POLAHS Mural

Avalon High School students completed their final Spring mural project at Port of Los Angeles High School. Avalon Student Fredie Tobar and artist Arnaud Damasceno worked for a weekend straight to complete the mural. The school decided on a crest, highlighting the school's founding principles. The students at POLAHS loved the mural and commented that it will increase school pride. The mural was also featured in an article in the Daily Breeze on the girl's softball team.

Avalon H.S. student Fredie Tobar said that completing the mural gave him a real sense of pride and it was good to know that he could encourage other students to have pride in their school. He is also seriously considering applying to the Art Institute for college after he graduates next year.

There will also be a $500 scholarship given to a student from POLAHS that was involved in the Sharefest Summer YDA in 2010.

Make it Possible. State Farm Representative Frank Leon

State Farm Agent Frank Leon and his staff showed up at Avalon Continuation High School this week with arm loads of pizza and big smiles on their faces as they prepared to give their Make it Possible presentation. Make it Possible is a program that brings its name to life. Through this unique program, State Farm® Bank and local State Farm agents are making it possible for people realize their dreams.

They host workshops on a number of topics:  One topic is adequately titled “A Slice of L.I.F.E.™”. L.I.F.E. stands for Lessons In Financial Education. The icon of the pizza is a way to engage young adults and educate them on the different “slices” of financial subjects that can help them create a successful financial life. Frank’s presentation covered topics from budgeting, making financial goals, looking out for credit traps, the importance of credit, and investing for the future. Students were excited to learn about banking and the possibilities for how it can positively affect their future. They all received small red piggy banks as encouragement to save and invest in their futures. The message behind the banks was

Start Simple – Start saving as young as you can, with whatever you can, even if you are simply setting aside pocket change. – Just do it.

The second aspect of Frank’s presentation “Your First Car” helped students navigate the process of purchasing their first car beginning with finding the right car and ending with, how to finance it.

This was Frank’s second visit as a presenter to Avalon. On his first visit, he came as a guest speaker and encouraged the student’s to find a mission, cause, or goal in life that they were so passionate about, they’d be willing to die for it.  He used personal stories to add a comedic emphasis to his messages. He encouraged all students to look for the opportunities around them to finish High School and to go to college. He stressed the importance of education, goal setting, hard work and family. These were the pillars upon which Frank has built his life and through bumps in the road as a youth, marriage, children and a life altering surgery, Frank definitely considers himself a success and a role model for those who are looking for a way to succeed.

Sharefest and the faculty at Avalon Continuation High School are extremely grateful for State Farm’s commitment to educating today’s youth to be tomorrow’s leaders. Agents like Frank Leon are shining examples to our young adults that not only can they be successful, because they have now been given the tools, it is expected of them.  This was a very unique opportunity for a high school, a non-profit organization and a business with a local presence to collaborate for the benefit of educating and empowering young people and Sharefest is grateful for each entity’s investment.

Like A Good Neighbor...

Avalon Continuation High School experienced one of its most dynamic speakers yet, when it was visited by Ms. Priscilla Orozco, Public Affairs Specialist for State Farm Insurance.  Ms. Orozco came at my request to offer insight to the Teen Skills course on future possibilities and the importance of higher education. She began her talk with a brief history of her own career path, including that before beginning her career in insurance, she was headed toward a future of Law Enforcement, pursuing it as far as interviewing for the FBI. She admitted to the kids that her career path changed when during an obstacle course at the Police Department, she couldn’t make it over the 6 ft. wall. (Don’t worry Priscilla, we have all had our share of 6 ft. walls that have steered us into different directions, in our careers as well as our personal lives!)

After warming the extremely attentive class up with stories of her career pursuits, Priscilla took the class down a more personal road, explaining the role education, family and beauty pageants have played  in making her the phenomenal woman she is today . Priscilla was born and raised in Sacramento, California. She is the youngest of seven kids and the first to attend college. While that is a notable accomplishment, her road to higher education was a little rough. In elementary school, Priscilla had some behavior issues and had to transfer to a continuation school herself in order to get her grades on track. Before she left, her principal told her that she would never amount to anything. She was only in the sixth grade. At that point, Priscilla decided to change her attitude about her altitude. She decided that the fulfillment of her potential was up to her and that her future would not be determined by anyone else. The interesting part is that when she began to make good grades, it was rare that she was encouraged by her High School teachers or counselors to pursue higher education. She and many of her classmates were only being encouraged to seek out labor-intensive jobs or trades despite their extremely high GPA’s.

One place where Priscilla did receive plenty of inspiration to dream and encouragement to go to college was in the world of pageantry. Priscilla competed in the pageantry circuit that eventually lead to the crown jewel of the pageant world, the Miss America pageant. Priscilla learned a lot from competing in pageants. She gained plenty self-confidence, found expression for her love of dancing and won plenty of scholarships to help her pay for college. Priscilla’s family was also extremely supportive during these formative years and she found comfort in their love for her individuality and their cultural attributes that they passed on to her to appreciate.

