Goal Models Put Future Into Focus

Ninth-graders from James Monroe High School in North Hills have been daydreaming about their futures lately.

Their heads have been filled with positive messages this spring by professionals from banks, insurance companies and movie studios, to name a few, as part of Goal Models--a program coordinated by Bridge Focus, a nonprofit Van Nuys organization that has worked with troubled youths and their families since 1970.

“We are just trying to get these kids to start thinking that their life is a choice,” said Irene Brennick, founder and director of Bridge Focus.

Each week, three speakers tell the students inspirational stories about how they overcame adversity. The goal is to get them to stay away from gangs, drugs and violence by seeing that school can pay off.

“I love these kids,” said Jeremy Newman, a personal trainer who survived a skydiving accident three years ago. “I see a lot of myself in them.”

Newman, now paralyzed, was a troubled student who was kicked out of New York City schools for fighting. His accident gave him a new perspective on his life, he said.

Newman is a strength and conditioning coach, working from his wheelchair at a Sherman Oaks gym.

“Really good things can sometimes come out of really bad things,” he said.

Bobby Buchanan, a computer programmer analyst with executive search firm Korn Ferry International, recently gave students this message: Find one thing you love, immerse yourself in it and have confidence.

“Make it happen for yourself,” he said. “You can achieve any goal. The only person that can stop you is you.”

In 1984, when Buchanan graduated from college, most of the world was using typewriters. He landed his first job in the then-new field of computer programming with a starting salary of $22,000. Now, he said, college graduates can start at double that and go all the way to six figures.

“The Internet is hot, hot, hot,” he said. “You guys can write your own ticket.”

So far, the students are responding positively.

“This program opens the students eyes to things that they didn’t know existed,” said Monroe Principal Gregory Vallone. “That they didn’t know existed. Once you’ve given a ninth-grader a goal, that’s half the battle in education.”

Professionals from companies such as KCBS, City National Bank, DreamWorks SKG and Universal Studios, along with the U.S. Air Force and the Los Angeles Police Department have participated.

“They come in and talk about what the real world is like,” said Roxy Preciado, 15, who wants to be an actress. “They keep telling us we can do anything.”

The Goal Models program is offered only through the education and career-planning class at Monroe High, but Brennick said it could expand to other Valley schools with additional funding.

Without the program, she fears some students might get lost.

“They’ve never heard this message,” she said. “If they don’t believe in themselves, how can we expect them to graduate high school?”

For information on becoming a volunteer speaker for Goal Models, contact Bridge Focus at (818) 895-5132, Ext. 21.

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KUDOS

Textbook Writers: Honor students at Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks have written and illustrated two textbooks for an honors science class.

It took the entire school year for the seventh-graders to research, plan and write a total of about 700 pages for “The Biological Sciences” and “Anatomy and Physiology.”

“I hope to be able to use the books,” said science teacher Carlos Lauchu. “Maybe seventh-graders would respond to these books better. After all, they were written in their own language.”

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PROGRAM NOTES

Building Schools: Monroe High School students raised $2,600 last semester to pay for construction of a four-room schoolhouse in Nicaragua by Free the Children, an organization that builds low-cost schools in underdeveloped countries.

The students exceeded the $2,100 needed to build the basic cinder-block building, which will be used by children during the day and adults in the evening. The students raised the money through bake sales, talent shows, candy sales and jog-a-thons.

The building will be named after Denny Sim, a Monroe High student who died last year from progeria, a rare incurable disease that accelerates aging.

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