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

Final Meeting at Loyola Academy

Today was our final meeting with the Loyola students.
We got a chance to talk more about our final group project, and some of us talked about their individual project. We also shared our photobucket.com links with Mr.Gonzales and his students, in order for them to be able to create slide shows using our images.
I arrived at Loyola Academy an hour before the sixth hour class, because I wanted to meet more people at Loyola Academy for my individual project.I was able to take more pictures and videos, and collect some useful information for my project. I met with the special education teacher at Loyola Academy, and interviewed her.I also met with Ms.Gonzalez (the SALSA club coordinator) for a second time to get more photos and videos from her.

My pictures on photobucket

SLIDE SHOW OF ALL MY PICTURES ON PHOTOBUCKET

SALSA club scrapbook

Chavez Mural

Mr.Gonzales talking about the imags on Chavez Mural

Final project topic

We met with Mr. Gonzales class to decide on a topic for our final project. We, as a group, agreed on doing a project about one area in the south side. We wanted to do something that would be also interesting to the Loyola Academy students. So we decided to let the Loyola students pick. Mr. Gonzales wrote a long list for interesting places in the south side on the board, which was a combination of our suggestions, the student’s and Mr. Gonzales’s. After asking each student about their favorite location out of the ones on the board, they finally all agreed on trueskool. The students got excited that they get to leave school next week for a field trip to Chavez Mural, one of the projects done by trueskool.

Interview with Ms. Gonzalez

I made an appointment to meet with Ms. Gonzalez at Loyola Academy. Who is the current coordinator for the S.A.L.S.A. club there. I learned a lot about what S.A.L.S.A really is and how it has been benefiting the female students at Loyola Academy. Ms. Gonzalez started working with the S.A.L.S.A club as an intern from MATC. Now after she graduated she is a full time teacher at Loyola Academy. I was also fortune to meet with Ms Gonzalez’s assistant, who is now doing her internship at Loyola Academy. We discussed achievements and future goals of the S.A.L.S.A. club at Loyola Academy. There has been a lot of improvement done for the past two years, since Ms. Gonzalez started, to the S.A.L.S.A club. One major change will take place starting in Jan,2010 which is to make S.A.L.S.A a mandatory class period.

Head Start

Guadalupe Head Start

Guadalupe Head Start was established in 1964 making it Milwaukee's first bilingual Head Start Program.
In 1965, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee allowed the use of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (239 W. Washington Street) to house the first federally funded bilingual Head Start in the city (and one of the first in the nation). Renamed later Guadalupe Head Start Program, it has expanded significantly in a partnership with the Social Development Commission. This program has its administrative offices and a Resource Center at the Loyola Complex on 36th St. and Mitchell, and it serves approximately 600 children and their families at six (6) sites throughout the inner city.
Head Start provides child health and nutrition services as well as specialized support to children with special needs. Through the Family Resource Center, family support and training is provided to parents. In collaboration with Parents Plus, Head Start parents may enroll in a program called Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Children (HIPPY) and in the Parents as Teachers program. Both promote school readiness and early literacy through parent education and child development; these services are provided bilingually.
Today, Guadalupe Center staff and parents are themselves at the center of important pioneering work, supporting universal early education for all children. The Council’s early education programs will surely contribute to improved academic performance when these children enter elementary education.
The Council’s first Guadalupe Head Start Center served as a model for other bilingual programs in the nation. Parents and staff members of this center were the first to demand bilingual programs from the Milwaukee Public Schools. After the establishment of the first bilingual program in Vieau Elementary School in 1967, MPS Latino parents led a grassroots movement in support of bilingual education. This created the only K-12 program in the nation fully supportive of bilingualism. Today, Milwaukee children can chose from an array of programs that promote learning in English and another language.
The Council has a vast experience in bilingual childhood education. It is recognized as a leader by key child advocacy organizations at the local and national level. It has partnerships with agencies such as the Wisconsin Early Childhood Centers of Excellence, the NAEYC, St. Joseph Hospital, United Community Center, Curative Care Network, Social Development Commission, Milwaukee Public Schools, the Parenting Network, Parents Plus, and the Milwaukee Public Library.
Recent studies show that there continues to be a great need among Milwaukee’s low-income families for a comprehensive, family supportive, bilingual child development program.Educational benefits: The Children benefit from the Head Start curriculum, which supports emerging literacy and school readiness. Serving mostly Spanish-speaking children, the Guadalupe program truly embraces and encourages bilingualism amongst their children. Once the children grow to adulthood, this bilingualism will give them a considerable advantage as they prepare for a career. Health benefits: Guadalupe Head Start promotes healthy physical, emotional and intellectual development of its children. The program assures that each child receives a complete developmental assessment and health screening.
Family focus: Encouraging parents to take an active role in the education of their young children, Guadalupe Head Start provides a family support specialist to help parents strengthen their abilities as educators. Parents are also given the opportunity to assist in program planning and are always welcome to participate in program activities.Guadalupe Head Start began in 1965 and is one of the first bilingual Head Start programs in the nation. It is federally funded and operates on a school year calendar.