After-School Program at Month-Long Festival of Children

The 8th Annual Festival of Children™ is about to begin! 80 Children’s Charities including THINK Together after-school programs will be represented at South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA) during the month of September. Attendance at the Festival grows year over year.

The Festival of Children™ will once again be a fun place for families to spend quality time together while also seeing some terrific entertainment. During the month-long festival, over 100 events are booked on two main stages and throughout South Coast Plaza, with arts & crafts and face painting all month as well.

Here's a link to a schedule-flyer for you to share with family, friends and colleagues as well as kids and their families.

Throughout the month of September, THINK Together staff and volunteers will be present at our booth (during peak traffic time) on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon - 4:00 pm. Be sure to stop by our booth when you visit the Festival.

If you are interested in representing THINK Together at our information table (for a couple hours) on any weekend day during September, please contact Tom Linnert! This is a great way to showcase the good work we do and the students we serve!

Summer Learning was a Global Celebration

THINK Together Site Coordinator Diana Chea documented the five week 2009 summer learning program at John Muir Fundamental Elementary School in Santa Ana, CA, with photos in this Flickr slide show.

Students, staff and families celebrate the culmination of the summer learning program with a Global Festival highlighting all they had learned during the program and featuring dance, entertainment, costumes and food from various continents across the globe.

click arrow below to review slide show here

See more photos of THINK Together's programs on Flickr ... See more photos specifically from THINK Together's various 2009 Summer Learning Programs.

In his own words ... Character, Trust, Respect

AJ
Victoria Elementary

“My name is AJ and I am in the second grade. I have learned to be very responsible, safe and respectful. I have also learned to control my anger. I have even learned not to listen to others when they tell me to do bad things. THINK Together has helped me in a lot of ways.

I have been in THINK Together since the first grade. I was the only first grader in the THINK program last year because the Vice Principal put me in there. I was really bad and I could not control my anger. I was hitting people and I even stole a phone. My Program Leader helped me to fix this stuff.

We do a lot of character education. We learned how to control our anger, like counting to ten. We learned how to have people trust you. My mom and dad always come home late and I like coming to THINK Together because there is always someone here.”

After-School on Flickr

This slide show documents after-school activity at the THINK Together program held each school day afternoon on the campus of Rancho Santa Gertrudes Elementary School (Los Nietos School District) in Santa Fe Springs, CA.

THINK Together Site Coordinator Vetta Samarin photographed these 2008-09 school year activities.

click arrow below to view slide show here

See other photo sets documenting THINK Together's after-school and summer learning programs on Flickr.

At THINK Together's program students get support with homework, have extended academic learning opportunities, take part in physical activities & nutrition education, and a experience a variety of enrichment projects.

Students in THINK Together's programs generally show improvement twice that of peers on their California Standards Test scores (CST) than local peers. Where THINK Together's after-school programs are aligned as part of an eco-system surrounding school-day learning, students on average show improvement almost four times greater.

"Promise Neighbrhoods" in less than 2 minutes

Patrick Lester a blogger (Building Neighborhoods) and Senior Vice President for Public Policy at the Alliance for Children & Families and United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) explains President Obama's Promise Neighborhoods initiative in less than 2 minutes.

click arrow below to play here

Alliance, UNCA take lead on groundbreaking Obama urban initiative

THINK Together and LinkedIn ... don't be the last to join the club?

THINK Together maintains an enterprise profile on LinkedIn (click graphic right), the professsionals' Facebook. Nearly 60 current THINKers and scores of THINKer alums are already connected via LinkedIn.

There's even a THINK Together group you can join after you create a profile on LinkedIn where you'll find recent news about THINK Together, be able to chat among each other and have access to other related resources.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is Facebook for professionals. Many people who chose not to maintain a Facebook presence do develop a professional profile on LinkedIn.

Basic profiles are "free" to establish.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 40 million members and growing rapidly. LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. It allows you to post articles and other reference links; keeps your contact list current; and like Twitter or Facebook, it allows you to create 140 character status updates for your contacts to see.

Job openings and volunteer opportunities at THINK Together frequently pop-up as part of our LinkedIn profile and feeds.

Click on the graphic above right or this link to visit THINK Together's LinkedIn Profile.

Jobs @ THINK Together
Volunteer @ THINK Together

Did you know ... Calif kids spend just 10% of their year in a classroom

That's why early literacy, after-school and summer learning programs become more and more essential in helping kids realize their full potential ... and equiping them to compete and contribute in an increasingly global economy.

UCI Shines Spotlight on THINK Together CEO

Randy Barth, THINK Together's Founder and CEO is in the spotlight. Barth, who was recently invited to join the Leadership Council for the University of California, Irvine's (UC Irvine) Department of Education, is profiled this month on the school's website.

From the profile:

"The Achievement Gap is the Civil Rights Issue of Today."

