Be Great Blog Archive

With spring break drawing to an end, the CollegeBound team decided to make the most of the time off and went to visit one of Southern California’s most beautiful cities: Santa Barbara. On April 11th, students got a chance to visit Santa Barbara City College. Voted one of the top ten community colleges in the US, SBCC’s sprawling campus has views of it all: Beach, Mountains, and Sunshine. And with over 80 different degree programs and 50 certificate programs, it’s a great place to begin a college career.

Next on the tour was UC Santa Barbara, where the views only got better. The tour, led by several current UCSB students, focused on what makes the university so unique amongst the UC system and gave the CollegeBound youth tips on how to make the most of their college career. After the tour, everyone got a chance to see what being a College student on campus felt like as they enjoyed lunch overlooking the campus lagoon. View Facebook photos of this tour.

Stay tuned for more exciting college tour recaps and pictures!

 

Up, up, and away! On April 4th, as a part of CollegeBound’s Career Exposure Initiative, Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica youths got the distinct pleasure of receiving a personal tour of the world-renowned NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena . The tour, lead by Matthew Siegler and Carla J. Johns, JPL Informal Education Specialists, focused on current initiatives, including JPL’s cutting-edge test prototype – MARS SCIENCE LAB -which is attempting to land the next mars rover in space.

This special behind-the-scenes look granted students the chance to see what a typical workday looks like for NASA staff and illustrated the range of career paths available, ranging from engineering, to planetary science, to graphic design. View Facebook Photos of this event.

This career exposure field trip was especially impactful for two of our members, Chris Karba, who will be going off to college in September to study Aerospace Engineering, and Dante Ison, who is interested in aeronautics and engineering.

Stay tuned for our next update on CollegeBound’s Career Exposure initiative and more exciting stories!

On April 9th, eleven SMBGC youths, age 10 to 17,  had the exciting opportunity to learn what its like to work at an innovative technology company like Yahoo! Inc. Many of the youths chosen to attend this field trip are already members of the SMBGC Tech Club and were thrilled to get a sneak-peak into what its like to have a career in this exciting field. The kids were able to learn how a passion for technology can translate into real life careers in web design, film, and broadcasting.

Yahoo! employees graciously jumped at the chance to speak to the group about not only the technology field in general, but also gave their own motivational stories of how they got to where they are now by following their dreams. More specifically, the group was able to see exactly how webpages are built and were able to sit in on a live web-TV show taping! View Facebook Photos of this event. This is just the first of many opportunities Club kids will have to be exposed to a variety of career fields which interest them.

 

On March 10th, select members of the CollegeBound team headed back to CSU San Marcos, this time for the 14th Annual M.E. Ch.A. High School Conference. Workshops ranged from 30 YEARS OF Latin History and Resistance in North County to Financial Survival Skills for the Youth, which covered key issues like budgeting and creating financial goals. The conference featured keynote speaker Dr. Jose-Rodolfo, author of several books including “Chicano San Diego: Cultural Spaces and the Struggle for Justice”, and “Negotiating Spaces: The Lives of Undocumented Youth”. The conference succeeded in motivating high school students to be proactive in their futures. Building upon the Chican@ movement of the late 1960s, which promoted cultural and historical pride, this event provided the next generation with the tools to become the future leaders of the community!”

On January 22 and 23^rd, CollegeBound staff and five lucky high schoolers embarked on a College Campus Tour which spanned across California State University San Marcos, San Diego State University, UC San Diego, and CSU Long Beach. Student panels, tours lead by select members of student organizations and motivational speakers were just some of the great components of the trip.

After all this excitement, the Santa Monica CollegeBound team was invited to the Boys and Girls Club of San Marcos. There, they were greeted by the Branch Director, President,  Board and Keystone members as they enjoyed a night of fun-filled activities, including a friendly game of Dodge ball,  and bonded over a pizza dinner.

Author: Jennifer MacDonell, JAMS

The JAMS Clubhouse Fashion Club teamed up to take on the challenge of designing a Mannequin for the Santa Monica Place Mannequin Collective, where 100 blank canvas mannequins are designed with different mediums by celebrated L.A. artists, designers, retailers, and community leaders. The JAMS Clubhouse Fashion Club has created a unique and eclectic mannequin using recycled and faux materials. Be Great Santa Monica was the name of the Mannequin created by the Fashion Club.

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Author: Jason Hurd

Unless you are a professional runner, it is hard to come out and run one lap, let alone our goal of 12; but that is what our energetic members and enthusiastic staff are striving for.  Every day the members, staff and lucky guests go out running on the beautiful turf field at the John Adams Middle School at 3pm.

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Author: Kyle Eliason

A giant group of excited kids at the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club gathered at nine in the morning to board a big yellow bus. A little over one hour later, they waiting in line for the thrill of their summer. On Wednesday, August 13, 43 kids got to spend the day at Knott’s Berry Farm where they split into groups of 6 or 7, were assigned a staff leader, and got to ride the roller coasters. Being a weekday, the park wasn’t that full and kids got to ride up to six rides during the day.

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