Artist Statement

In one of our Film 150 class discussion, we discussed how Loyola Academy and Guadalupe Head Start are at risk for losing their funds. This made me very interested in learning more about Loyola Academy, and investigating weather or not this alternative high school deserves the funds to remain open. Initially I was interested in learning about both, Loyola Academy as well as Guadalupe Head start. Although the Head start program was interesting, and seemed to be doing a great job in supporting single mothers and low income parents, I decided to focus more on Loyola Academy. I found out that in the small building of Loyola Academy, there was a lot to explore.

One of the most interesting programs offered at Loyola Academy is the S.A.L.S.A club for girls. At first I thought it was just a dance club, as the name suggests, but when I was on the phone with Ms. Gonzalez (the S.A.L.S.A club coordinator) I learned that it has nothing to do with dancing. The Strengthening Adolescent Latinos, Socially and Academically, S.A.L.S.A Club, is mainly targeting teen pregnancy prevention. I scheduled an appointment Ms. Gonzalez, where I took a video of my interview with her, and several pictures of Ms. Gonzalez, her assistant, her office and the S.A.L.S.A club scrapbook. I also arranged with Ms. Gonzalez to email me more pictures of her with the girls at the S.A.L.S.A Club. I made a slide show of the images for the scrapbook, and uploaded to the blog site. I also did something similar to idea of one in a million from New York Times. Using movie maker, I had the pictures I took along with some found footages playing with Ms. Gonzales voice as the background sound. While researching the teen pregnancy in the Latinos community, I found an interesting short funny video online about how regular high schools in USA teach sex education. I uploaded it to my blog site, right after the posts about the S.A.L.S.A club at Loyola Academy. It was a nice way to point at the advantages of the open discussion the students get at the S.A.L.S.A club.

I also met with the special education teacher at Loyola Academy. I video taped my interview with her; I edited and made it short it using movie maker then uploaded it to my blog site. The most subject that the students at Loyola Academy struggle in is math, and the special education teacher helps them with their homework in math and other subjects. Special education teacher also helps the students with finding a good job; she would personally take the student to different places like Wal-Mart and Target to apply for jobs there. Another helpful teacher for job search is the computer teacher. When I stopped at the computer lab last time, I found out the students are working on their resumes. I took a quick video of the computer lab, and uploaded to my blog site.

In connection with our Multicultural America class, I was impressed how much the students know about other cultures and about their own. In Mr. Gonzales class, they were all able to recognize that I was a Muslim, and one suggested I could be from the Middle East. They also were able to define very useful terms that we learned in our Film 150 class, like “stereo types”, “race” and “ethnicity. This means that these students get a great education at Loyola Academy, and they are connected to the outside world.

The final project was a great learning experience for me, about a totally new world to me. I learned about the Latino’s community in the south side of Milwaukee, and about alternative high schools. The project required a lot of time and effort to be done right. One big challenge was learning to do videos in a nice way, and finding good images and videos to connect to my project. Even though videos were not required for this project, I found myself spending hours during my final exam week doing more and more videos! I think I got addicted to it, and also I was inspired by the videos I saw at the presentation “Rethink Afghanistan”. Another challenge was the spelling errors that I had all over the place. I went through all my posts on the blog, and have done a spell check on them as well as double checked the grammar.

I summarized my research and meetings in Loyola Academy into a short video using my original images along with some found images, I called it “Loyola Academy, A great school”. I came to a conclusion that being in an alternative high school, the students definitely need more than just teachers and plain science. They need people who they can trust, people who are more like friends; would listen to their problems and give great advises. The students need to be educated about how to deal with the real life world, and to open their eyes to the world outside their small Latino community. That was exactly what I found Loyola Academy’s teachers and programs offer for the students.

Loyola Academy, A Great School!

Regular American High School

S.A.L.S.A Club at Loyola Academy

General Information About Loyola Academy

The Loyola Alternative High School serves one hundred at risk youth in grades 9 through 12. Parents of these students are also beneficiaries of other educational and social services offered by the Council. This high school is a public entity providing at risk youth the opportunity to obtain a high school diploma and to prepare for college. Loyola Academy is under contract with the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). It was selected by the National Council of La Raza to receive funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to convert to a model known as early college high school. The school has a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) that will allow students to take courses for college credit starting in the 11th grade. To better support students and their families, Loyola Academy partners with UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University, Alverno College, the Urban Ecology Center, and several community-based organizations.

Special Education At Loyola Academy

The Computer Lab In Loyola Academy