solutions in education

In the seven months since it opened in downtown Watsonville, a new non profit has enrolled hundred of youths it hopes will acquire technology skills. The Digital NEST has big aspirations to improve job prospects for kids who grow up in rural areas.

At an event in the late spring of this year, Jacob Martinez, founder of the Digital NEST, welcomes female members to the first mini-conference.

"It’s great seeing you all here today on a Saturday morning, we’re super excited to have. We’re going to have a really fun time today," he says.

Significantly fewer women, African Americans and Latinos go into scientific professions, that includes the environmental sciences. One Monterey Bay area organization has been training youth in watershed ecology, and getting them to teach others.

In a bungalow-style classroom a group of fourth and fifth graders enter and take their seats. They’re greeted by their instructor and a group of mentors.

Tremendous changes are working their way through California’s education system. This year districts absorbed new formulas determining how much money schools get. Meanwhile, teachers adjusted to the Common Core education standard. At Freedom Elementary School in Watsonville, teachers face the extra challenge of translating many of the materials into Spanish.

Language has a natural beat so music teacher Jessica DeRooy uses words to teach her students rhythmic phrases. They utter a sentence, clap it, and then clap without saying the words aloud. That’s how they learn to get the rhythm into their bodies before taking up an instrument.

"Both rhythms have to start at the same time to overlay in a way that feels right," DeRooy tells the kids, "so listen to make sure we have the first rhythm as the base, so we need to always listen to that one. So let’ start again with the first student. One, two, ready, go…."

In Watsonville, the Jovenes Sanos Program teaches youth skills like public speaking and healthy eating. One participant, Meztly Valenciano, has applied these lessons directly in her life. Beginning with how she starts her days.

"So, in the mornings as I’m getting ready my mom goes down stairs. And she makes me my protein shake, which has hemp seeds , banana, and soy milk."

Meztly is 18, a senior at Watsonville High School.

Teachers at Watsonville High School found a way to make their U.S. history classes a lot more interesting to their students. The majority of students at the school are Latino, and their demographic has been largely left out of the text books. Some history teachers created their own curriculum to make classes more relevant to students’ lives.

“This entire tree right here that’s filled with all colors that represents America, giving off of opportunity and then the monarch represents opportunity for all immigrants.”

That’s Jose Guerrero explaining his social studies art project.

“There’s one colorful butterfly which is the monarch saying like please you can come here, and if you succeed then maybe you’ll show your own colors. “

It’s a Tuesday morning and physician assistant Alicia Potes greets her patients. A teenage boy and his mom sit side-by-side in the exam room.

Alicia Potes: So, how are you?
Teen Boy: Good.
His mother: No muy bien.
Potes: No muy bien? Porque?

The boy’s been having stomach problems.

He explains: "It’s probably been for like...I don’t know, like five months ago? But now like every time I eat something…"

His mother adds "Pero ya me estoy preocupando porque es como…."

It’s May first; Buena Vista migrant housing center opens today for the summer and fall picking season. Only one housing unit remains available. A representative of the center shakes a raffle box while families wait hopefully.

She calls out numbers as she draws them. "Su número es 2664."

Three-fifths of Santa Cruz County 3rd graders fail to reach basic levels of literacy. The pilot Santa Cruz  Reading Corps project has seen promising results placing literacy tutors in preschool classrooms to get students an early boost. So far, these interventions look promising. Vista Pickett came out of retirement to participate.

“Letters Letters, Letters have names what is the name of this letter,” Pickett sings as she holds up an illustration of an A.