PASS AmeriCorps Newsletter

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Program

Updates 1

Spotlight

Article 1

VUSD Schools

Casita

Center 2

Olive Elementary

2

Madison Middle

2

Rancho Minerva

Middle

3

Roosevelt Middle

3

VIDA 3

Rancho Buena

Vista High 4

Vista High 4

Alta Vista High 4

General Murray High

5

About Us/

Contact Us 6

Calendar 6

V I S T A

U N I F I E D

S C H O O L

D I S T R I C T

Vista Unified School District N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 V O L U M E 8 , I S S U E 3

ing in the 2017-18 program year,

as well as monthly all-staff meet-

ings, and weekly team meetings.

Our Service Mem-

bers are using these

tools to assist in

planning and prepar-

ing for their lives

after AmeriCorps.

There are many advantages to

joining the PASS AmeriCorps

Program: the experience in a

school site, the professional de-

velopment, the resume building,

the networking with other pro-

fessionals, and the opportunity to

make a difference in the life of a

child, and more.

One of the new benefits that

PASS AmeriCorps is able to offer

this year is the skills building and

career counseling resource guide

called the “AmeriCorps Ad-

vantage.”

This guide provides activities,

tips, strategies, resources, web-

sites, advice, and more to Ameri-

Corps Service

Members in

AmeriCorps pro-

grams throughout

the nation.

The PASS Ameri-

Corps Program

has incorporated

portions of the

guide into our

Orientation Train-

AmeriCorps

Advantage Career

Resource Guide

The PASS “AmeriCorps Advantage”

In December, the PASS Ameri-

Corps Program incorporated a

holiday event into its monthly

meeting and mini-training.

Along with our regular agenda

items of program news, tips, and

upcoming events, we had a fellow

AmeriCorps Member, Virginia

Davis, from the American Red

Cross come and provide a mini-

training on hands-only CPR. We

also heard about the Pillowcase

Project that the Red

Cross may be able to

bring in to interested

elementary schools

to help teach chil-

dren about disaster

preparedness.

During the day,

Members also partic-

ipated in team building

activities, such as an

Ugly Holiday Sweater

competition and a

White Elephant Gift

Exchange.

Happy Holidays with PASS!

It was a great way to learn a

little, share a little, and have a

little fun as we close out the first

semester of the school year.

Happy Holidays to everyone and

we will see you in the new year!

Virginia Davis, AmeriCorps

Member with the Red

Cross, presenting while

PASS ACs practice CPR

Winners of the Ugly Sweater Competi-

tion (Ugliest, Most Rash Inducing, Most

Creative, and Most Flammable):

Kyle Broadnax, Leah Johnson, Karen

Ordorica, and Matthew Pryor.

P A G E 2

Students in the new

Activities Planning

Club made thank you

letters for military

service members

November seemed to pass in a blur

as we raced into the holiday season!

It began with us wrapping up the

second half of our Red Ribbon

Week. Then we had Parent-

Teacher Conferences that

occupied much of everyone's

attention. But still we found

some time to be creative! Our

new PASS Activities Planning

Club met for the first time in

November. Their first item of

business was to write thank

you letters to Veterans and

Active-Duty Service Members

in honor of Veterans’ Day.

Students made personal notes

of gratitude that they wrote

and decorated themselves. The

letters were sent to Kramer

and Geena's BIG Thank You

with Channel 93.3, which is

collecting letters of thanks to

send to service members. Stu-

dents responded enthusiasti-

cally to this service opportuni-

ty, and the Activities Planning

Club is already getting ready

for another event in Decem-

ber. Stay tuned for more infor-

mation!

Happy Holidays!

Dead) during lunch and gave

students a taste of a different

tradition that is celebrated in

November. The project includ-

ed students making sugar

skulls, a banner made out of

paper flowers and it gave the

students the opportunity to

honor loved ones that have

passed away. On November

15th, students took the time

to create their own thank you

I can gladly say that

“time flies when you

are having fun.” The

PASS AmeriCorps

Program here at

Madison Middle

School is growing

really fast. On No-

vember 2nd, PASS

AmeriCorps put on a cultural

awareness project for Dia De

Los Muertos (Day of the

cards during lunch. Students

wrote thank you cards to family

members that have served in the

military, to their favorite staff/

teacher, friends and loved ones. I

really appreciate those students

that took their time during lunch

to participate in the activities.

For the month of December,

students will be creating their

own holiday cards to give to

someone they care about.

reading. For the Wax Museum,

4th & 5th grade students were

able to present a biography of

a famous European explorer

or a Native American tribe.

