Community Impact: Insuring Equity in Education
Insuring equity in education is critical and organizations like SEF help by bringing additional resources to our public school students.
1. Why do you support SEF?
Former SEF President
City of SG HEAR Commission Chairperson
I support SEF because I value access to quality public education. SEF provides programs that positively impact students at each of the SGUSD schools, from elementary to high school. The board members and Executive Director work hard to identify ways to collaborate with and strengthen the school sites. Some of the district’s most successful and popular school programs have benefited from SEF’s support. The Visual and Performing Arts programs throughout the district, the Speech and Debate teams at Gabrielino and Jefferson and the Naviance College and Career planning resource at GHS have all been successful with the critical support of SEF.
As a commissioner on our city’s Human Equity, Access, and Relations (HEAR) commission, I support ways of increasing equity and inclusion in our city. SEF maintains after school library hours at GHS allowing students who don’t have ready access to tech resources or a safe, quiet space to complete homework, an opportunity to do so. The after school program offerings at JMS foster connections between diverse groups of students and introduces them to new interests from cooking to dance to coding to medicine. SEF’s strong partnership with the Kids Need To Read Foundation has provided access to 1000’s of books for students on every campus and their most recent grant from the Tournament of Roses Foundation will be used to purchase musical instruments, ensuring greater access to participation in the district’s music programs.
Finally, I support SEF because they have particularly invested in Del Mar High School with funding for field trips and other activities. Insuring equity in education is critical and organizations like SEF help by bringing additional resources to our public school students.
2. In your opinion, what is the One Thing that SEF does that enriches students’ lives?
The “One Thing” that SEF does that enriches students’ lives is to provide opportunities to engage in new experiences. From the ACE (Architecture-Construction-Engineering) program and visiting author assemblies at GHS to the incredible variety of after school offerings at JMS to the assemblies and book distributions at the elementary schools, SEF has facilitated experiences to broaden the perspectives of our students beyond what might be available to them in their home or neighborhood. To learn is to gain knowledge by study, instruction or experience. SEF’s dedication to providing new experiences for our students truly supports learning and education.
