SEMY Leadership Development Projects Take Root Around State

By Editor Ken Harvey

Quincy School districts around the state are working to establish their own district or regional leadership conferences, with the assistance of the Secondary Education for Migrant Youth (SEMY) Office.

SEMY’s Leadership Development Projects (LDPs) have made great strides this past year, says SEMY Director Linda Roberts.

"Students and staff are doing so well; sometimes the great things they do in LDP’s get overlooked in the bigger picture," she says.

For its efforts, SEMY’s Student Leadership Program named the Brewster Junior-Senior High School LDP the "Project of the Year."

Achievements by the Brewster LDP, mentored by Lupe Ledesma, included:

After organizing their own Local Leadership Conference, attended by 60 students, students worked with parents to organize a regional leadership training and college awareness conference attended by over 500 participants.
As a result of the LDP efforts, The Primeros and Primeras College Bound Club became an ASB-recognized club in district, comprised of a majority of the migrant students in the district.
The club was selected by OSPI to implement student-to-student trainings in their region. The OSPI/Washington Assoc. of School Principals project has students teach peers about No Child Left Behind legislation, new graduation requirements, and the statewide WASL test. The Brewster Club is the only one in the entire state that is comprised of mostly Latino students who are doing student-to-student trainings. They were selected because of their commitment to helping others through their Student Leadership Program experience.
Brewster students presented workshops at the Promising Practices Conference in October and the National Migrant Education Conference in San Francisco in April.
Brewster students also are involved in the local politics and were a major contributor to getting the school district levy passed earlier this year by reminding parents and all the community the importance of education and what that levy could do for them and their peers.
Brewster students and parents worked together to train Quincy students and parents on how to implement their own Regional Parent and Student event. Brewster students had implemented their own regional event last year that had over 500 participants. This is implemented in collaboration with MERO 171.
This same group is also planning another LDP leadership event that will include migrant students from Quincy, Cashmere, and Bridgeport. Meetings are student-led, with student ownership 100%.
Brewster has been invited by the Mabton School District to present a workshop on the concept of Parent Involvement and Student Leadership.
Students who are seniors in the Primeros Primeras club have all applied for scholarships and completed their paperwork for acceptance to higher education institutes. EWU will get the majority of these students.
School mentor Lupe Ledesma has been the driving force of this successful model.
MERO 171, SEMY and Brewster School District are working together to enhance parent involvement, student leadership, and community service in their program and then write a model plan that schools across the state can utilize to maximize services to their migrant families.

Achievements by the Yakima LDP, under the mentorship of Arlene Franz and Alice Villanueva, included:

Students provided interpretation at the polls and called to encourage parents to vote.
Students assisted with the planning and recruiting of over 1,200 parents to attend a YSD parent event.
Students planned and led PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) meetings, one of which focused on facilitating the parents in the SLIDE problem-solving process to address the need for parent involvement in their students’ education.
Students participated in the LEAP Conference and provided a public presentation about their experience.
Student leadership graduates successfully applied for and were accepted into higher education institutes. One student leader received a full scholarship to Whitman College.
Student Cynthia Suarez will serve on the planning committee and will act as a facilitator at the Washington Association Of Principals’ Chewela Multi-Cultural Camp
Students co-facilitated small group leadership development with professional school district staff.
Student/faculty/community/parent teams will plan and implement high school-middle school service-learning leadership programs next school year.

Achievements by the Toppenish LDP, under the guidance of Meche Brownlow and Miguel Puente, included:

Student Julie Suarez led the service-learning planning for the district migrant student leadership conference. Students organized the much-used food bank that was transitioning locations.
Since last year’s conference, Julie has also been a valuable volunteer with the City of Toppenish Public Works Department.
Students presented their conference and service-learning experience to the school board with the assistance of Heritage CAMP Program coordinator Miguel Puente, who is very impressed by their leadership.
Student Viririana Espinoza will lead the planning for next year’s leadership conference.
Students presented at the Promising Practices Conference in October, and one educator in attendance called it "the best seminar!"
Parents and community representatives were prominent partners with students and faculty in the planning and implementation of the conference.
Students co-facilitated small group leadership development with professional school district staff.
Student/faculty/community/parent teams will plan and implement high school-middle school service-learning leadership programs next school year.

Ferndale School District – High school and middle school students have involved parents in their leadership development program planning.

Achievements by the Aberdeen LDP, included:

Students from Centralia, Ocean Beach and Aberdeen worked with LDP contacts to implement a Parent Regional Conference in Centralia. Schools competed to get the most parents from their respected districts. The goal was to have at least 150 parents. This is in collaboration with MERO 189.
Students helped onsite with child care, translation and programming.

Achievements by the Walla Walla LDP included:

Students implemented a parent event to inform parents about higher education, No Child Left Behind, and the importance of parent involvement. There were about 60-80 parents and students involved.
Students will work with school district staff to implement a leadership event next year.
Two students presented at the National Migrant Education Conference in San Francisco. They have committed to take lead with school contact to help implement next year's LDP event with other students and the school's Latino Club.
2 students also presented last year National Migrant Education Conference in San Antonio.
Veronica Marin was on Student Panel at the Bi-National Conference, and her mom Maria Marin was on a parent panel. They were on a panel that was addressing issues and needs of migrant parents and students in U.S. Veronica also provided morning entertainment singing in Spanish and English.

Each year new districts are added to LDP as previous districts become adequately prepared to run their own programs.

Next year, LDP activities will continue in the above schools; while new projects are started by SEMY in Oroville, Mabton, Sunnyside, Highland/Naches, Quincy, and Mount Vernon.