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V I S T A
U N I F I E D
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D I S T R I C T
Vista Unified School District A P R I L 2 0 1 7 V O L U M E 7 , I S S U E 7
PASS AmeriCorps Newsletter
Global Youth Service Day was
established in 1988 to celebrate
and mobilize young people to serve
their community. For this National
Day of Service, the PASS Ameri-
Corps took part in a community
clean up on April 22nd, also honor-
ing Earth Day. Thirty-eight Ameri-
Corps Members, the leadership
team, and a few dedicated PASS
students served and connected
with our different communities
through I Love a Clean San Diego’s
“Creek to Bay Cleanup”. We
cleaned creeks, parks, and streets
to prevent ocean pollution. PASS
AmeriCorps students also partici-
pated, with one Vista student not-
ing that we were cleaning the
neighborhood where his grandpar-
ents lived. The “Creek to
Bay Cleanup” is held twice
a year and the PASS Amer-
iCorps Program partici-
pates every spring.
Along with service to our youth
and communities, the PASS Ameri-
Corps Program is dedicated to
contributing to the professional
growth and development of our
Service Members. On April 17,
2017, PASS hosted a Resume
Workshop.
First, we had a presentation on
how to build an effective resume,
with time to update and construc-
tively critique each other’s re-
sumes. Then we learned tips on
translating this year of service with
PASS AmeriCorps onto our re-
sumes, and had a little time to
incorporate recommendations to
make our resumes as job-market
ready as possible.
We want to thank SDCOE Pro-
gram Specialist, Sal Garcia for pre-
senting on “Technology Trends,
Privacy Settings, and Protecting
Your Personal Brand”; SDCOE
Human Resources Project Special-
ist, Jessica Glover for presenting on
“Interview/Resume Strategies and
EdJoin”, and giving us some tips
from HR about how to make our-
selves competitive; PASS Ameri-
Corps Support Supervisors, Ya-
neen Gutierrez for presenting on
“Resume Building” and Teenie Le
for presenting on “Interview Tips”;
PASS AmeriCorps Service Mem-
bers, Corey Bishop for presenting
on “Social Media Networking:
LinkedIn” and Jonathan Spicer for
presenting on “Professional Eti-
quette in the Workplace.”
VUSD PASS Team
cleaned at the Vista
Street Sweep near S.
Santa Fe Ave.
PASS AmeriCorps Joins the Creek to Bay Cleanup
PASS AmeriCorps Resume Workshop
We wrapped up the day by practic-
ing our answers to possible inter-
view questions in mock interview
breakout groups, facilitated by our
guest speakers and PASS Support
Supervisors.
We hope that the day was useful
and informative, helping our PASS
AmeriCorps Service Members as
they begin transitioning into the end
of their 2016-17 Term of Service
with PASS.
PASS
Ameri-
Corps
Service
Members
presenting at the
Resume
Workshop
OUSD PASS Team
cleaned Loma Alta
Creek at Union Plaza
SDUSD PASS Team
cleaned Cesar
Chavez Park
SMUSD PASS
Team cleaned at
Dixon Lake
VCPUSD PASS Team
cleaned and made friends
with
spiders and
snakes at
Dixon Lake
15th Annual
Creek to Bay Stats:
www.creektobay.org
6,500 volunteers
(county-wide)
112
locations
Over 170,000 lbs.
of trash removed
P A G E 2
The Appreciation Tree is
a work in progress
PASS
students
Belen and
Bella
holding up
the giant
bunch of
grapes honoring
Cesar Chavez
Great ex-
citement
has been
buzzing at
Casita,
from our
Annual
Carnival to
our up-
coming 5th
Grade
Exhibition,
we’ve been
busy mak-
ing the best of spring. PASS
students have also kept busy,
with Angelina and Brianna
leading the charge at their
book club’s first meeting. 5th
graders are preparing for their
Exhibition Showcase, since less
than a month is left to present.
