Last month, 20 college-bound seniors were given laptops courtesy of The Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF). SMMEF was able to provide the laptops with the help of RGK Foundation, which provided SMMEF with a grant for the Tech4Success program.
All students were the first generation in their families to go to college, and had attended either Santa Monica High School or Olympic High School. The Tech4Success celebration was held at Staples on Wilshire Boulevard, where the students attended a workshop to learn about their new computers.
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Also last month, Carol Jago was elected President of the National Council of Teachers of English.
“In this era of instant access and communication it is not always easy to convince students – and sometimes teachers – of the value of the rich currency of the written word,” says Jago. “But I believe that this is one of the greatest challenges facing me and my colleagues in the classroom. It is a challenge that I welcome and I am delighted to be able to address it from the perspective of the leading national professional organization.”
Jago is a 32-year teaching veteran of Santa Monica schools.
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Project Nightlight’s latest billboard is up on Abbot Kinney Boulevard at Westminster Avenue. Project Nightlight is devoted to helping children tell someone if they are being abused. The billboard contains the organization’s phone number.
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KULTURAs books is holding an “Illustrated Poem Competition” through July 25. Children between the ages of 8 and 13 are encouraged to submit an illustration to go with Pablo Neruda’s Poem, “Ode to the Tomato.”
All entries must be on a poster board-sized medium, and include a handwritten version of the poem in Spanish and/or English. Winning entries will get a $35 Mittel’s Arts Center gift certificate and will be exhibited at KULTURAs from August 1-15.
For more information, call 310-450-8707 or email kulturasbooks@aol.com.
