that dream.
7 MS. SCHOFIELD: I just was going to say it's
8 so nice to hear about the community partnerships and
9 hear about different things the community partnerships
10 can really put together, and I just wanted to share with
11 you that maybe looking also at some kind of matching
12 programs, matching hour programs where I know that
13 Intell and Nike to do this, every hour their employee
14 puts in in the volunteer program, the program receives
15 matching funds, like so much an hour. We received
16 $13,000 from Intell this year because of the Intell
17 volunteers.
18 The other thing being embraced by a
19 community partnership, happens to embrace your school,
20 but have a mission and a goal, actually a line to your
21 action plan or your school improvement plan.
22 The other thing, when you align this to look
23 at literacy as one of these key employees, Costco has a
24 nationwide phone program that they train their
25 employees. They pick up ten kids and they actually
202
1 monitor on reading and it's just the one phase of
2 phonics.
3 Again, I think we're getting a lot for that
4 volunteer time.
5 Another thing is look at some of the
6 companies the parents in the community work at and see
7 what kind of partnerships we can do with those. They
8 don't allow them to take off work, but yet we're trying
9 to say can they give an hour of their time to come to
10 their child's school.
11 Looking at something creative and innovative,
12 Camp Fire has a couple programs that I think are well
13 worth looking at. When one is in the gift of giving,
14 again it is something it aligns your curriculum. They
15 train their Camp Fire volunteers to actually go in, meet
16 with kids, identify a problem, come up with a plan,
17 implement your plan, and evaluate it.
18 We've gotten things like having them paint
19 the United States on, you know, outside of our
20 playground to actually get in home works. They can do a
21 lot of things with that.
22 The other thing is looking at programs like,
23 you know, you referred to the Boy Scouts or Camp Fire or
24 something along that line and again looking at what can
25 they bring to our school that's academic, not just an
203
1 after school activity. Many of our kids don't go home
2 to a home where they have a place to read or they have
3 someone they can read to. So they provide those
4 opportunities within our school.
5 Another one is just looking at those lifelong
6 curriculum -- lifelong activities, not real life
7 activities, because I think when we bring community
8 partnerships into our school, we're creating something
9 that's bigger than that partnership.
10 We're actually creating again that belonging
11 that you are part of the community and you're creating
12 that neighborhood, that community that maybe would not
13 exist but for this type of program. So it's exciting to
14 hear some of the things.
15 MS. MAZZUCA: Thank you. Anyone else.
16 MS. BOSCH: Is it possible that your group
17 could approach national groups such as AARP?
18 You were talking about retired people getting
19 into tutoring and teaching and what-have-you, the
20 national groups to be approached and to be told about
21 the desperate need in the Hispanic need. They're
22 probably not aware of it.
23 And isn't there an Over 50S Club or
24 something, a professional club that gets out there and
25 really does a lot of this sort of thing?
204
1 It just seems to me that you could personally
2 call on some of these groups and make some of these
3 presentations such as we had here by Terri and Steve,
4 that it would be very effective.
5 MR. PARET: Which I think dovetails -- I
6 think you raised a good point and I think it dovetails
7 with the point I also wanted to make, and we paid
8 attention to not only the context of the working group,
9 but as a commission, which is the -- spreading the word
10 and implementation element of our functioning.
11 I think one of the ways which we could
12 feasibly differentiate our work is that we can devise
13 mechanisms to spread the word to raise the profile of
14 the work that's being done here, to take advantage for
15 the man when we have a president that is friendly about
16 this effort who is passionate and committed about it and
17 raise the profile of the initiative, of the effort, and
18 of the findings, so that this just doesn't just wind up
19 being another dust gathering but full looking report on
20 a shelf, and doing things like approaching groups such
21 as AARP.
22 It could be perfect examples of the kinds of
23 things we could be doing.
24 MS. GARZA: You know one thing that I would
25 like to recommend that this group consider is looking at
205
1 is focusing on what is -- what is going to make the
2 biggest impact in addressing academic achievement.
3 Sometimes what I hear and the easy step that
4 we're already into as a country and why we haven't moved
5 in so many years of having these types of commissions,
6 et cetera, is that we -- it's the fluffy fielded stuff.
7 It's the -- it's like give money and then we did our job
8 or corporations tend to like to give money because they
9 like the recognition. It's a PR issue.
10 It's not about we're going to make a change
11 and we're going to really impact Hispanic systemic
12 reform or systemic change. You know, going back I
13 really want us to remind ourselves that, you know, we've
14 got some really serious fundamental skilled issues with
15 students in the area of basic skills, and I was just --
16 we took a break and I was talking to two persons on the
17 panel and they were saying, two educators, well, I'm in
18 middle school and I'm having only two, you know, tested
19 at these levels and the rest were not a great deal, that
20 is serious.
21 That is -- I mean what happened in the early
22 -- how did they get to middle school not being able to
23 read. And you know I think -- if we could just -- the
24 scholarships are good. Don't get me wrong. Kids need
25 the money and the funding is an issue.
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