Alliance Student
News from Alliance College-Ready Public Schools
Every student has the ability. We give them the opportunity.

September 2009
A record opening day: 16 Alliance schools

The Alliance opened five new schools this academic year, bringing to 16 the number of its high-performing campuses in Los Angeles. From East L.A. to Lincoln Heights to South L.A. to Glassell Park, students in the inaugural class started the school year August 31 at three new high schools and two new middle schools.

"I am so very pleased that all went smoothly at our new schools," said Alliance President and CEO Judy Burton. "Our model is to create a network of high-performance schools that prepare kids to attend and succeed in college."

The three new high schools, which start with 9th grade only, will add a grade level each enrollment year. Unlike traditional magnet schools where students have to apply and accrue points to enter, Alliance's subject-specific high schools are open to all students seeking a rigorous college-prep curricula with a special area of interest.

Environmental Science and Technology High School in Glassell Park (2930 Fletcher Drive, Los Angeles 90065) helps students understand the environment and their role in protecting it on an eco-friendly campus.

Media Arts & Entertainment Academy High School in East Los Angeles (5156 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles 90022) develops skills and talents through digital photography, film, animation, web design, broadcasting, music and graphic design.  

Health Services Academy High School in South L.A. (12226 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles 90047, on the campus of Henry Clay Middle School) seeks to motivate students to select health-care related majors and careers by providing hands-on experience at local hospitals and other health-care sites (top photo).

Alliance also opened two new middle schools, starting with 6th grade and adding a grade level each enrollment year: College-Ready Middle School #4 in South L.A. (1630 E. 111th Street, Los Angeles 90059) and College-Ready Middle School #5 (second photo from top) in Lincoln Heights (2635 Pasadena Avenue, Los Angeles 90031).
LACC campus becomes Alliance high school

All know a new Glassell Park campus as L.A. City College Van de Kamp Innovation Campus--and for the next 5 years, Alliance students will also know this state-of-the-art site as Environmental Science and Technology High School. The Alliance signed a historic agreement with the community college to lease space on what was destined to open as a satellite campus before state budget cuts were made. The temporary lease provides an opportunity to serve students from the community in grades 9 through 12 just until the satellite community college is ready to open. The high school is housed in the two-story New Education Building while construction continues on other parts of the site. The project is designed with high environmental standards in mind while also retaining a bit of its past. The facade of the original 1930s-era building, which resembles a 16th-century Dutch farmhouse as headquarters for the old Van de Kamp's Bakery, still stands and will be incorporated into the final design.
New site for College-Ready Academy High #7

Donna Gambrell, a member of the Obama administration, came to College-Ready Academy High School #7 on September 2 to see how federal stimulus funds can change communities. But she also learned how much students cherish the new 4-acre site at 2941 West 70th Street in the Crenshaw District. The director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund toured the campus, addressed students and guests about the importance of community partnerships, took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and chatted one-on-one with students who talked about what the new campus meant to them and how it will shape their academic futures. "Funding from these kind of partnerships is invaluable to creating campuses where we can fulfill our college-ready promise," said Judy Burton, Alliance president and CEO. "Our students now have a campus they can be proud of." In addition to Burton, speakers included 8th District Councilman Bernard Parks; Nancy Andrews, president and CEO of the Low Income Investment Fund, which awarded the federal funds for the site; Glenn Pierce, president of Pacific Charter School Development, whose organization developed the site; Alliance board member and former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan and parent Theresa Daviston. "I commend the Low Income Investment Fund for expeditiously utilizing their Recovery Act award to finance the Alliance College-Ready Academy High School and bring needed jobs and educational resources to this community," Gambrell said in a statement. The site eventually will also house an Alliance middle school.
Did you know...

Students at College-Ready Middle School #5 in Lincoln Heights (right) are learning to separate their leftover trash and food after nutrition break and lunch. Why? The school plans to compost its waste--bins and worms are on the way--as a way of teaching kids to be eco-savvy. Principal Suzette Torres wants to ensure that students understand the link between the products they purchase and their impact on our planet during manufacturing, consumption and disposal.

What did Alliance kids do this summer? Ofelia Carrillo of Marc & Eva Stern Math and Science School attended a daylong Questbridge College Conference at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut; completed an Advanced Cryptology course at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at Princeton University in New Jersey; and then spent a week at BizCamp at John Hopkins University in Maryland. "Not only did I develop myself academically but also personally," Ofelia writes in an essay. "I met people from foreign countries and experienced humidity for the first time." Other Stern MASS students--Miranda Lopez, Julian Sarabia, Candace Aguiar, Alexis Estrada, Orifiel Ortiz, Jennifer Zavala, Melanie Ortiz, Raquel Molina, Bernadette Gutierrez, Evelyn Flores, April Mota, Rosy Palapa and Maricruz Gutierrez--attended an engineering program at Cal State L.A., and Dylan Giron took advantage of an "amazing opportunity" to visit UC Berkely as part of the Experience Berkeley Program.
 
Gertz-Ressler High School students also made the most of the summer months: Diana Castro attended a summer program at Brown University, Licetz Montoya participated in the four-week California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science at UC Davis, and Michelle Gutierrez (10th grader) and Natalie Coreas (11th grader) attended a weeklong program at the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

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