As a volunteer mentor for the
exhibition, I have spent a great
amount of time searching for
ways to connect my group to
primary sources. In addition,
PASS has been actively trying
to engage students with histo-
ry. To honor the memory of
Cesar Chavez, PASS students
created a giant grape with
balloons to
have participants write thank
you messages to Cesar for his
commitment to equality. For
Earth Day, students were chal-
lenged to consider the impact
they have on Earth by com-
pleting an obstacle course
while carrying the weight of
our daily waste, about 5
pounds. May our hard work
yield great rewards!
so great to see students willing
to come after school to talk to
one another about their expe-
rience with various topics. On
April 21st, PASS AmeriCorps
teamed up with Garden Club
to complete a campus-wide
beautification project. The
projects included placing the
tiles (that PASS students had
created for Cesar Chavez Day)
in the garden, picking up trash,
On April 18th, PASS
AmeriCorps at Madison
Middle began Project
AWARE after school.
The 8 week program
focuses on educating
students in taking re-
sponsibility for their
thoughts and actions. Students
who chose to participate have
commented on how excited they
are to start Project AWARE. It is
pulling weeds, and planting
succulents. Also, the end of
the year is almost here! There
is still time to enjoy school and
pick up classroom grades. If
help is needed, PASS is contin-
uing to offer homework help
before school everyday
(Mondays 8:30-9:30am,Tuesday
- Friday 7:30-8:30am) and after
school Mondays and Thursdays
(3:15-4:15pm).
dents learned that Earth tends
to change due to natural caus-
es. April brought an Earth Day
celebration and students par-
ticipated by providing leaves to
a tree decoration in the PASS
room. On the leaves, they
wrote comments about what
they appreciated about the
earth. Olive also celebrated
Ability Awareness Week. Stu-
dents explored how it would
be like to have difficulty seeing,
or perhaps not being able to
use their legs. They were chal-
lenged with the task of operat-
ing their way through obstacles
which allowed them to put
themselves in the shoes of
others. We hope students
gained awareness through
these activities.
Olive Elementary's fourth
graders went on two study
trips. Since they had been
learning about California's
history, the students went to
Mission San Juan Capistrano to
learn about the history and
people. Their second study
trip was to Agua Hedionda
where they learned about
fossils, volcanos, earthquakes,
and climate. For example, stu-
Students
picking
up litter
on the
Madison
Campus
P A S S A M E R I C O R P S N E W S L E T T E R
Olive Elementary School
Madison Middle School
Casita Center for Science and Technology Daisy Gallardo,
PASS AmeriCorps
Member
Diego Bautista,
PASS AmeriCorps Member
Rosalba Rocha,
PASS AmeriCorps Member
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 7 , I S S U E 7
April absolutely flew by, but it has
been a fantastic month for PASS.
One of my favorite projects PASS
AmeriCorps participated in was
repainting the school tables for
Earth Day. We went out and chose
the tables that had the most graffiti
and started to work, one in the
seventh grade quad and one in the
eighth. The seventh grade quad
now has a purple and blue table
decorated in the PASS students'
hand prints. The eighth graders
have a purple and orange table to
brighten things up! I was so proud
of the students for coming up with
beautiful ideas to help make the
campus look and feel more positive.
It was so successful that students
who were unable to participate
asked when we were going to do it
again so they could help! This pro-
ject in particular showed me how
much these students have grown
over the year. They were respect-
ful, responsible, creative, and
worked together to make their
school a brighter, happier place.
The project was a celebration of
both Earth Day and Global Youth
Service Day, which fell on April 21-
23rd. On Earth Day, April 22nd, we
participated in the Creek to Bay
Clean-up, put on by I Love a Clean
San Diego, to pick up trash in the
neighborhood surrounding Vista
High School. At the end of the
month, National Volunteer Week
occurred from April 24-29. Addi-
The year is quickly winding down
here at Vista High School! This
month started off with a trip for
our sophomores to the Museum of
Tolerance in Los Angeles. The trip
was a great opportunity for our
students to learn about various
human rights challenges facing our
global community. April’s service
project focused on creating bird
feeders out of recycled materials.
tionally, April 14th was the
end of the second grading
period of the second se-
mester, marking the last
progress report before final
grades come out at the end
of the school year. We will
be working with students
to finish the
school year
strong!
soon be starting presentations on
their topics. Seventh grade students
completed their reading of
"Monster" and created arguments
for Steve and whether students
believed he was guilty or innocent
of the story's crime. There have
been a lot of writing assignments
completed in the PASS room!
Earth Day was celebrated as well.
