A group of high school students from Tustin Unified are celebrating three years of providing fun-filled, interactive STEAM workshops for children living at the Orange County Rescue Mission through their nonprofit organization, Kreative Kiddos.
Founded in January 2020 by Beckman High School students Nikka Shahrokni and André Lombardi, the organization has taught science, technology, engineering, arts and math lessons to children at the rescue mission in Tustin and in other areas of Orange County.
The students, who are both recent graduates, along with two members from their board spoke with a reporter from ABC 7 Los Angeles to talk about their commitment to children in the community.
“Not every school is the same. Not every school receives the same funding,” said Brandon Pham, the chief operations officer of Kreative Kiddos. “Not every teacher teaches the same, and obviously not every student learns the same. We do our best to try to level that playing field.”
With the founders starting their college careers in the fall, the torch has been passed on to the underclassmen to keep Kreative Kiddos’ mission going full steam ahead.
Here are the other stories we’ve been following this week:
- The Orange County Business Council teamed up with OCDE and other community partners to launch the 10 Education Essentials course to help families along their academic journeys.
- OCDE launched an online training resource to connect community organizations with supports to help students experiencing homelessness while increasing their understanding of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act.
- Students in the Anaheim Elementary School District as young as transitional kindergarteners will soon be learning Mandarin. The district has opened enrollment for its newest dual language immersion program for the 2023-24 school year.
- Summer learning loss can affect students of all backgrounds, but it takes a particular toll on children of low-income families. The OCDE Newsroom offers five tips to ensure young minds stay sharp during the break.
- The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Education will vote on Aug. 8 on whether it will approve a charter school that is seeking to open its second campus in Orange County.
- The city of Anaheim’s new approved budget will set aside funds to hire six new school resource officers and include a $265,000 agreement with the Anaheim Union High School District for athletic fields to be used for youth sports at three sites.
- Cal State Fullerton is partnering with the Anaheim Union High School District to prepare mathematics majors to become high school math teachers.
- The city of Fountain Valley on Saturday plans to open Moiola Park, which sits on the former site of Moiola Elementary School. The school district closed the campus in 2012.
- Leslee Milch, a longtime teacher in the Buena Park School District, wrapped her 25th consecutive summer reading program in front of an audience of about 50 students, their families and the district’s new superintendent.
- A nearly 1,000-page California Mathematics Framework, created as a guide for teachers to deliver math instruction, received a stamp of approval from the State Board of Education on Wednesday.
- A state Assembly bill that would require a two-thirds vote of a school board to remove books or other instructional materials is making its way through the California Legislature, EdSource reported.
- California’s Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s decision to ban a social studies textbook for the coming academic year, according to EdSource.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.