Summer Newsletter

Cal-SOAP Connect

Summer 2018

Greetings Friends,

The 2018-2019 school year has officially begun and Cal-SOAP is back in full swing. We are excited to continue to serve the students and families of Santa Barbara. We had a full summer of tutoring, workshops and campus visits, we also had our first summer SAT prep course.

Summer SAT Prep Course

In August we hosted an SAT Prep course for rising seniors. In partnership with Study Smart Tutors, we were able to provide a group of students with formal instruction as well as 1 on 1 sessions with our tutors.

The application for our fall SAT course for seniors is live and can be found here:

http://www.calsoapsb.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Senior-SAT-Application-Fall-2018.pdf

Applications are due Friday, September 21st by 4:30pm.

College Campus Visits

This summer we had the opportunity to bring youth from community organizations on visits to college campuses throughout the central coast. In July, we took a group of students from Santa Barbara Police Activities League to Loyola Marymount University. In August, students from the Isla Vista Teen Center & the Franklin Neighborhood Center visited Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for lunch and a tour of campus. We are excited to continue our campus visits this fall for students from all of the Junior and Senior High schools that we work with.

Tutor Spotlight, Valeria De La Torre and Noelle Ferrer

This summer we had our tutors placed at community organizations and summer school programs throughout our region. In order to highlight the dedication our tutors have for Cal-SOAP, we asked them to nominate who they felt deserved the tutor spotlight. The tutors selected Valeria De La Torre and Noelle Ferrer for the hard work they put in at SB PAL and the Franklin Neighborhood Center. We asked staff from the sites they work with, why do you enjoy working with these tutors?

"Valeria has been a tutor with PAL for nearly 5 months. Since the beginning, Valeria showed a great sense of responsibility and dedication. Her positive attitude is what the students love about her. This summer Valeria and other tutors coordinated the science club. Students engaged in science experiments while preparing for this year’s science classes. PAL is grateful to have such a kind, caring and patient partner."

-Elvia Hernandez, SB PAL

"Noelle has been an outstanding Mentor/Tutor for our youth! Noelle has been an incredible role model! Her overall quite, low key, friendly and approachable personality has facilitated her becoming a trusted mentor and confidant for our youth as they navigate the challenges of pursuing a higher education. What stands out about her, despite her low key & quite demeanor, is that she can very easily step into high gear and take on new challenges with a smile!"

-Ricardo Venegas, Franklin Neighborhood Center

"[Noelle's] personal story of overcoming adversity and now “giving back” to other youth really hit home and showed the youth that no matter how hard it is to stay on track and get to college, let alone excel like she does, it is possible and will change their lives forever"

-Roberta Payan, Franklin Neighborhood Center

We are lucky to have tutors who are passionate for the work that we do and we look forward to continuing to work with Valeria and Noelle!

Ricardo Venegas, our new Board Secretary

Ricardo Venegas is the Neighborhood & Outreach Services Coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara. He was recently appointed to the position of secretary on our board. Ricardo has been a dedicated partner to Cal-SOAP for many years and embodies the mission of the work that we do.We asked Ricardo how he feels the community benefits from Cal-SOAP's services:

"Our community benefits tremendously from having Cal-SOAP services because these services provide very valuable information for parents and their college bound youth. Overall, Cal-SOAP services helps our community close the educational achievement gap by improving and facilitating access to resources and opportunities for our most disadvantaged low-income youth"

We are very excited to have Ricardo play a more prominent role on our board and we look forward to continuing to work with him at the Franklin Center.

College Presentation at the Franklin Neighborhood Center

In August, our tutors gave a presentation about college life to youth at the Franklin Neighborhood center. The tutors discussed financial aid, coming from a low income family and overcoming adversity in college.

We asked the youth what they learned from this presentation, here are some of the responses:

"I learned about FAFSA, that scholarships are free money, and to study what you want to do."

"I learned that in college there is financial aid and you apply to the things online it can cover everything, Collegeboard and Khan Academy are good site to get help on things you don’t know. If you have a disability there is always help like expanding the test time, getting help to take notes."

Makayla Rawlin's Summer Internship with the Smithsonian

This summer, one of our College Peer Advisors, Makayla Rawlins took part in a prestigious internship with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. We asked her about her experience:

"This summer I had the opportunity to intern with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. This internship was a part of the Conservation Internship for Broadening Access program funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Fund. The site that I was located at was the Cultural Resource Center in Suitland, Maryland. The internship lasted from June 4th-Aug 10th. During this time, I worked in the conservation lab with the staff and other fellows and interns who took the time to teach me the basics of art conservation, like how to do surface cleaning of an object, how to describe an object in detail, and even how to reassemble broken ceramics! I was able to travel and meet other peers in our intern cohort who I will be able to keep in contact with even now that the internship is over. I learned so much from this summer and I really enjoyed being able to work so closely not only with cultural heritage objects, but also the people who care for them daily. The opportunities were endless with the amount of experience I gained, the friends I made, and the connections that will help me in my future."

Makayla has shown a tremendous amount of dedication to the work that we do, and we are eager to have her back in the office in September.

Moving forward this fall, we are excited to continue serving the students and families in our community. We are continuing with our tutoring services, college campus visits and SAT Prep course, and are hosting Financial Aid Presentations and workshops at all of the High Schools.

Keep up to date with all of our upcoming programming through our events page:
http://www.calsoapsb.org/events/

Thank You!

-The Cal-SOAP Team-

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Cal-SOAP has been a part of the Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County since 2011 and is administered by the California Student Aid Commission.