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Education
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- Written by: Lynda Myers
UKIAH, Calif. – Mariam Ballaho, winner of the 2012 Mendocino College Foundation Thomas M. Evans Sr. scholarship, majors in biological science and mathematics right now, but she plans to change her major to biochemistry and molecular biology when she transfers to UC Davis or UCLA in the Fall of 2013, with an eye toward medical school.
Born in Saudi Arabia, Ballaho grew up in the Philippines. She came to the USA with her parents, who are both employed in the medical field, in 2007.
The family lived in the Bay Area until 2009, when Ballaho's father accepted a job at Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits.
Ballaho graduated from Fremont High School and planned to attend college in the Bay Area; however, her parents wanted her to be near them, so she followed their wishes and enrolled at Mendocino College.
If she had any doubts about attending college in a small, rural community, Ballaho quickly discovered how lucky she was.
“My professors are the best,” she said. “I get to know them very well because I always go to their office hours, and they help me a lot.”
Although “everyone is really nice,” she admits to having two favorite professors: Deborah White, for mathematics, and Marcus Fredrickson, for chemistry.
Ballaho said her parents, Remy Ellen and Teodorico Ballaho, are her inspiration for doing well in college.
“I try to do well in school so my parents won't be disappointed. I want them to be proud of me,” she said.
While she lives at home, Ballaho pays most of her own college expenses, since her parents also support two brothers and three sisters who are all studying nursing in the Philippines.
“I am very grateful for The Thomas Evans scholarship. It paid for my tuition and expenses. I earn money working as a MESA chemistry workshop leader, and as a chemistry and math tutor, but I still had to ask my parents to help to pay for my books,” she said.
Ballaho, who takes 20 or more units every semester, loves going to school every day. “I like learning new things, and I thrive on challenges. It is exciting!”
She says her passion is taking care of people. “That's why I want to become a doctor.”
Ballaho participates in a Eisenhower Transportation Research Fellowship, through the MESA program at MC.
She partnered with Dafne Valdez to find environmentally friendly materials for the interior of a train. Ballaho and Valdez, along with three other MC MESA students will go to Washington D.C. In January to present their findings.
Ballaho paused when asked what she does for fun outside the college. “Fun for me is studying!” she said. Then, almost as an afterthought, she noted, “I like watching Korean dramas; that is how I am learning the Korean language.”
She speaks basic Chinese and Japanese, she is fluent in Tagalog, and nearly fluent in Korean – besides English, of course.
Advice she would give to other students is this: “Don't give up your goals. If you really want success, you have to put in a lot of effort. Do the best that you can do.”
For more information about the Mendocino College Foundation or to donate towards any of their programs, call them at 707-467-1018 or visit http://foundation.mendocino.edu/site/ .
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- Written by: Jesse Harrell
Time for the last Carlé Chronicle of the year!
On Friday, Dec. 21, Carlé gave out specially made Holiday Bookmarks to each and every student(and staff member) here at Carlé.
Throughout the whole year our media class designers have spoken to each and every student to ask them about how they would like their bookmark to look like.
Our amazing designers customized each one(over 120 in all) and they were handed out to all of the students as a holiday present. Thank you to the designers for working so hard to create these great bookmarks.
Also during this last Friday, we here at Carlé had a half-day fun-day! During the entire day we had “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” starring Jim Carrey, free hot chocolate being served, delicious free popcorn, and some very fun karaoke/dancing gong on.
To say the least it was a very fun day and what a great way to celebrate the last school day of the year.
All of us here at Carlé would like to welcome two new students that made it in just before the year-end, Jeramy Isom and Devin Black. Welcome you two and we’re happy to have you with us.
Special thanks to Carlé students JP Harvey, Lucas Carlson, and James Mora for running the Karaoke and Dance hall in the library for two straight weeks setting up and taking down all of the equipment. Thanks guys, your doing a great job and we all really appreciate it.
Congratulations to our Student of the Week, Junior Garcia. During the Rotary Club’s Christmas Dinner Junior was by far the hardest worker there, and the only one to stay through the entire event to help clean up.
No one else this week could have deserved this more than you Junior. We’re all very proud of your actions, keep it up!
