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Check out SPACE Staff’s Winter Reflections featuring:
Alli Foronda, Peer Advisor, 1st year in SPACE
How did you become involved in SPACE?
When I first heard about SPACE I had no real intention in getting involved because I thought it was just an after school tutoring program (but it’s soo not!). However after a few sessions with my SPEAR counselor he suggested that it would be a good fit for me. During my first year at UCLA one of the things I missed most was smaller sense of community I had back in San Francisco where everything was easily accessible. Los Angeles encompasses such a big area and one of my goals during college was to be able to go out & actually explore places that I couldn’t experience anywhere else.
What skills have you gained being in SPACE?
Not to be vague but through SPACE I’ve learned to step outside of my comfort zone. There are many skills that I’ve picked up that I never even considered to be skills before until college. Creating events, facilitating, being time-conscious, having realistic goals, knowing your resources, being more critical, and accountability are all things that I’ve learned especially when dealing with big groups of people. If anything it’s not necessarily the skills that I think are the most important things that I have gained from being on SPACE but in the way I think. My perspective on many things has changed and I definitely have a better sense on how everything can be all related.
How does SPACE connect with your long term goals/career?
At first I really struggled with how SPACE fit into my future plans. It wasn’t until I really started to personalize what I was learning and doing did I realize that even after I leave SPACE how much I really wanted to be more involved in the community (whether it was in LA or SF). As a staff member and a student sometimes I feel privileged to be learning about community conditions because most people never really think about it or they think that it’s something that can’t be changed. I may not have a related major but for now I know that I want to keep the same critical discussions going on in other spaces.
Welcome to Meet a SPACE Staff Member! Today featuring Adrian Bacong!
Samahang Pilipino Presents: HOOP-A-THON
Play some ball & raise money to make scholarships for our SPACE Students.
Another year of unforgettable moments with SPACE.
Winter Field Trip
Spring Conference
End of the [School] Year Banquet
SPACE Staff 2010-2011 & 2011-2012
Transition of Admin
New Staff!
Summer 2011
Family Day
Summer Training
Summer Retreat
Fall 2011
Mid-Year Hiring
Fall Field Trip
SPACE Internship: Fall 2011
SPACE Chrisgiving
SPACE Staff wishes you all a very happy new year!
See you soon!
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We are hiring for SPACE Internship FALL 2011 & for hiring for yearlong volunteers!
Internship consists of weekly internship meetings where we will discuss various topics regarding access. You can attend each of our 3 sites: Belmont High School, Marshall High School, and El Camino Community College. You can kick it with SPACE staff, we’re pretty cool people. And more than anything, I promise you it’ll be a …great learning experience.
Due date is Friday of 2nd week at 5pm.
On-Call Volunteering is a yearlong volunteer position. You will be expected to attend site each quarter and also help us out in our quarterly conferences and field trips. It’s a great way to get involved community service and you will enjoy it meeting our students and staff.
Both positions are open, we are taking in as many applications as possible.
If you have ANY QUESTIONS at all contact Joshua Alegado, Kim Sazon, or any SPACE staff member. Message us, twitter us (@joshyyAYY & @kimsteez), ask for our digits.
Internship Application: CLICK HERE
Volunteer Application: CLICK HERE
Family Day is Tomorrow!!
Introduce your family to your SPACE family!
It’s a potluck! Bring food, or just eat our food and join the fun!
Come learn how SPACE can support you and your family this next year!
We’re excited to see you all there! :)
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Full Name: Annalou Lingat
Year at UCLA: 2nd year
Major: Psychobiology
SPACE Site: Belmont High School
Position in SPACE: 1st year Peer Tutor
The moment I always think of when I look back at how I became involved in SPACE is when I volunteered for PREP’s (Pilipino Recruitment and Enrichment Program’s) DIAL (“Day in a Life” of a College Student) conference. The PREP leaders assigned me to help facilitate a workshop about the different California college systems with a SPACE staff member. I really enjoyed talking to high school students about college and topics revelant to them. My experience at DIAL and the push of a SPACE staff member persuaded me to join SPACE staff support (last year’s SPACE internship). That’s how I got hooked.
I really enjoyed the fact that I started to get involved with the community and helping others. Every time I went to site, I loved talking with high school students about their interests, school life, and life in general. These were topics that I definitely connected to because I was a high school student, myself not too long ago. But what makes SPACE different from any other peer tutoring and peer advising program is how it challenged me to think beyond what I knew before and question why things are the way they are.
To say it simply, I love the topics that we discuss during staff meetings, at site, with our students, and with each other. SPACE provides a space in which to explore more critically who you are as a person and how you connect with the world and community.
And even now as a current SPACE staff member, I still feel like my mind is expanding. I truly appreciate the countless conversations that I have had with SPACE staff members and students that have added to my own growth as a person. SPACE has helped me become more open-minded about issues and the community.
I volunteer for SPACE because I truly believe in the potential of all students and love to learn and listen about their own personal experiences and beliefs. As a high school peer tutor, I strive to be a form of personal support to everyone in my community. We don’t just push students to do their homework or score high on their SATs. We do more than that. As SPACE staff, we work towards learning about our students’ interests and they can connect their interests to school and the community.
Full Name: Anthony Allen Cubos Arce
Year at UCLA: 2nd year
Major: Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics (MIMG)
SPACE Site: El Camino College
Position in SPACE: 1st year Peer Advisor
SPACE didn’t pop for me when I was first introduced to the project. I was impressed by the work SPACE staff did, but I knew that this level of structure required a lot of time, effort, and care. Being a microbiology major on the pre-med path, I already had a full schedule. Additionally, I was primarily interested in other organizations that would help me on my way to medicine. However, through observing myself in class, interviews, and presentations and the talks with my mentor and my counselor, I found that I needed to work on my communication and interpersonal skills as well as my confidence. I was coming to this realization during spring quarter, which was around the time that SPACE Staff Support (now SPACE Internship) applications were going around. My mentor suggested this to me as possible avenue for building those desired skills. I decided to go for it because it’d only be a quarter commitment. Why not, right? Then, that first day of site came. It was so daunting: I had to outreach to students passing by, help make a class presentation, and engage students at site. At the end of that day, I was all tense and fatigued. However, with that, I was also pumped to take on the challenges and step out of my comfort zone. The more days I went to site, the more my approach and skills improved and the more I enjoyed site. The more all of this happened, the faster time flew.
SPACE site was cool. SPACE site was awesome. As my days in staff support dwindled down, I started to think further, deeper and value what SPACE brings to the different sites. When I talked to the students, I hear their stories and the struggles they have faced and will face because of who they are and where they’re coming from. Through the different staff support readings, I have also gained critical thinking skills and a different perception of the world. Sure, I have found countless connections of my future goals to what SPACE does: the access of medicine and the access to education, the control and thus power over certain knowledge and resources, etc. However, more importantly, I realize that these issues are all around us and affect us no matter what field we may choose to pursue. Being aware and knowledgeable, utilizing critical thinking skills, and taking action are prevalent, vital assets. And despite having learning so much about myself and the world around me from staff support, there was so much more to learn.
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***UPDATE! Applications are now due on April 22nd!
Yup, this is a sign for you all to check out SPACE/SPEAR and get involved with your community!
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