December 9-During the third week of November, Center for a New Generation (CNG) hosted Scholar of the Year celebrations at our Hoover, James Flood, Belle Haven, and East Palo Alto Academy school sites. Each site invited five finalists who had already written and revised six personal essays to spend the evening interviewing with a panel of judges and giving a speech to an audience of family members, school and CNG staff members, and other CNG supporters.
We heard 17 impressively introspective and evocative speeches during these events. Many of these depicted personal struggles to overcome such challenges as serious medical difficulties, placement in special needs classes, making one's way toward college and a career as an undocumented person, parent deportation, and family financial strain. Other speeches focused on personal traits—such as humor and involvement—that have helped the finalist thrive despite life's stresses, while still others ruminated on the way things are in our society as compared to the way things should be.
The maturity of the speeches left attendees each night thoroughly moved. The judges found selecting a Scholar of the Year representative for each site difficult, but they and the staff were proud of their choices:
Erica Soto for Hoover Community School
Anthony Johnson for James Flood Magnet School
Alejandro Verduzco for Belle Haven Community School
Rosamia Morales for East Palo Alto Academy
On December 9, these finalists came together for the Scholar of the Year finals. Each site's representative again was interviewed by a panel of judges and presented his or her speech to an audience of supporters. Though the judges were challenged with the difficult task of choosing only one student to award this honor, they proudly presented the 2009 Scholar of the Year:
Anthony Johnson |
On Saturday, March 20 th , the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula hosted our fifth annual Girl's Day at the Mervin G. Morris Clubhouse in Redwood City! This was an amazing day consisting of 70 female volunteers - including professionals from a wide range of industries and college students– who were paired with one female club member in 7 th through 9 th grade. T he girls and their mentors spent the whole day together attending activities and workshops and hearing great performances and speakers.
Throughout the day, the girls and their mentors then attended three workshops: “For the Love of Mysef,” on discovering the type of person you want to be; “The Real World – Peninsula,” on how your actions and words are perceived by those around you; and “Whose Life is it Anyway?,” on how to take charge of your life so that you can continue to remain true to yourself. These workshops allowed the girls and their mentors to interact and learn from each other while also asking each participant, “Who do you want to be?” The event emcee, Clarisa, said, “I really enjoyed learning from other girls, the staff and the mentors. During the workshops, a lot of the girls were sharing personal experiences that sparked more conversation. I can definitely say I saw friendships built right in front of me.” 
