News from Synergy Academies

Synergy Academies' Online Newsletter

April/May 2010

SYNERGY SPECTRUM
Educating Students in South Los Angeles

Greetings!

Synergy Scholars With U.S. Olympian Inger Miller

Let's play ball!

Our student government leaders recently attended a University of Southern California (USC) Alumni Association BBQ at the USC home baseball game against Arizona. This was many of our students' first time at a baseball game.

As part of this trip, our students had an opportunity to stand on the field during the opening activities and meet the USC baseball team. Additionally, our students met USC alumnus and U.S. track and field gold medalist, Inger Miller.

Since the majority of our students come from low-income families and most of their parents have never attended college, Synergy takes the initiative to provide our students with opportunities outside of the classroom that a typical college-going family is able to provide for their own children.

We invite you to join us in providing an opportunity of a lifetime for 25 of our seventh grade students to participate in the Close Up Foundation's middle school program in Washington, D.C. at the end of May. We only need to raise $9,000 more, so please join our other donors by making your tax-deductible contribution online today!

We're all in this together,

The Synergy Academies Family

First Science Olympiad is a Success

Synergy Kinetic Academy's middle school students tied for 9th place in their very first appearance at the Los Angeles County Science Olympiad earlier this year.

The top 9 teams went on to compete at the State of California's Science Olympiad. Since our school tied for 9th place, our students just missed competing at the state level because the other 9th place team earned more first place finishes.

We are extremely proud of our students, especially since this is only our middle school's second year of operation and it was our students' first appearance in a county-wide competition.

This year's Science Olympiad team was led by Synergy Kinetic Academy's Co-Founder and Director/Principal, Dr. Barbara Shannon. Barbara, a former science teacher, joined Team Synergy to help empower more Latino and African American students to pursue a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

By providing our students with hands-on opportunities such as participating in the Science Olympiad, Synergy is helping to strengthen America's future workforce.

Make a donation today and help us continue to provide science education programs for our inner-city students!

You can also donate to specific Synergy class projects via Donors Choose. Search for our life science teacher, Lindsey Wander's proposal, "Still working on a class set of microscopes!" (Project ID: 389884). Ms. Wander only has $523 more to raise to get her project fully funded.

In This Issue

First Science Olympiad is a Success

Synergy's "Millionaire Club" Visits The Grove

New Partners Join Team Synergy

Synergy's Supporters

Thank you to the following individuals, companies, foundations, and organizations who have recently supported Synergy Academies (in alphabetical order by first name):

* Alan and Jesse Lee Weiss
* Alexander Pan
* Allyn Shapiro
* Amy Chan
* Arthur Chu
* Arthur Webb and Pansy Yee
* Barbara Coughlin
* Barnes & Noble at The Grove
* Bob Israel
* Bowers & Sons Cleaners
* Brandon and Christy Louie
* Bridget Walsh
* California Trust for Public Schools
* Carlos and Devy Schonfeld
* Carol Pratt
* Chaker Mustapha
* Charles and Shirley Maxey
* Christopher Quek and Elizabeth Li
* Christy Hotaling

* City National Bank
* Claudia Navarro
* Connie Huang
* Corazon Ramos
* Cynthia Coughlin
* Cynthia Miranda
* Daniel and Nina Smith
* David Booker
* David Chan
* David Sire
* Edith Sanchez
* Edwin Fuentes
* Elisa Aquino
* Elizabeth Leshin
* Elizabeth Sears
* Enrique and Prosy Delacruz
* Eric Roth and Laurie Selik
* Erika Roman
* First Commercial Bank (USA)
* Francisco Cortez
* Gail Hart
* Gina and Edwin Villacis
* Harlene Goodrich
* Ifeany Njoku
* Jack and Marian Sunabe
* Jacques Lacroix
* Jared Sopko
* Jennifer and Brian Epps
* Jignesh Dhamecha
* Jimmy and Angie Fang
* Joanne Braden
* Joseph and Naomi Hiraga
* Joshua Olmos
* Juanito and Vilma Deomampo
* Karen Alvarado
* Kathy Gronau
* Kenny Landerman
* Kevin Cheung and Melissa Camacho-Cheung
* Kristin Dietz
* Kristin and Mike Miklos
* Laura Apisakkul
* Leslie Hyatt
* Lianna Kong
* Los Angeles Social Venture Partners
* Maggiano's at The Grove
* Mary Wright
* Meg and Randy Palisoc
* Melissa Sandau
* Meryle Richman
* Michael and Erika Chua
* Michael Goodrich
* Miller and Jetty Fong
* Monica De Los Santos
* National Council of La Raza
* Ocie Tolson
* Olga Buendia
* Paul Kim
* Radhika Khandelwal
* Relles Aquino
* Renee Roberson
* Ricardo Cortez
* Robert Rueda
* Roger and Shu Ping Yu
* Ryan Jones
* Sharon Fulcher
* Shaun and Katrina Ho
* Sherman Chin
* Sheryl Brodie and Yannis Yortsos
* Silvia Jauregui
* Stanley Cooper
* Steve and Jane Ann Gaskill
* Steven Morrison
* Steven Wachs
* Tae Kim
* The Carroll Group
* The Riordan Foundation
* The Skirball Foundation
* The Walton Family Foundation
* Thomas and Angela Lin
* Thyonne Gordon
* Tiffany Sanders
* Tisha Armatys
* Tomofumi Miura
* Transamerica Insurance & Investment Group
* Valle & Associates
* Viviana Escobar
* William and Claire Lin