At the end of her talk, she turned the discussion towards the students, going around the class and asking each student about his or her individual aspirations. Most students said that after graduating from High School, they wanted to go to college. One female student even shared her plan to become an astronaut. A couple of our male students announced that they aspired to marry Priscilla. Their offers were only  good until they found out her annual salary, and that she only obtained it after seventeen years of hard work with State Farm. I think they all decided that they should probably finish college first so that their hand might have a little money in it, before they offer it in marriage; but the complement was well received. Priscilla was able to encourage all of Avalon’s students towards the accomplishment of their dreams, sharing advice from her own experience that “the only person who has the authority to decide your future is you!”  She also offered that “If you finish college and still can’t decide where to work, always remember that, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!”



Students Helping Students - A Workday Project Highlight at Carnegie Middle School

The students at Avalon Continuation High School are well on their way to completing one of their projects in celebration of this year’s 8th Annual Sharefest Workday. The students formed a mural team which is being lead by senior Freddie Tobar. All of the students chosen to be a part of the team have a heart for service and great artistic skills. The students formed this group when they saw the outcry for help for the Workday on the Sharefest website. The students then adopted the project at Carnegie Middle School. One of the beautification projects that Carnegie was asking for was that a mural of their mascot, the Carnegie Highlander be painted in the basketball gym as a symbol of school pride and an encouragement towards education. This is something that Freddie and his team wanted to rally behind and show their support. One member of the group, David Torres, is a former Highlander himself and had this to say: “I love being able to give back to this school. They gave a lot to me. I really had a good time here”.

The students are being taught by professional artist Arnaud Demasceno. Arnaud has lead mural projects before in other underserved communities and was delighted to give the students at Avalon the chance to learn how to construct something of beauty that will have a lasting impact for future generations to come. “The real work here is with the Avalon students, the mural is just the vehicle. I want the students to learn how to complete a project from beginning to end. I think it is important that they learn discipline and professionalism. The fact that they’re doing this for kids younger than themselves is just the “icing on the cake”.

The students at Avalon are working steadily so that this project is complete by this year’s Workday on May 14th. This is one of two projects that the team has ambitiously adopted. The students have also been talking about making this team a permanent part of Avalon High School where murals and possibly other beautification projects can be done on a year-round basis at other local schools in need.

Take a look at the students' progress. (For more photos visit the Sharefest Flickr page.)



Beacon of Hope

// A post by William Galaz, Sharefest Intern

Last month Sharefest invited The Beacon House Association to send a few young men on the road to recovery from drugs and alcohol, to share their story with the students in the Teen Skills Course at Avalon Continuation School in Wilmington. The Beacon House is a Drug and Alcohol Program in San Pedro that provides shelter and counseling for men suffering from alcoholism and addiction. The Teen Skills Course is taught by Sharefest Program Director Anwar Shariff every week. He covers an array of subjects during the course from self-awareness to positive communication. Knowing that drugs and alcohol is a major lure for high school students, Anwar thought that the stories of the young men from The Beacon House would be impactful.

The young men from The Beacon House started by sharing the struggles they went through early in life that went unchecked that eventually lead to the use of drugs and alcohol by high school. Most of the men started experimenting with drugs and alcohol on a recreational basis, but it later became a band-aid that they used to cover up pain that they didn’t know how to deal with. They used stories from their own lives to caution the students about squandering their young adult life. They encouraged them to take advantage of their youth and all of the opportunities being afforded to them.   One student asked, “If you could change one thing from high school, what would it be?” As each of the young men thought back to their high school days. One of them answered, ”If I could change one thing , I would change the first time I tried alcohol”. This comment sparked a reaction with the students at Avalon, because the general consensus is that  alcohol is not a drug. “Why Alcohol?”, one student asked, puzzled.  “Alcohol was part of every negative activity I was part of outside of my family and personal relationships”, the young man answered.

One of the most important things that the students learned was that Alcoholism and Addiction are actual diseases. And they are the only diseases that deny their own existence. The young men from the Beacon House explained that they’re considered diseases because once ingested, alcohol and drugs spark an allergic reaction within the body and an obsession within the mind occurs. This doesn’t happen in everyone, only to certain people. They used this as an example that anyone can potentially become addicted to drugs and alcohol so that it’s best if students abstain altogether from drugs and alcohol. And if they choose to drink, they should wait until they are of the legal drinking age and in a better position to make more informed decisions about their life.

The students left with the knowledge that the use of drugs and alcohol is a more serious issue than they thought. They were also exposed to real-life experiences of the pain and suffering that the use of drugs and alcohol can cause both on those that use them and their families and friends. The young men ended the talk on a high note, sharing their dreams of graduating from the program and using their experiences to prevent more young people from following their path. They also shared their dreams of graduating from college and starting families and just enjoying a clean and free life – something all of us look forward to.