Another congratulations to Michael Field for winning this week’s CHILY prize. His name was picked from the box and he chose a very nice blanket from our list of prizes.
Happy Holidays everyone! We’ll see you all next year.
Jesse Harrell is a student at Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.
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- Written by: Editor
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) this week introduced new legislation to strengthen safety at schools by providing state and local officials with new resources and tools to help them secure their campuses and protect students.
“When our children and our grandchildren are at school, we must have faith that they are safe,” Senator Boxer said. “This legislation will help state and local officials protect our children by utilizing all of the law enforcement tools at our disposal.”
Sen. Boxer’s first bill – the School Safety Enhancements Act – would strengthen and expand the Justice Department’s existing COPS Secure Our Schools grants program to provide schools with more resources to install tip lines, surveillance equipment, secured entrances and other important safety measures.
Currently, the COPS Secure Our Schools program requires a 50 percent local match. Boxer’s bill would allow the Justice Department to reduce the local share to 20 percent for schools with limited resources.
The bill also creates a joint task force between the Justice Department and the Department of Education to develop new school safety guidelines, and would increase the Secure Our Schools authorization from $30 million to $50 million.
Boxer’s second bill – the Save Our Schools (SOS) Act – would allow the federal government to reimburse Governors who want to use National Guard troops to help ensure that our nation’s schools are safe.
This legislation is modeled after a successful National Guard program – in place since 1989 – that allows governors to use the guard to assist with law enforcement efforts related to drug interdiction activities.
Under the new program, guard troops could help support local law enforcement agencies to ensure schools are safe.
The National Guard has said it is “particularly well suited for domestic law enforcement support missions” because it is “located in over 3,000 local communities throughout the nation, readily accessible, routinely exercised with local first responders, and experienced in supporting neighboring communities.”
Senator Boxer said Congress should consider the new school safety legislation as part of a comprehensive response to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which would include enacting sensible gun laws – including banning assault weapons and high-capacity clips – and ensuring that the mentally ill are not able to purchase guns.
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- Written by: Jesse Harrell
On Wednesday, Dec. 19, the Lower Lake Community Action Committee will be hosting its monthly dinner.
As we have for more than 15 years now Carlé will have community service volunteers helping out. This month they will include Mayra Pantoja, Junior Garcia, and Charles Trujillo. All will be serving and cleaning. The students will be led by retired Carlé teacher Verna Rogers.
New this week at Carlé: Several fun activities have been taking place led by Student Council. Events like karaoke, dancing, door/tree decorating and voting for future events have already been held in advisories.
Friday, Dec. 21, will be a half-day at Carlé, and also a fun day. The day hosted by the student council will be filled with friendly competition, more decorating, dancing, watching movies, and much more.
Antoinette Percoats had her portfolio review last week in front of staff and friends. According to staff Miss Percoats did a great job highlighted by a recorded song she performed. We’re all very proud of you and are very happy to see you progress further.
In Alan Siegel’s Civics/Economics class the students are participating in an Econ Game called “On Your Own, Coast to Coast.”
The Econ Game is a life simulator that puts the students into real life situations forcing them to save money and budgeting specifically what they’ll do with said money.
This game is an excellent tool, and has given many a great insight on troubles of adult life. You can choose where to live, to own a car or not, how much money you’ll make, whether to have a roommate and much more.
The most useful tool is the budgeting aspect of the game. While it is the hardest part budgeting is an important financial tool that every student at Carlé should take advantage of and utilize in their real lives.
Finally here is the list of the Gold and Silver level students from the second grading period who are, once again, showing just how successful our students can be. Thanks you guys and girls, keep up the great work by continuing to be fine examples for Carlé.
Gold Level: Timothy McGuire, Kobi Minard, Blossom Neidenbach, Mayra Pantoja, and Lance Thurston.
Silver Level: Cody Beers, Nura Brown, Michael Field, Junior Garcia, Emilio Gonzales, Ray Green, Josh Kennedy, Jessie Mason, Antoinette Percoats, Roxie Purdum-White, Antonia Rosiles, and Rosie Wright-Trejo.
Jesse Harrell attends Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.