Randy Barth brings to the DoE Leadership Council a background rich in experience and accomplishment and an intense dedication to make the world a better place. Especially for the past eleven years he has focused his skills and expertise on improving environments and opportunities for children. From his involvement with the Shalimar Learning and Teen Center in a gang-infested neighborhood of Costa Mesa to his current position as CEO of THINK Together, a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation providing after-school services, Mr. Barth exemplifies a standard of excellence for meaningful community engagement and strategically targeted contribution of human and material resources.

You can follow Randy Barth on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/THINK_CEO (THINK_CEO).

THINK Together launches Covey's "7 Habits" tools enterprise-wide

Today, THINK Together launches the first in a serious of "7 Habits" training seminars that will take place throughtout the new school-year for THINKers enterprise-wide. The goal is to share the "7 Habits" tools with THINKers during the 2009-10 school year and then roll it out to students and families in the subsequent years.

Hear how Stephen Covey's "7 Habits" impacted THINK Together Founder & CEO Randy Barth in this video clip:

click arrow below to play video here

Meet Shea Savaso, Bank of America Student Leader

SPOTLIGHT
THINK Together 2009 Summer Interns

Shea Savaso, Bank of America Student Leader: Shea will be a Senior this fall at Orange County's Lutheran High School (Orange). She is an active volunteer in a wide variety of school activities and in the community. Shea leads by example. She initiated and organized the annual food drive at her school to benefit the Orange County Rescue Mission and St. John’s Lutheran Food Pantry. Shea also participated in a renovation project with House of Hope Women’s Shelter. She is the Associated School Body Vice President. With her school leadership team she participated in “Day of Dreams” program engaging in activities with developmentally disabled adults.

• Bank of America Student Leaders support after-school program
• OC Register: Students head to weeklong leadership summit

Uniroyal and MommySavers.com publish "Back to School on a Budget"

a guide for parents

Preparing a child for a new school year may be time consuming, costly and hectic. Kim Danger, founder of MommySavers.com and mother of two, and Uniroyal Tire make the back-to-school transition smooth and cost-efficient with a new, free e-book titled "Back to School on a Budget."

This free e-book is full of advice on how to shop frugally for new school supplies, save money on extracurricular activities, and help your child avoid the back-to-school blues. You can download the e-book at http://bit.ly/zCmzn.

Press Release: Beat the Back-to-School Budget Blues

Meet Joanna Chen, Bank of America Student Leader

SPOTLIGHT
THINK Together 2009 Summer Interns

Joanna Chen, Bank of America Student Leader: Joanna is graduating from Loara High School (Anaheim) and will attend college in the fall at University of California, Berkley (Cal). She is an active volunteer in school and in the community. Joanna is the secretary of her school’s Key Club and assists in planning and organizing weekly volunteer events. She is a leader mentor, with Tiger’s Action Plan and co-facilitated mentoring sessions with the Anaheim Police Dept. for at-risk youth. Joanna also is a foreign youth ambassador with the City of Anaheim and traveled to Japan to represent Anaheim and research youth leadership initiatives. Joanna regularly volunteers at Corazon de Vida, an orphanage in Tijuana. She also volunteers as a teacher’s assistant at a local junior high school and serves as secretary for Youth Leadership America.

• Bank of America Student Leaders support after-school program
• OC Register: Students head to weeklong leadership summit

Photographer Daren Howard: Student Expedition to Aquarium of the Pacific

THINK Together Program Leader Daren Howard took these pictures of students from THINK Together's summer learning program in Santa Ana during a learning expedition to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California.

click arrow below to play slideshow here

See Original Flickr Photo Set.

Arne Duncan spent formative years in South Side Chicago after-school program

According to a report out today by Bloomberg news service, Sue Duncan says her son Arne, President Obama's U.S. Secretary of Education, spent his formative years, seven days a week, growing up in her South Side Chicago after-school program.

From Bloomberg:

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sue Duncan has taught poor kids at her after-school center on Chicago’s South Side for 48 years. She says her son Arne spent seven days a week there as he was growing up.

“It was absolutely formative,” Arne Duncan, 44, said of working with his mother. He learned that “kids from totally dysfunctional home situations, total poverty, can do extraordinarily well if we give them a chance.”

What he absorbed matters because Duncan is now U.S. education secretary, in charge of improving a public school system that ranks below those of other developed nations in some studies. He’s armed with $100 billion in stimulus money from his friend, President Barack Obama, more than twice the budget of any of his predecessors. (Original Story)

Meet Pablo Quintero, Bank of America Student Leader

SPOTLIGHT
THINK Together 2009 Summer Interns

Pablo Quintero, Bank of America Student Leader: Pablo is graduating from Savanna High School (Anaheim) and will attend college this fall at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is an active volunteer in a wide variety of school activities and is passionate about community involvement. He is president and chapter founder of Friday Night Live, a community safety and leadership club. He led events such as their Community Holiday Talent Show and Sober Prom, and initiated No Elderly Left Behind campaign. Pablo brought the club to his new school in the 11th grade and doubled the membership in his first year. He is president of his school’s National Honors Society and plans field trips and community service events. He is involved with the Associate Student Body and oversees club relations and charity events.

• Bank of America Student Leaders support after-school program
• OC Register: Students head to weeklong leadership summit