This was a great opportunity

for students to implement

what they were learning in

their social studies class and to

practice their public speaking

skills. For this month's Nation-

al Day of Service, we had stu-

dents writing personalized

‘Thank You’ cards for a veteran

they knew or even name a veter-

an on a string of stars. In honor

of Thanksgiving, students during

lunch had the opportunity to

write ‘Thank You’ letters for

someone they are grateful for.

As the first half of the school

year concludes, I wish everyone

a restful winter break ahead.

We had have a lot of activities

throughout the month of No-

vember, from Literature

comes to Life, to the Wax

Museum. For Literature

Comes to life, Olive Elemen-

tary students had the oppor-

tunity to play characters from

the books ”Swimmy” and

“Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters”

and educate their fellow stu-

dents about the importance of

Madison Mustangs

participating in the

Dia de los Muertos activity

P A S S A M E R I C O R P S N E W S L E T T E R

PASS student Isaiah as a

wax figure presenting

about the Cupeo Tribe

Olive Elementary School

Madison Middle School

Casita Center for Technology, Science and Math Samuel Colton,

PASS AmeriCorps

Member

Jesus Gonzalez-Herrera,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

Lisbeth Soria Barrios,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 8 , I S S U E 3

Hello Rancho Minerva Middle

School!! My name is Mr. D, and I

am very excited to be the PASS

AmeriCorps Mentor here at Ran-

cho Minerva. I served in the United

States Marine Corps for 22 years

and have been

both a mentor

and youth coach

for the last 6

years. I look

forward to mee-

ting more stu-

dents and staff as

the school year

moves forward. After speaking

with students, there is an interest in

starting a "Flag Football Lunch

Crew". With some direction and

support from Mr. Ayala, we will be

starting this sport with interested

students here at Rancho Minerva.

I would like to give a special thank

to Principal Ayala for meeting with

me and giving me a quick over-

view of the campus. Additiona-

lly, thank you to the school

counselors, Marisol Mayoral and

Rebecca Ramirez, for welco-

ming me and making my transi-

tion easy. A special thank you

to Ronnie Hall and Marc Schiller

for assisting in setting up my

office. Feel free to stop by my

office (F110) and find out more

about the PASS AmeriCorps

Program.

Happy Holidays!

Using the COL format, students

were able to show their teachers,

peers, and family what they have

learned and what has challenged

them so far this semester. I was

lucky enough to attend some these

presentations and I was in awe at

the way my PASS students reflected

on their school year. This month,

PASS students have also been

working on thank you cards to

There have been a lot of fun and

exciting things happing on campus

this month. The Inside Out Project

came to campus and students and

staff were able to get their picture

taken as part of a worldwide art

project. In November, students

participated in Celebration of

Learning presentations (COL’s), an

awesome alternative to the stand-

ard Parent – Teacher conferences.

send to deployed

troops in honor of

Veterans’ Day. I would

like to send a special

thank you to PASS

student, Emily P., and

VIDA student Viviana

C., for helping me with

this National Day of

Service. Have a happy

holiday season!

for their amazing performance. I

know a lot of hard work and dedi-

cation from both the students and

Ms. Taylor went into making sure

the concert went beautifully. I

would like to recognize Tyler S.

(8th Grade) for the month of No-

vember. Tyler continually shows

effort to make sure he is excelling

in his classes and seeks help when-

ever needed. Tyler and I have set

the goal for him to receive an A in

one of his classes and I have no

doubt that he can accomplish this

goal. I am very excited

to see where this year

takes Tyler!

Happy Holidays!

November seemed to pass in the

blink of an eye here at Roosevelt

Middle School. This month for Vet-

erans’ Day, PASS students made

cards and stress balls for veterans

at Roosevelt Middle. We would like

to thank Ms. Giesman, Mr. Graf,

Ms. Rota, Mr. Whitty, Mr. Valen-

zuela, and Mr. Sosa for their service

to our country and also the hard

work and service they are dedicat-

ing to the students here at Roose-

velt. I would also like to applaud the

Roosevelt Middle beginning choir

PASS Ameri-

Corps Mentor,

Mr. D meeting

children in

Iraq

Students working on their

Veterans’ Day thank you cards

in the PASS office

Tyler showing off the

thank you cards our

PASS students signed

for Veterans’ Day

Rancho Minerva Middle School

Roosevelt Middle School

Dathan Edwards,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

Tamara Lash,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

Vista Innovation and Design Academy (VIDA) Mikayla Gordon,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

P A G E 4

Students decorating

their stars

Vista High School

Alta Vista High School

In November

PASS Ameri-

Corps students

and potential

PASS students

had the oppor-

tunity to hon-

or and thank

Veterans for

serving our

country. Sev-

enteen PASS

youth cut out

stars, decorated them, and

wrote the names of people

whom they know, including

celebrity veterans such as Ice-T

Rancho Buena Vista High School

and Chuck Norris! We also

had nachos, drinks, and music

to create a fun and memorable

experience for our youth.

