Jacky Lu '11 featured on CBS5!

3rd Annual Socially SMART Fundraiser

Volunteer Advisory Board and SMART Staff hosted our 3rd annual Socially SMART fundraiser on Wednesday Feb 23rd where we raised a record breaking $2970 in one evening!!! This event focuses on cultivating our volunteer community and their friends, and we're so grateful for everyone who brought energized and excited people wanting to support SMART and our scholars.

We would like to give a very special thanks to Ashley Barber and Sarah Linderman, two stellar volunteers who are not only dedicated tutor and mentor for Rocio (6th grade, Live Oak School) and Melissa (6th grade, San Francisco School) respectively, took extra time out of their busy schedules to help make this event a HUGE success. We'd also like to thank Dine for Change and Azul Lounge for hosting us as well as SMART Board, staff, volunteers, and local vendors for donating some amazing prizes for our raffle.

If you were unable to make it this year, we hope to see you at this exciting event next year!

SMART featured on 7Live

On Monday, SMART was featured on 7Live on ABC7, moderated by Brian Copeland. High school students Stacy, Nina, Cindy, Arlinda, Dina and Lily participated as audience members, and although they were not called - had great and insightful things to share with us about the topics of the day. Check out the full episode here:

We were also given a tour of the studio after the taping and took some fun photos in the process.

Vivian sent us a letter from Nicaragua!

Working at SMART

It's Nikki!!! I've been working at SMART since summer started, and it has been a great experience. It has been such a busy summer for me, and I love it. I like having things to do and being busy. Being at SMART this summer is the first thing on my Resume, as this is my first "Work Experience" item. Woo hoo!
So let's start from the beginning of working with SMART:
SMART started using this new database system so they can store EVERYONE's information. (I say everyone in all caps because I literally mean I've been putting in hundred's of people's info.) So I have been - and still am - putting in info from very new students, to the oldest of the bunch and all the people that work behind the scenes to make SMART possible. We have gone through trial-and-error to make the database a lot simpler and more convenient for SMART staff. (This was a great idea by the way. =))
So, once I finished the first batch of people to import in the database, I had to leave SMART for a Computer Science Program, but I came back a week later. I must admit I loved working here, I even came to work the day after 4th of July...when no one was here... how funny is that? I had my mom wake up super early and bring me over here only to go back home. It was a good day though, I had Noah's Bagels and Jamba Juice for breakfast =P.
When I got back to SMART, Paul, Erin and I started planning for the new summer program that we were going to have. It was the 1st summer that SMART had for the incoming 5th graders. It was quite and experience!
While we were teaching these amazing kids about fractions, recipes and "showing-not-telling," we were also in the process of interviewing and choosing someone to be the new Director of Academic Excellence. -Fancy huh? Yeah, well SMART decided to change things up a bit..They changed everyone's position title and started making new logos. Woah.- Anyways, back to the chaos: We had 16 new kids, "Rising 5th graders" (Yes, everyone has titles. I'm "The Best Intern in the World EVER" =). Or you could just call me "Intern" like Nonoko likes to =P) Now, again, back to the kids. 16 kids were getting to know this new environment, were making friends, learning a whole lot of stuff, reading books and stories, writing their own recipes and going on field trips. They had 3 weeks, from 9-12, to enjoy SMART. Each personality came out so beautifully and it was amazing to see how someone can be so tiny and have a great brain with space to expand. The kids learned how to be and act in a community and learned what it meant to be in SMART. Even though the summer program only ran for 3 weeks, there was tremendous growth in the children and it was great to see how much little kids absorb and how quick they adapt. Unfortunately, I had to leave the program a week early to write one of my college essays and missed out on their cool field trip.
See, every Friday, Paul and Erin took the little munchkins out on field trips. The first Friday, we went to the MOAD, The Museum of the African Diaspora. The kids learned a lot of historical things from this place, but it just wasn't the right setting for them as they need to run around a bit. It was OK though, we learned what was suitable and what wasn't. The next Friday, we took the children out bowling at Yerba Buena and they had a blast! Even I did! It was a great time to relax from all the work that they had been doing and they got to be with their friends. We also ate lunch in the park after which was really nice because it was like if everyone took their eating time seriously, yet calmly. Now, the one I really wanted to go to, but couldn't, was Zynga. Yes, Zynga, as in the big company that makes those cool games for Facebook. So I missed out on that one, but I heard it went well. The kids went to Zynga's kitchen since it related to their recipe topics in math class and spent their last day in a good way.
I came back after the last week, and the All SMART Picnic - which I also missed =( - and started data basing again. Yes, more people. Yipee! This time I had to connect a whole bunch of people, and it shows how if everyone was to grab someone they know, everyone in the world would have someone to hold on to and we'd all be connected. (It's like when you're bored on facebook and look at a friend and see you have "60 Mutual Friends" and you're like "Woah! How do you know that person????") Something like that. So, I data based some more, - and I still am - watered the dead plants that have been with us forever, hunted people down for their grades, made fake Polaroid pictures for the students, filed things in the bazillion folders here at SMART and sat in staff meetings.
Overall, it has been a great experience to work at SMART, alongside Nonoko, Paul, Erin and the new member of the team, Ben! We have all had good laughs, random conversations, delicious food, and great ideas. Working here has really helped me build my work experience on and off the resume. I have also found two people to write my letters of recommendations for college! Woo! I have a big year ahead of me, and I definitely will not be leaving SMART. That reminds me, we have had Alumni Advisory Board meetings that have run so smoothly and I am a member now! =) We have a community service project coming up later this month and a reunion in the winter as well as a fund raising event next year.
Smart has so much ahead of them, and so do I. I can never thank SMART and all the people here enough. They have helped me out so much, as well as all my peers and I hope I have helped them quite a bit. I also hope all the other SMART alumni come back to SMART to help out and see how things have changed, yet stayed the same. This has been a great summer and I am truly grateful for it.
Did you also know that SMART is a 8-12 program? Yea, so those who haven't graduated high school yet need to come back and rejoin this incredible community. (And of course the ACTUAL alumni =P)
-Nikki A.

