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- Written by: Editor
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – The newest member of Mendocino College’s counseling department provides general academic counseling with a special emphasis in American Indian outreach.
Guillermo Garcia was hired six months ago.
He fell in love with community college education when he was a student himself.
“I went to community college, a counselor inspired me about education, and I saw what education could do for somebody,” he said.
Garcia worked previously at Long Beach City College, doing outreach and financial aid counseling.
“It’s been a really smooth transition,” he said of the change. “The community is really welcoming, staff and faculty have been really great.”
He now works Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on the Ukiah campus, while Tuesdays and Thursdays he is at the college’s Lake Center in Lakeport.
“He’s a bundle of energy,” according to college Interim President/Superintendent Roe Darnell.
That energy is helpful this time of the academic year, as students are finishing up their fall classes while also registering for the spring semester, which starts Jan. 22.
Garcia was attracted to the counseling position at Mendocino College because he appreciates the natural beauty of the area, and the natural fit of the population with which he would be working. “I’ve always wanted to work with Native American youth, and this is a great place to do it.”
Being a first-generation college student is a common challenge for both the American Indian and Latino populations in our area, Garcia said, and this can mean growing up with a lack of access to information and encouragement.
“Parents may not understand the importance of education, or they may simply not be aware of what’s out there. Many times parents may encourage ‘work, work, work’ first, before education, but right now it’s the other way around. Get your education first, and then go ahead and get yourself a fruitful career,” he advised.
Another barrier to college education may be a high school experience that wasn’t rewarding. This is where Garcia hopes to intervene.
“I think there’s a big disconnect there,” he said. “As an outreach counselor, I like to get students engaged with how higher education can be different from the high school experience.”
Summer bridge programs are a great way for students to begin their higher education and improve their math and English skills if they need some help getting up to speed.
One example of such a program is the Summer Math Institute, offered by the college’s Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program.
This resource is useful for a variety of students, Garcia said, including “students from high school, adult reentry students, and everyone in between.”
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- Written by: Tammy Serpa
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Are you Lego Smart? Sixteen teachers from Lake and Mendocino counties are.
They attended an all-day training on Saturday, Dec. 8, to learn about the Lego Mindstorm NXT system.
Thanks to the generosity of a SB70 grant from Mendocino College, the Lake County Office of Education Career Technical Education Department was able to purchase 24 robots, curriculum and software licenses to split between the two counties.
The kits will become a mobile lab that teachers who attended the free training can check out and utilize in their classrooms.
Teachers who attended the training are encouraged to teach other teachers so that they too may utilize the lab. All schools teaching grades 7-12 were encouraged to send a teacher.
Participating Lake County schools included Lucerne Elementary, Burns Valley Elementary, Lower Lake Elementary, Lower Lake High, Middletown Middle, Kelseyville High and Terrace Middle School.
The workshop was led by Lego Instructor Greg Intermaggio at the Lloyd P. Hance School in Kelseyville. Student volunteers Nate Falkenberg, Cord Falkenberg and Eduardo Alatorre were on hand to help the staff and serve as workshop participants.
Lego Mindstorms combines the versatility of the Lego building system with all-new technologies, an intelligent microcomputer brick and intuitive drag-and-drop programming software.
The Green City Challenge Kit is a step-by-step introduction to robotics in the classroom. Students are then challenged to apply their programming and problem-solving skills by making their robots solve real-world engineering challenges related to renewable energy.
The mobile labs can be used for middle and high schools and comes with a variety of curriculum tied to the California State Standards. It provides cross-curricular opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math.
Some Lake County students are already familiar with the robots.
Barbara MnIntyre from the Taylor Observatory volunteers as a coach for a county wide team of students who recently competed in a US First Lego League competition.
During the 2011-12 school year, Lower Lake Elementary teachers Jeannine Fanning and Sharon Vizena coached a group of 14 students, who went on to become the first Lake County participants in the Sonoma County Robotics Challenge, hosted by the Sonoma County Office of Education.
The team met on Fridays after school to develop an understanding of the Lego Mindstorm kits while refining their designing, building and programming skills.
The effort will continue in the 2012-13 school year with a team at Lower Lake Elementary and another at Burns Valley schools with plans for further expansion in the near future.
For more information about the mobile lab or the Lego Robotic competitions, contact Barbara McIntyre at 707-972-1905 or
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- Written by: Editor
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Burns Valley Elementary has released its Principal’s List and Honor Roll for the first trimester of the 2012-2013 school year.
The school congratulated the fourth through eighth grade students who were honored at an assembly for their achievements on Friday, Nov. 30 They also were treated to an afternoon movie and popcorn party.
Principal’s List (4.5-5.0 GPA): Jaqueline Galvan, Willie Alderson, Mary Nguyen, Jared Meek, Jenny Landeta, Lyzet Montanez, Edsel Robles, Dominic Sabala and Dennys Vaquero.
Honor Roll (4.0-4.49 GPA): Nikolas Dickson, Rebecca Chavez, Estefania Chavez, Hailey Trejo, Zoe Sanders, Alexander Landeta, Kyle Richardson, Destynee Mittelstedt, Jade Berrard, JJ Cushman, Sydney Pells, Devan Dawson, Eric Espinoza, Lilliana Garcia, Nellie Ramsey, April Fernandez, Alexandria Fielden, Priscilla Ramirez, Samantha Strowbridge, Amy Sweeden, Xavante Wonderwheel, Kasey DeWalt, Emmet Blunt, Raudel Castaneda, Carlos Avelar, David Bejar, DeAnna Lambert, Lenny Landeta, Brian Hernandez, Nistha Waland, Daniel Seawater, Corbin Penny and Ashley Fields.
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- Written by: Jesse Harrell
This week at Carlé we’d like to begin by thanking DJ’s Pizza Place.
Over the past many years DJ’s has been a huge supporter of Carlé High School in several ways. One of the ways DJ’s has been so supportive is with our Student of the Week awards that we hand out.
Every single Student of the Week receives a certificate for a free personal pizza from this generous local business. DJ’s has been very gracious to us so we’d like to let them know how thankful we all are.
Carlé student and head designer Nura Brown is currently working on a special “thank you” plaque for DJ’s Pizza Place. We hope to get them to come on to Carlé’s morning bulletin so that we may present them with their plaque and thank them in person.
Last week at Carlé the students who achieved Gold Level from the last grading period were treated to a fun-filled trip to Scandia.
The trip itself went very well, “The students were very well-behaved and very respectful,” said teacher Dan Maes who accompanied the students as chaperon.
While at Scandia the students participated in all sorts of fun activities like go-karts, arcade games and even ate some really good food.
“We generally just had a good time,” said Maes.
Carlé is always glad to see our students not only have a fun time, but also when our students show just how great the kids here at Carlé are.
Maes would like to thank the students for being such a well-behaved bunch and for making the trip such a fun one.
Carlé hands out what we call “Sustainability Awards” for the students who maintain Gold or Silver level more than once through our six grad periods. The more times you hold or better your letter the more and better prizes are awarded.
These awards vary and come from the media room in the form of different designs for different prizes. The more times you make a level you can actually save up to get a much better prize!
Also student council is planning some very fun things for the holidays, including decorating the school and gift exchanges. Stay tuned for more information…
Lastly, we'd like to congratulate Carlé High School’s FIRST official graduate this year, Mr. Trevor Wilson. We’re all really proud of you and VERY happy for you. All of us look forward to watching you excel in life. Continue to be a fine example for us all Trevor.
Jesse Harrell is student at Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.