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Around The Glen
WG community college graduate wins a scholarship to UCSC
A former Willow Glen High School student, John Clarke, was recently awarded a $20,000 scholarship to the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Clark, 22, is the recipient of UCSC's Karl S. Pister Leadership Opportunity Program Award, a scholarship for community college transfer students who have shown a commitment to helping others and have overcome difficult socio-economic conditions.
"In the past, school was not a positive learning or social experience for me, and I did not graduate from high school," he says.
Clark went as far as 11th grade in Willow Glen's independent studies program before entering the work force. Then, a friend convinced him to go to DeAnza College. He graduated cum laude in liberal arts from DeAnza and plans to study music at UCSC. Clarke says his future education goals include a masters degree in music, a Ph.D. in sociology and a teaching credential.
--Jessica Lyons
Criminal justice professor seeks mock-jury volunteers
San Jose State professor Mona Lynch, who teaches criminal justice classes, is conducting an experiment to determine how juries come to make decisions on criminal trials.
"The problem with juries is you can't really see what goes on. Generally speaking it's completely closed," Lynch said. "By doing these mock juries, we can view the deliberations and see how people come to make decisions, and what evidence they hold to be most important."
Lynch is seeking jury eligible adults throughout Santa Clara County to volunteer for the study.
Participants will be shown a two-hour taped murder trial, and then asked to deliberate until the group reaches a verdict. Lynch refused to reveal more specifics about her study.
"I can't tell you too much because if you tell people what you're looking for, people will often respond in ways that match what you're looking for," Lynch said.
For volunteers who opt to participate, the entire events takes less than four hours and participants will be compensated with $40.
Interested parties should phone Mona Lynch at 866-4425
-- Cecily Barnes
Immersion class numero uno heads for junior high school
River Glen School's 41 eighth graders graduated on June 9--the first class to graduate from the bilingual immersion program.
In an emotional ceremony, students and parents reflected on their past nine years together and looked to the future.
Keynote speaker Rosa Molina, the former River Glen principal and current bilingual director for San Jose Unified School District, encouraged the students to continue their language education.
"She told them to continue their language learning," said Alicia Cortez, a River Glen parent and the evening's coordinator. "Don't let it stop at eighth grade. It's very important for them to continue at the high school level and the college level."
The promotion ceremony--which included dinner, a salsa dance performed by the eighth graders and a slide show with pictures spanning the students' entire time at River Glen--left few dry eyes in the room, Cortez said.
"It's a very unique and personal type of program," she says. "Most of the children in the eighth grade class have been together since kindergarten. They have established not only a friendship but a family relationship, and it will be difficult for the kids to have to split up."
Because River Glen is a magnet school and is not bound by school district lines, graduating eighth graders will attend several different high schools in the fall, including Lincoln, Willow Glen and Bellarmine.
--Jessica Lyons
Official tag graffiti in new campaign
The City of San Jose, in conjunction with the Santa Clara County Cities Association, is participating in a countywide anti-graffiti program dubbed "Tag You Lose." All participating cities have agreed to hang newly designed posters throughout their communities, in high traffic teen hang-outs such as schools, libraries, buses and movie theaters. The posters remind kids about a state law, whereby juveniles who tag can lose their drivers' licenses. The poster reads, "Tag You Lose--Do Graffiti--Lose Your License, Lose Your Weekend, Lose Your Money--It's the Law."
Anti-graffiti proponents hope that teens will see these posters and actually consider the potential consequences of tagging. Juveniles can lose their drivers' licenses, be required to perform community service work and have to pay money for damages.
"A driver's license is very important to teenagers--it's seen as freedom," says Michelle McGurk, chief aid for Willow Glen's councilman Frank Fiscalini. "It's probably one of the most dramatic things you can take away from a teenager."
--Cecily Barnes
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