Students were encouraged to recy-
cle and be earth
friendly by partici-
pating in a book
swap to bring in
books they had
read in exchange
for new, unread
books. This helped
promote the idea of
reusing and encour-
aged reading.
The eighth graders in Ms. Palmer’s
and Mr. Kellish’s Language Arts clas-
ses focused on various topics pre-
sented in the Vista community, in-
cluding homelessness, students with
special needs, and LGBTQ students.
Students in PASS have received addi-
tional help writing their reflective
essays on their volunteer experience.
The PASS 8th graders are also re-
ceiving help writing an essay on how
immigration has shaped them and will
Anthony
and Edgar make bird feeders for Earth Day.
Seventh Grade Table Repainted!
Rancho Minerva Middle School
Vista Innovation and Design Academy (VIDA)
Vista High School
Chelsea Kozikis,
PASS AmeriCorps Member
Vanessa Acosta,
PASS AmeriCorps Member
Skyler Vanderhye and Brighid Morse,
PASS AmeriCorps Members
Seventh graders, Jose and Trevor,
having their PASS period outside.
P A G E 4
Earth Day Project-
Students are making
custom Earths using
paint and shaving
cream
The school year is
almost over and the
primary focus for PASS
is helping students with
life after high school.
PASS invited ACCESS
and Learn4Life to pre-
sent to groups of stu-
dents. These two pro-
grams help young adults find
internships, guide career paths,
and teach life skills. A few stu-
dents are already taking ad-
vantage of the opportunity.
A main focus for students in
the remainder of the year is to
earn credits. I have been push-
ing into classrooms more often
to help PASS students accom-
plish this goal. A large amount
of my students have improved
their grades within the last few
months.
Service this month revolved
around Earth Day and students
made custom planets and we
discussed the importance of
the respect and perseveration
of the Earth.
PASS AmeriCorps also contin-
ues to be involved in sports.
The Alta Vista soccer team
won the Continuation Soccer
Tournament held Friday, April
21st. They were our second
winning team this year.
was able to offer students
elective credits for community
service. The Creek to Bay
Cleanup was hosted by I Love
A Clean San Diego and was
located at North County Life-
line. The event was open to
the community and partici-
pants were able to clean up
pounds of trash off the streets
of Vista.
April 24th was the first
day of hexmester six and PASS
will be going over graduation
plans next week as transcripts
will be updated. This marks the
last chance for PASS students
to set goals for this school year
and we are looking forward to
the finish line!
We only have about six weeks
left of school, I really can’t
believe it! Graduation is on
everyone’s mind as we are in
the home stretch. Students are
looking forward to the future
by enrolling at Palomar or Mira
Costa Colleges and completing
their FASFA.
In April, we encouraged stu-
dents to participate in Global
Youth Service Day and PASS
P A S S A M E R I C O R P S N E W S L E T T E R
Major General Murray High School
Alta Vista High School
Jennifer Garritson and
Dana Tsoutsoudakis,
PASS AmeriCorps Members
Corey Bishop,
PASS AmeriCorps Member
RMMS PASS students’ fin-
ished AmeriCorps poster
Above: Casita PASS students posing
outside the library after a successful
book club sign-up
Left: Earth Day sign created by
Madison Middle School PASS
student and mentor
“There is only one thing
that makes a dream
impossible to achieve:
the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho,
The Alchemist,
provided by VHS
student
Students at the Vista
Creek to Bay Cleanup
with PASS Mentor,
Jennifer Garritson
6401 Linda Vista Road - Room 412
San Diego, CA 92111-7399
Phone: 858-569-5474
Fax: 858-565-4150
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.sdcoe.net/pass-americorps
The PASS AmeriCorps Program serves stu-
dents in grades 3 through 12 at 29 school sites
across San Diego County, including campuses
in San Diego, Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos,
and Valley Center. Each PASS AmeriCorps
member provides support for 30 targeted stu-
dents through individual and group mentoring,
academic support, grades and attendance re-
views, leadership development, guest speakers,
service learning projects, and parent outreach.
Through their service with PASS, our Ameri-
Corps members are able to create positive
change in our schools and communities.
San Diego County Office of Education
PASS AmeriCorps Program
PASS
AmeriCorps
Program
Upcoming
Month’s
Calendar
______
May
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