P.S. You should really check out our cool t-shirts!! =] "http://www.thesmartprogram.org/tshirt.html"

A Typical Day at SMART...

The first thing we do is get picked up from school, and then...we enter, SMART. We set down our bags and get ready for snack time. After or before snack time we have free time, and get a choice of using the computers, playing Foosball, or hanging out with a friend and playing games. After free time, it is group activity, which is when we get together and talk about different topics and we usually write down some of our ideas. Sometimes, we even play games, or separate into two groups of opposite genders, with Erin and Paul. After group activity, it's homework time, and we divide into two people per table, or people go into the computer lab. We then go into closing circle, answer a question or two, and go home. We admit that we do dread coming to SMART sometimes, but we do like seeing our friends again and getting help on our homework.

~The Sticky Note girls... :)
(Magaly & Mayra)

"The last melon..."

Have you ever seen Ice Age? The part where Sid, Manny and the tiger are trying to steal the last melon from the dodo birds for the baby? Well, if you haven't seen Ice Age, you should! It's a great kids movie. Well, for some reason, as soon as I got to the page to make my blog post, "the last melon..." popped in my head as a title.

This is my last day here at SMART, as an intern because by the end of this day, I will have all 70 hours needed, complete. It has been a pleasure working here, and helping out with all that I can. It feels like I have been here forever! (Not in a bad way.) This whole thing has been a great experience. I got to see people I haven't seen in 3 years, and I've gotten to meet new people. Some people I will not forget about are: Magaly, Lisa, Lexus, and Jaela. They are extremely welcoming, nice and fun to talk to. I knew Lexus since she was younger but I didn't realize until someone said her name. I saw many familiar faces during my time here. I met the new staff, and I got beat by Leon in Fooseball! I worked with Yvonne (who also goes to my high school), I saw Joanna (who I see every week at College Track) and I saw Nonoko. The first one I EVER met, related to SMART.

So this whole time I've been here, I've been doing numerous things: I started with filing papers, stuffing envelopes,copying and organizing folders- basic office work stuff. Then, I got into making marketing packets, making common application questions, to make it easier on those applying to many private schools, uploading all of SMART's pictures on Picasa...(which you should definetly check out! http://picasaweb.google.com/thesmartprogram). I also made yearbook templates for all the grades, and interviewed Paul! I called schools, parents, made a map of schools for next years bus plans, and I also did my biggest project of all....

I MADE AN ACTIVITY FOR THE KIDS!

My activity was on the topic of subjectivity. The kids got to dig into their past and bring up events, people or experiences that they've had and connect them to personality traits, and characteristics that they have now. They got to get creative and decorate a human body to express themselves creatively, and then they got to share out in the circle to the rest of the SMART students, what they did.

Working here at SMART has been really laid back and made me realize that I actually enjoy being in a quiet work space and enviroment. I thought I wanted to be in a place that was always busy and hectic, but I noticed that being in a small, quiet space, makes things less stressful. You are on your own a lot of the time and it helps you relax and work at the same time. This has definetly broadened my options for my official workplace.

I'm going to miss hearing Magaly as soon as she comes into SMART. I'm also going to miss talking to Rigo about The Secret Life of the American Teenager. It's going to be different now, because I am sooooo used to coming into SMART, which seems like everyday, and having the kids make all the excitement. It was fun playing about 100 rounds of fooseball with Leon, and only winning about 21 of them. Just not being here in general is going to seem different to me.

I'm thinking that I should come back and visit a lot more. In fact, I want to be apart of this AAB thing? I will talk to Paul about it to find out more. I want to be more involved with SMART than I have been these past 3 years. I miss SMART, and now that I am leaving again, I'm going to miss it even more since I got to revive a lot of the old memories.

This is my last blog post as an intern...Hopefully it's not my last though.