By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/KSJEzA
Cesar Chavez Learning Academies' Social Justice Humanitas Academy seniors Daniel Rojo and Vanessa Diaz at the school's San Fernando campus on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)>>
<< Senior Lyndsay Lucas, 18, had cancer, lost her leg and had some learning issues. She has overcome all that and is going to be attending Pierce College in the fall. (Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer)
05/23/2012 08:28:42 PM PDT :: From magnet programs and pilot schools, small learning communities and imposing campuses, some 25,000 members of Los Angeles Unified's Class of 2012 will be graduating in ceremonies that start Thursday night.
During the month-long high school graduation season, families and friends will be celebrating the accomplishments of the teens who struggled and studied, who persevered and thrived.
"That diploma was earned," said Daniel Rojo, 18, part of the first graduating class at the Social Justice Humanitas Academy, one of four pilot schools that opened last fall on the Cesar Chavez Learning Complex in San Fernando.
Danny transferred last fall from nearby Sylmar High, where he felt fairly anonymous among the 3,500 students in the bustling suburban campus.
"At Sylmar, I was just another name in the roll book. Transferring to a different campus and to a brand-new school, I was motivated to get involved," said Danny, a peer mentor and vice president of his senior class. "It just felt right. It was more united, more like family."
The more nurturing environment at the Humanitas Academy also lured Vanessa Diaz from Sylmar High. While she'd always felt a "passion for leadership," she blossomed at the campus, where English, history and the arts are integrated into the curriculum.
"I like making decisions and representing other people, and speaking up for someone else's rights," said Vanessa, the school's student body president and,
like Danny, a peer mentor. "I found the human factor in Humanitas."Vanessa plans to pursue environmental studies this fall at UC Davis, while Danny has been accepted at UCLA, where he plans to enroll in pre-med studies. Like many other LAUSD graduates, they'll be the first members of their families to go to college.
"These kids are blazing new trails," said Jose Navarro, the energetic principal of the Humanitas Academy, who is as proud of his school's supportive environment as
GRADUATIONS
Here is the schedule for San Fernando Valley high school graduations that start Thursday night:
Thursday, May 24: Cleveland, Kennedy, Reseda, Van Nuys, Verdugo
Friday, May 25: Birmingham Charter, Canoga Park, Northridge Academy, Daniel Pearl Charter, Sylmar
Tuesday, May 29: Chatsworth, Monroe, Taft
May 31: El Camino Real Charter, Granada Hills Charter
June 1: High Tech High
June 14: Arleta
June 15: East Valley, Fulton College Prep, Grant, North Hollywood, Francis Polytechnic, Sun Valley
June 18: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, Valley Alternative, Cesar Chavez Learning Academies
June 19: Panorama, San Fernando
he is of its academic success.
Each student is assigned a mentor, like Vanessa or Danny, and an advisory class at the end of the day allows kids to get tutoring, do their homework or work on personal issues. In addition, every student must pass the so-called A-G curriculum, the slate of 15 college-prep courses that Los Angeles Unified is mandating districtwide, beginning with the class of 2016.
Of Navarro's 113 graduates, 84 percent are eligible for admission to California's public universities. Compare that to last year's LAUSD graduating class, when barely 15 percent qualified for entrance to California State University or the University of California.
"We're helping them prepare, providing them access and teaching them resiliency," Navarro said. "We're helping them get into college and through college."
Lyndsay Lucas knows something about resiliency. She was diagnosed at age 12 with bone cancer - she walks with a prosthetic leg - and was later found to have a learning disability. So when she graduates June 1 from High Tech High in Van Nuys, and enrolls in community college, it will be a testament to her sheer determination.
"Cancer and chemotherapy is hard, but I learned from it," she said. "The bigger the problem - if you just smile through it, it makes things better."
Bright and vivacious with an engaging laugh, Lyndsay talks matter-of-factly about four very tough years of high school.
Just a week into her freshman year, doctors found a cancerous spot on her lung and she had to undergo surgery; a cancer scare her sophomore year again kept her out of classes.
She spent a lot of time in summer school, making up credits and struggling to pass those A-G courses. And she eventually took sign-language classes at Pierce College in order to satisfy the graduation requirement for a foreign language.
There were days that Lyndsay had to navigate the compact high school campus in a wheelchair, although these days she proudly shows off her new high-tech leg with its hydraulic foot.
Lyndsay said she gets her inspiration from her first hospital roommate - a young boy whose mother died of bone cancer and who was battling the disease himself.
Kennedy High School student body president Brenda Sifontes found her niche in a student government class, gradually taking on more responsibilities and organizing more events. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)>>
"He was really nice, he was always smiling and wanting to play," she said. "He's the one who motivated me. I figured that if he could do all this smiling, with everything he'd been through, I could do it, too."
While Lyndsay and the two Humanitas grads laud the benefits of a small campus, Brenda Sifontes thrived among the 3,000 students at Kennedy High.
She'd just moved from Virginia when she arrived at the Granada Hills campus in ninth grade, and didn't know a soul. She found her niche in a student government class, gradually taking on more responsibilities and organizing more events.
When she graduates tonight, it will be as student body president.
"We're all just one big family," said Brenda, who has been accepted to UCLA.
"That's one of the most important things I learned - never say `I' or `you,' but `we,' because we are in this together."
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