PASS hosted a Stranger Things

Trivia for lunch group, and plan

to do more.

Come by the PASS Room on

Fridays at Lunch!

Rancho Buena Vista is having a

great time too! Our Longhorn

running back set records and

helped lead us to a win at foot-

ball playoffs.

Happy Holidays from Mrs. Lei

Ai and Ms. Angelica!

the PASS room is a library!

Thanks to Mrs. Blake, students

will now have the ability to

earn additional credits by sub-

mitting reports on books

checked out. Please encourage

your students to come to our

library. Boys2Men continues to

work with Alta using its re-

storative practice model to

promote confidence, build

resilience, and help our partici-

This month, PASS

is promoting the

spirit of giving

back by having

Alta students

make cards for

veterans. The

school itself is also

offering students

food baskets for

the holidays. A

new addition to

pants become more well-

rounded young men. Recently,

PASS brought in Love on a

Leash. These therapy dogs

come out every Friday during

Alta’s lunch break. Students

have really connected with the

animals and love their presence

on campus. Kaimana

(Goldendoodle) and Kai (Gold

Retriever) are our two spon-

sors.

Happy Holidays!

fostering a safe, accepting cul-

ture at Vista High. To honor

our veterans this month, our

PASS students spent time mak-

ing and decorating stress balls

that will be taken to a Veter-

an’s Organization in North

County. Some students wrote

phrases such as “Thank you for

your service”, “You are

strong” and “Hero”. Although

some students wrote on the

stress ball, other students dec-

orated the stress ball by draw-

ing a flag, hearts, and stars. We

are proud of the effort and

time our students put into this

project and hope our veterans

enjoy our gift to them. Decem-

ber will be short as well with

the upcoming winter break,

but we will be focusing on

ending the first semester on a

positive note.

Happy Holidays!

Although November is a

very short month, we sure

have been busy at Vista

High School. Earlier this

month, over forty students

participated in the Safe

School Ambassador Train-

ing. During this training,

new relationships were

built and existing ones

grew stronger. As a group,

the students who participated

in this training committed to

Two PASS students getting

their award for continuation

rugby season

P A S S A M E R I C O R P S N E W S L E T T E R

Angelica Segura and

Lei Ai Bambarger,

PASS AmeriCorps Members

Karen Ordorica and Andrea Venegas,

PASS AmeriCorps Members

Corey Bishop,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

PASS students Karina,

Jesus, and Juan decorating

the stress balls they made

Fun Note:

One of our PASS youth,

Fabyan R. is a jenga

master and challenged his

mentor, Mrs. Lei Ai, to a

duel. They managed to

reach 28 blocks high!

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 8 , I S S U E 3

PASS al-

ready has

some gradu-

ates this

year and I

am so proud

of them!

First, Martha

is a senior graduating early and

second, is Makayla. She delivered

her daughter at the end of last year

and returned this school year to

graduate. I've had the pleasure to

work with both girls for two years

and they have now graduated in November. Veterans Day

was observed this year on November 10, 2017 and students

helped in the letter drive to get 20,000 thank you letters to

send to the troops while they are deployed for the holidays.

AWARE finished their first session of the year and Mrs.

Templin organized a field trip to the UCSD Ropes Course

where PASS was able to bring eight PASS students along. It

was great fun and it really challenged the students and fos-

tered an even closer bond between the groups as they

needed to rely on each other and communicate as a team to

complete the course.

Major General Murray High School

Mrs. Garritson,

Makayla, and her

daughter the day

she graduated!

Stress ball students made for

Veterans at Roosevelt Middle

Olive PASS student, Samaria, as a

wax figure presenting about

Vasco da Gama

PASS students distributed red

ribbon bracelets for Red Ribbon

Week at Casita

Jennifer Garritson,

PASS AmeriCorps Member

Madison Dia De Los

Muertos activity

during lunch GMHS PASS students, Maria

and Martha, with Mrs. Gar-

ritson at the UCSD Ropes

course

VHS PASS

student

Marleen

proudly

draws stars

on the

stress ball

"You give but little

when you give of

your possessions.

It is when you give

of yourself that

you truly give."

- The Prophet by

Kahlil Gibran

6401 Linda Vista Road - Room 412

San Diego, CA 92111-7399

Phone: 858-569-5474

Fax: 858-565-4150

Email: mquiroz@sdcoe.net

Website: www.sdcoe.net/pass-americorps

The PASS AmeriCorps Program serves stu-

dents in grades 3 through 12 at 30 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 students

through individual and group mentoring, aca-

demic support, grades and attendance reviews,

leadership development, guest speakers, ser-

vice 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

______

December &

January