Category Archives: Youth

Ventura’s Climate Report Card presented by iMatter Youth

Tatum Becker, El Camino High School (ECHS); Joe Yahner, Environmental Services Supervisor City of Ventura; Zayan Reza, ECHS; Sophie Nguyen ECHS; Ventura City Councilmember Cheryl Heitmann; Summeya Islam,ECHS; Olivia Loorz,ECHS and  Sierra Manske,ECHS.

by Karen Helen Szatkowski

Recently six young women from El Camino High School presented to the Ventura City Council what was a less than congratulatory report card on the city’s efforts to combat climate change. The report card is the result of iMatterYouth and their consultation with some of the most knowledgeable people and organizations on information that is science based and publicly available . The range of such consultation is broad and deep, from local governments for Sustainability USA to Natural Capitalism Solutions. The kid’shave been committed to covering all of the bases.

IMatter is now a national organization and the founder, Alec Loorz, is a young man raised and educated in Ventura: “I worked with a group of about 50 of my fellow middle schoolers to design and install poles along the beach and we met with the City of Ventura to get their cooperation. The poles are still up today, five years later, and have helped the City Council to include sea level rise in their planning. Now there are poles in several other cities as well, and one of the original poles can be seen at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.”

An A-F grading system evaluates Ventura’s action (or inaction) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels needed to end the climate crisis. These are their grades.

Zero Emissions: Climate Action Plan: Measures when the city’s Climate Action Plan gets to net zero human emissions  D-

Renewable Energy: Measures when the percent of renewables used to generate a city’s electricity is more than the national average, and the percentage is rising. A+

Waste: Measures when the amount of waste per person is decreasing and the percent of that waste that is recycled or composted is increasing. B-

Carbon Removal: Measures when there is some kind of a program that will result in more carbon being removed from the atmosphere. F

Youth Involvement: A bonus area that rewards a half grade for having youth involved in advising on or setting climate change related policies and plans. None

Ventura’s overall grade is a C- which means a lot needs to be done to bring the city’s efforts on our carbon footprint to a more effective standpoint. The fact that the City Council made time to listen intently to the presentation shows the seriousness they assign to the efforts of the young activists. Many Councilmembers expressed their appreciation for the professional presentation and the kid’s commitment to the wellbeing of Ventura. For more information on IMatter, contact Larry Kraft, Executive Director, [email protected]

Local senior wins Lions Club student speaker contest

Miranda Mize will compete in state finals in June.

Miranda Mize, a senior at El Camino high school, has won this year’s Lions Club Student Speaker semi-final contest. She will now compete at the state finals on June 4 in Redding, California where she will be competing for the grand prize of $11,000.

This year’s topic is “Liberty and Justice For All — What It Means to Me”.

Miranda took first place at the Ventura Downtown Lions Club competition and went on to win the next four levels. She was awarded $4,500 for winning at District and moved on to compete in the semi-finals where she took home the top prize of $6,500.

The Lions Club Student Speaker contest is supported by the Student Speaker Foundation, a California nonprofit corporation.  This year the Foundation will provide scholarships totaling $103,500.00. From this amount, each of the fifteen District winners will receive a $4,500.00 scholarship, each of the four Area winners will receive an additional $6,500.00 scholarship and the winner of the Multiple District Four Contest will receive an additional $10,000.00 scholarship

The Ventura Downton Lions Club meets the first three Thursdays of every month for lunch at The Derby Club, Ventura County Fairgrounds. Guests are always welcome!

For information about the Lions Club Student Speaker Contest, Lions Clubs International, or the Ventura Downtown Lions, visit  www.venturalions.org or 655-5595.

 

Free community event held at YMCA

Event held to inspire more kids to keep their minds and bodies active. Photos by Michael Gordon

On Saturday, April 30 the Ventura Family YMCA held a free community event to inspire more kids to keep their minds and bodies active. This year marks the 25th annual YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day®, the Y’s national initiative to improve health and well-being for kids and families.

youth ymca insetCheryl Heitmann  delivered the welcome address.  The day-long event featured a football clinic run by former NFL players Lorenzo Booker, Ronney Jenkins, and Kevin Thomas. The Major League Baseball’s Pitch, Hit & Run skills competition and much more.  Lost child fingerprinting was provided by the Community Police Foundation and the Ventura Police Department.

YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day is celebrated at over 1,300 Ys across the country by over 1.2 million participants. Research shows that without access to out-of-school physical and learning activities, kids fall behind academically. Kids also gain weight twice as fast during summer than the school year. As spring turns to summer, Healthy Kids Day is a powerful reminder not to let children idle away their summer days. Ventura Family YMCA is located at 3760 Telegraph Road.

 

Ventura youth running boom

by Matt Hammel, Summerfest 3K/1Mile Youth Co-Race Director

It’s common knowledge that physical activity is important for young people.  Regular exercise has been found to reduce the risk of many diseases, including childhood obesity, and has also been linked to higher academic performance.  There isn’t much of a debate regarding the importance of our youth to be active, but many parents are looking for options for their kids where physical activity is promoted.

There is some great news for parents.  Ventura is going through a running boom!  There are more options for Ventura youth to participate in running than ever before.  Ventura Tigres Youth Track Club is celebrating its 40th year of existence this Spring and has been filling up their roster to the maximum of 300 athletes for the past few years.  VC Express, a Youth Cross Country program offers an opportunity for youth athletes to compete in Cross Country meets across Southern California in the fall. This past fall, over 500 cross country athletes from nine VUSD elementary schools and four VUSD middle schools competed in the Ventura County Youth Cross Country League.

All of this youth running seems to be paying dividends for the local high schools.  Buena High School’s boys Cross Country team placed 3rd in the Ventura County Cross Country Championships this past fall.  Both the boy’s and girl’s Cross Country teams at Ventura High School qualified for the State meet this past season, with the boys taking 5th place.  This follows a year when the Ventura boy’s team won the State title and competed at the Nike Nationals meet in Portland, Oregon.  Foothill Technology High School also sent both their boy’s and girl’s teams to the State meet in only their second year as a high school team.

May 21st is a great opportunity for youth to get involved with the Ventura youth running boom.  The 11th annual Summerfest, presented by the Ventura Education Partnership (VEP) and the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) in alliance with the City of Ventura will be held on Saturday, May 21st from 9am to 2pm.  Races start at 8:00 with the Middle School boys 3k, followed by the Middle School girls 3k at 8:30. Then the Elementary School boy’s 1 Mile begins at 9:15am and finally the Elementary School girl’s 1 mile at 9:30am.  Summerfest is free to the community and besides the races, includes many other active events.

Additionally, Mountains2Beach Marathon’s (M2B) extra support of the Summerfest races ensures they too, remain free for youth runners under 18.  M2B hosts a 5k in conjunction with the M2B Marathon on Sunday, May 29th with 100% of the proceeds going to Summerfest.

 

Film viewing opens discussion about reinventing education

Darcy Duffy and Melissa Watz led the discussion after the film.

by Ana K. Gonzalez

A viewing of the award winning documentary film Most Likely to Succeed was held at the Poinsettia Pavilion on April 7th. KiteStream, a new online community helped organize the presentation of the film.

KiteStream was initiated by Venturan Melissa Wantz, to lead conversations about improving today’s education systems.

The event brought together over a hundred teachers, students, parents, and educational administrators.  A short discussion was held after the film about the earlier educational experiences with the audience. The discussion went over key points which were mentioned in the film, for instance “Student engagement in school plummets as they get to higher grades—from 80% in elementary school to just 40% by the beginning of high school.” Or “The Lego Foundation study reports that students lose more than 90% of their creative capacity during their school years.”

The audience was left with mixed emotions of frustration for the current situation but also inspiration for the future of education.

Since Most Likely To Succeed premiered just a year ago, the film has reached hundreds of thousands of people, inspiring them to help America’s schools prepare our students for the future.

The film focuses on a charter high school in San Diego, High Tech High. The school decided to take a chance and strive away from the traditional education system to focus on student development through only project based learning. The documentary followed a few students through their experience in the school, and their projects. It also interviewed teachers and parents about their impressions and concerns in this new style.

If you would like to join the KiteStream community or get more information about the next showing follow them on facebook.com/kitestream.

