Youth learn to be tomorrow’s leaders at summit
Event targeted South L.A. students
More than 230 students from South Los Angeles neighborhoods gathered for a two-day youth leadership summit last weekend at UCLA. The event, put on by Good Jobs LA and the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA, sought to educate and mobilize today’s youth to be tomorrow’s leaders.
“This is a space for South L.A. students to learn about the issues impacting their communities and to better understand themselves and their roles in bringing change,” said Nayra Pacheco, one of 10 Good Jobs LA interns who organized the summit. “Our communities need leadership, and the best place to start is with young people.”
Workshops, based on conversations with local students over the past months, were geared towards providing young people with the tools they need to become leaders. Topics included job readiness, college preparation, community activism and organizing, political action, artistic expression, environmental justice, understanding identity issues and the role of corporate America in creating economic inequality.
Just stepping onto a college campus opened some students’ eyes to new possibilities. “I learned about programs that can help me go to college even if my family doesn’t have a lot of money,” said Amber McKenzie, a South Los Angeles pupil at the Accelerated School. “After talking about the issues hurting our neighborhoods and learning how young people have the tools to fight for change, I’m preparing myself to become a leader and role model in my community.”
Summit organizers provided transportation and healthy meals on both days of the event, despite a student turnout that far exceeded expectations. Each day’s session was more than eight hours long and involved multiple workshops, group activities and break-out sessions.
On Sunday, before arriving at UCLA, participants met at Perry Middle School for hands-on gardening instruction by Henry Washington, a Perry Middle School campus aide who volunteers his time working with youth at the school’s CARE Garden. “When you teach a child to garden, they learn to take care of themselves and the community.”
CARE (Character, Attitude, Respect, Education) is a take-off on the school’s motto which says character, plus attitude, plus respect plus education equals success.
After the youth summit, Good Jobs LA will continue to informally engage young people on being leaders in their communities through its regular activities.
Good Jobs LA is a coalition of community members and organizations committed to holding wealthy corporations accountable for contributing their fair share to our economic recovery and calling for investments in struggling communities to create good jobs.
Los Angeles police say two suspects have been arrested for the murder of 5-year-old Aaron Shannon, and are being held without bail. Leonard Hall Jr., 21, was taken into custody today (Friday) about at 2:10 a.m. at an apartment in the 200 block of West. 27th Str. Marcus Denson, 18, was arrested Thursday evening by Sheriff’s deputies in the 1100 block of East 83rd Street. Law enforcement officials say both suspects are active gang members.
Students from Locke High School, shown above making their presentation on developing organic leaders, were part of a panel of young experts presenting original research on inner city education.
Called the Council of Youth Research, the program is operated by UCLA’S Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, and gives high school students the training and opportunity to produce university-level research. Locke was joined by teams from Crenshaw, Manual Arts, Roosevelt and Wilson.
Christian Head, a board certified physician in the field of head and neck surgery, has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in California Superior Court against UCLA Medical Center and the UC Board of Regents.
Head, who filed suit Tuesday, said the action follows 10 years of being routinely subjected to public humiliation within the UCLA medical community, and to continuing victimization by senior staff physicians.
Claybourne Carson, professor of History, Stanford University and director of the school’s Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Education Institute is the 2012 Thurgood Marshall lecturer April 4 from 5:30-9 p.m. at UCLA. The free lecture will be held in Sunset Village-Covel Salons ABCD & Terrace. Selected in 1985 by the late Coretta Scott King to edit and publish the papers of her late husband, Carson has devoted most his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King Jr., and the movements King inspired.
While Los Angeles County remains a national leader in tobacco control and prevention, with a current smoking prevalence rate of 14 percent, Service Planning Area (SPA) 6, which comprises several South Los Angeles districts and neighborhoods, remains far behind the county.
