Kicking it off!

Last week kicked off the official beginning of the Dream Project '08-'09 school year. Last Monday I met fifty sixth graders at Nimitz Middle School in East Los Angeles with Miss Demowa and Ms. Zembrano's combined classes.

WOW! I was so impressed with the enthusiasm, participation, and level of awareness of these 6th graders! I asked the students, "Who knows what the United Nations is?" Half the hands in the room shot right up in the air. I called on one enthusiastic boy seated in the back row who answered, "The United Nations is where representatives from every country around the world meet to work out their differences and come up with solutions to make the world better."

I was flabbergasted...who are these kids? Were they prepped before I walked in? They couldn't have been...this was their first day of school!

We are doing something new this year that I've been looking forward to since we began...and that is bringing in mentors...students that previously went through the program to support the kids that are just getting started. Eigth graders, Karla, Mayra, Jacob, and Michael showed up to dazzle the 6th graders with their leadership skills. I couldn't have been more proud.

Then on the following day, we ventured over to Van Nuys to initiate day one of the Dream Project with Crossroads High School. There are definitely some bright stars in that group. There was a young man named Money (a nickname I'm sure) who shook my hand at the end of class and volunteered to be the point person for the class. He said that he has been DJ since the age of seven and will put a music track together so the Crossroads students can create a Millennium Development Goal rap song.

Thank you Rudy for being our fearless camera man, and thank you Amanda for being my wonderful assistant! (p.s. Amanda is going to West Africa through the Peace Corps in June and will be taking the Dream Project with her...she is an angel!)

I feel truly blessed to have such great support behind the scenes from our LA and Santa Fe based team--Dana and Steve!

Needless to say, I am very excited about what will take place this year...stay tuned!

Kelly