Synergy's "Millionaire Club" Visits The Grove

As part of Synergy's reading program, students read books at their independent reading levels and our schools keep track of how many words the students read.

When students have read 1 million or more words, they join Synergy's "Millionaire Club." Every year, the "Millionaire Club" participates in a special off-campus activity.

This year, our middle school millionaires visited The Grove where they helped pick books from the Barnes & Noble bookstore for their school library and they ate dinner at Maggiano's. For many of our students, this was their first time dining at a fine restaurant where they learned about the difference between a salad fork, dinner fork, and dessert fork. Thank you Maggiano's for this memorable experience!

Special thanks also go out to City National Bank and The Grove's Barnes & Noble bookstore for helping to coordinate this trip and for donating over $5000 for Synergy to purchase books for our schools' libraries.

"For our first school library, we purchased hundreds of books that we thought would last for several years. Within one year, our students devoured all the books because they loved reading so much. This was a great problem to have! So, we scrambled to purchase more books to keep up with our students' reading. There are no bookstores in our South Los Angeles neighborhood and many of our students have a hard time getting to their local libraries, so our school libraries are often the only place where our students can borrow a book to read," said Meg Palisoc, Co-Founder and CEO of Synergy Academies.

Learn more about Synergy's schools and programs online at www.WeAreSynergy.org.

New Partners Join Team Synergy

Synergy is honored that we were selected to become an official multi-year Los Angeles Social Venture Partners (LASVP) Investee. As part of this new partnership, LASVP donated $10,000 to support Synergy's expansion plans, and will provide Synergy with volunteer professionals to advise us on these efforts.

In addition to working with LASVP, Synergy will also host an Education Pioneers summer intern, Nicole Olesh, to assist with Synergy's professional development school model.

Synergy's long-term strategic plan is to develop our schools into professional development schools so that educators nationwide can learn from our successful instructional strategies. This way, we can help improve the American public education system by empowering staff at both new and existing schools.

Next school year, our current elementary and middle schools will be expanding to serve more students. In Fall 2011, we will be opening a high school, Synergy Quantum Academy. Help us get the materials our students need in their classrooms by making a contribution online today. Or download a contribution form and mail it with your check.

Synergy Academies is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. Contributions to Synergy are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Shop
For Synergy

Cut this out
and keep it
in your wallet.

Help raise money for Synergy Academies just by doing your everyday shopping!

Register your credit cards and grocery store rewards cards online. A portion of your purchases will be donated to Synergy.

* Register your Ralphs Club Card online. Synergy Charter Academy's NPO # is 82724.
* Register your Target REDcard online. Synergy's School ID # is 125533.
* Register your credit cards online with Escrip. Synergy's ID # is 164754779.
* Ask for your Office Depot purchases to be credited to Synergy Charter Academy
(Back to School ID # 70204964).

Shop year-round at Great American Online and enter either 740134 for Synergy Charter Academy or 1464742 for Synergy Kinetic Academy. Or shop at stores such as The Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, and more via the Box Tops for Education website (enter the zip code, 90011, and select Synergy Charter Academy). A portion of your purchases will be credited to our schools.

Thank you for supporting Synergy!!!