Robotics stronghold competition held at Ventura College

Ventura High School team members getting ready to defeat all.

by Richard Lieberman

More than 1000 students from high schools in Southern California participated in a competition utilizing robotic technology to breach moats, shoot large balls, and capture castles during the Robotics Stronghold Competition held at Ventura College in March. Forty-two teams from Southern California and four from China competed in the medieval themed event.

Joshua Ceth Vida Gazone from Kearney High School San Diego gave the Breeze a tour of the “Pits” and explained the program in detail. “I started with Legos, putting them together, and taking them apart. Then I learned how to put Legos together so they could pick up other Legos.”  “It all started out with Legos, and when I came to San Diego and joined the Robotics Team at the high school it progressed from there.” Said Gazone. Currently studying Mechanical Engineering, and enrolled in the Engineering Innovation and Design program with a solid 4.0 grade average since the ninth grade. Student ambassador to the event Gazone “so I help out with media and others explaining the event and the program” he added. With a perfect 4.0 since 9th grade Gazone is hoping to apply and be admitted to SDU to major in Mechanical Engineering.

youth robots2“The goal of the competition is to use teamwork to solve engineering problems” said FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Regional Southern California Director Steve Stark. Students in the program make their own parts, design their robots, and build them. The competition requires student machines to perform a series of tasks. Beginning with the first 15 seconds the robots must perform autonomously, then they are operated manually by students for the duration of the match.

The machines are required to breach an outer wall, hurl balls at the opposing team’s castle, and scoring points for every ball that lands in the castle. Scoring enough points the robot then can climb a wall and win the tournament.

The teams have six weeks to build, program and test the robots, and in addition to the building activities students will be presenting essays, safety and business plans, strategizing and scouting other teams for their strengths and weaknesses.

The winning regional teams will go on to St Louis to compete in the world competition. This year more than 5000 teams, amounting to 78,000 students world-wide will compete in the program. The students 13-18 will receive instruction from teachers and guidance from mentors. Mentors will aid the students in the fields of engineering, manufacturing, and business. They will help the students to build their robots, and to form their business plans.

The Ventura team “Circuit of Life” is supported by Haas Automation, Amgen, College of the Canyons, Sessa Manufacturing, Qualcomm, Ventura County Career Education, Ventura High, Foothill Technology High, Buena High and El Camino High.

The Ventura team “The Circuit of Life” won a spot on the World Championships held in St. Louis April 27th to April 30th. In St Louis they will face 600 teams from across the globe.

 

Buena High School Studio A Jazz Band showcases talents

Photo by Michael Gordon

On Sunday afternoon, April 17th,  Buena High School Studio A Jazz Band showcased their talents in a performance for Channel Islands Jazz Club at the Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club. This 17 member ensemble was accompanied by local vocalist Jade. Admission and donations benefited a student scholarship to a summer jazz camp in San Francisco that the Channel Islands Club sponsors. With tunes from Duke Ellington and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy a fun atmosphere filled the room. To learn more about the Buena High School Studio A Jazz Band, contact Music Director Andre Spence at Buena High School, [email protected].

 

Celebrating “Farm to School”

By Alise Echele, RDN
Healthy Schools Project Coordinator
Food and Nutrition Services, Ventura Unified School District (VUSD)

Locally grown broccoli, purple cauliflower, and cheddar orange cauliflower flooded 250 classrooms in thirteen Ventura Unified schools this March.  As 4,300 students used their five senses to explore these colorful brassica plants, produced by Deardorff Family Farm, hands were enthusiastically raised to share creative adjectives that described their tasting experiences.  These monthly tasting lessons support youth as they develop into adventurous eaters of good, whole food.  The journey of this food from farm to school is highlighted along with the hard work and dedication from farmers and harvesters, who labor on the farms in order to feed us.  Alice Waters, chef and restaurateur, eloquently reminds us, “Food is precious—and so are the people who produce it.”  This cultivation of gratitude is woven into each tasting lesson, which extends from the soil to the farm team to the school foodservice staff, who prepare these fresh fruits and vegetables daily for the Farm to School salad bars.

