Three f
ifth-graders from Northlake Elementary were nominated to the Jr. National Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. All three were accepted, and all three are planning to attend sessions this summer. The students names are Stephanie Huerta, Osadolor Osawemwenze, and Gonzalo Sanchez.
Music teacher Judith Kline, who nominated the students, says, “I’ve nominated kids before, and they were accepted, but this is the first time I’ve had kids say yes, they want to go.”
Attendees are required to pay tuition that costs more than $2,000, and they must also pay for their own transportation to Washington D.C. Northlake’s ESL teacher Elizabeth Cerda helped the students apply successfully for financial assistance through the Jr. NYLC program, which will help pay approximately one third of their tuition. At this writing they still need to raise a substantial amount of money.
“The idea is really for the kids to do their own fund-raising,” Kline says. But the whole school has been involved with creative fundraisers such as “crazy hair day” (pay a dollar for the thrill of wearing crazy hair to school) and penny wars, a game of strategy that gets the grade levels competing against each other.
Community businesses have stepped up to help as well. Both Starbucks and White Rock Coffee put together baskets of goodies for auction.
Is the wet weather doing a job on your car? Sunny weather is forecast for Saturday, April 6, so why not swing by Sonic (at Royal and Audelia) where the Northlake kids will be washing cars from 12:00 -3:00. All donations will go toward the Jr. NYLC fund-raising goal. You need to get the car washed anyway, right?
The students plan to fly together, as unaccompanied minors, to their conference sessions in June.
(I conducted a quick e-mail survey of LH principals and found that Lake Highlands Elementary has nominated students to Jr. NYLC but not heard back on acceptance yet. Stults Road’s principal informed me one student was accepted and plans to attend. Other principals informed me they have no students attending; and a few principals were too busy to write back before this blog.)