Harvest of the Month is one of many program components coordinated by VUSD’s Healthy Schools Project.   Housed within the district’s Food and Nutrition Services department, this education arm of the Farm to School program seeks to support students in developing a healthy relationship with locally grown and sustainably raised food through hands-on, standards-aligned nutrition, cooking, agricultural, and garden-based education.  Nutrition Specialists provide resources, technical assistance, and professional development to support educators in implementing this Common Core-aligned education in school and after-school programs.

Studies show that youth who are engaged in growing and preparing food become adventurous eaters and increase fruit and vegetable consumption.  Our local students are no exception. Following the March broccoli tasting experience, students participated in hands-on cooking classes.  The Great Greens Salad with Tangy Avocado Dressing was devoured by students after practicing their budding culinary skills.  Students even harvested spring vegetables from their flourishing school gardens to incorporate into the recipe. This celebration of local food, farming, and the culinary arts didn’t end there.  Each month the highlighted recipe and local produce item, along with the grower, is featured on lunch menus and Farm to School salad bars.

Research strongly links youth academic success with health.  The mission at Ventura Unified is to educate all students in safe, healthy, and high performing schools.  For the past fifteen years, the Healthy School Project has evolved into an instrumental program, among many others, that actively lives into this mission, so that youth can grow into healthy, active, and successful adults.

During the 11th annual Summerfest, a free healthy living event, VUSD looks forward to celebrating all of the programs, community partner organizations, and people who support healthy school and community environments.  VUSD is a dedicated Summerfest partner along with the Ventura Education Partnership and the City of Ventura.   Mark your calendar for May 21 and be sure to stop by the Demonstration Garden to meet Healthy Schools Project educators, taste delicious farm fresh produce, and tour the outdoor garden classroom.   For more information about the VUSD Healthy Schools Project, contact 641-5000 ext. 1310.

 

Vol. 9, No. 14 – April 13 – April 26, 2016 – City of Ventura classes

City of Ventura Imagination classes check out hundreds more on our web-site

Call  658-4726 or 654-7552 to register, if you already have an ACTIVENET account online, visit www.cityofventura.net

Classes/Events held the Barranca Vista Center ~ 7050 Ralston Street in Ventura unless otherwise noted

Art and Architecture using LEGO®  5-10 years
4/16     Saturday           10 am-12 pm   $30      #5730
Explore great works of art and architecture through LEGO® Collaborate in small groups to build grand structures such as the Parthenon in Greece, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the tree houses of Papua New Guinea, and New York’s Empire State Building. Teamwork and creativity take “high culture” to the next level!

Stop Motion Animation Workshop  7-11 years
4/19-5/17         Tuesday           3:45-5:45 pm   $125    #5605
Students work together on an original story using their favorite toys to create fun and original stop motion animations – learning basic concepts such as camera angles, storyboards, scripting elements and theme as well as adding voiceovers and musical scores to their completed project.

Introduction to Video Game Design  13-16 years
4/21-5/19         Thursday          3:45-5:45 pm   $125    #5635
Teen game developers work together to create a side scrolling video game platform adventure. Give your characters gravity and create interesting and original bad guys to challenge you working with design, animation and programming tools. At Bible fellowship Church, 6950 Ralston St Room 206.

Drawing & Painting for Youth  8-18 years
4/21-5/19         Thursday          3:30-4:45 pm   $64      #5520
Explore relevant artists and their styles to create your own acrylic paintings and pencil and charcoal drawings. Instructor Catherine Broger.

Ballet  6-10 years
4/21-5/26         Thursday          4-5 pm                         $70      #5570
Students will learn fundamental ballet techniques, positions and exercises for the development of flexibility, core strength, balance, poise and grace. Girls wear leotard, tights and ballet shoes. Boys wear a white t-shirt, black shorts and black ballet shoes. Instructor Marni King.

My Parent & Me Ballet/Tumble Combo  18 months-3 years
4/22-5/27         Friday               9:45-10:30 am $65      #5596
This is a fun upbeat class for you and your child to dance, tumble, stretch, play with instruments and more! Wear comfortable clothes that you can move in. Instructor Kate Kozacek.

Hip Hop Class  3-5 years
4/22-5/27         Friday               10:30-11:15 am            $70      #5691
Calling all boys and girls for high-energy hip hop dance fun! Dancers develop musicality, creativity, listening skills and coordination. All music and moves are age appropriate. Instructor Kate Kozacek.