Sunday Jump

SUNDAY JUMP is a nonprofit organization and community open mic series in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles. Every first Sunday, we provide a safe space for artists to share their poetry, music, and more.

OBJECTIVE: NEWSLETTERS FOR EVENT PROMOTION + RECAPS

As Digital Marketing Coordinator, I work directly with the organization’s Co-Directors and Social Media Coordinator to develop strategies to promote events and fundraise. I manage a mailing list of about 400+ members to send out 2-3 newsletters a month regarding events and event recaps.

This year, the organization was invited by KPCC’s Unheard L.A. to facilitate a Special Edition of our open mic in their space. I was tasked with promoting the event weeks prior and our goal was to get at least 100 RSVPS.

strategy

To create promotional flyers for the event and for each featured artists. After sharing these flyers on our social media, the featured artists could also share the event flyer and individual posts to promote the event.

results

We were able to get 100+ RSVPS to the open mic event in Pasadena, which is more than our regular attendance at our home base (40-50 guests.)

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Empowering Youth: How a Non-profit Organization Teaches Environmental Justice in its Own Community

Although Diego Ortiz wasn’t raised in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, he found interest in community organizing after experiencing similar environmental issues while growing up in Los Angeles.

Ortiz, the youth coordinator at the non-profit organization Pacoima Beautiful, helps run programs intended to educate youth on the environmental issues in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. The non-profit also provides leadership and academic development for youth from grades 6 to 12.

“When I do the work here with youth, it’s very relatable. I can see myself in their shoes,” Ortiz said.

Pacoima Beautiful is the San Fernando Valley’s only environmental justice organization, born out of the needs of the community. It began with five mothers who found that the Northeast San Fernando Valley was severely under-resourced and that city and state officials were not addressing the environmental issues affecting the health of the community. Today, after 23 years in operation, Pacoima Beautiful staffs 11 members, including Ortiz, who have continuously advocated for the community.

Pacoima Beautiful strives to keep the neighborhood in mind by catering to students in the area. One program the organization has, Youth United Towards Environmental Protection (YUTUP) meets with students once a week on Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. These students are recruited from four different high schools in the Pacoima Area, such as San Fernando High School, Cesar Chavez Learning Academies, Francis Polytechnic High School, and Arleta High School.

Students come together to increase awareness of environmental issues, promote environmental and sustainable practices, educate their peers, and engage their teachers and parents. “They become our core leaders,” Ortiz said.

Pacoima Beautiful also offers two internship opportunities: a partnership with Community Nature Connection and the U.S. Forest Service and National Forest Foundation.

The partnership with Community Nature Connection is a 16-week leadership academy in which students meet every Saturday at an open space and learn different types of skills, such as outdoor skills, first aid, and public speaking. The U.S. Forest Service hires eight high school and college students to survey visitors and are also given job training to help serve their own communities.

“Once these kids are done with these internships, they’re the most dedicated, committed, activists and community leaders you can think of,” Ortiz said.

Pacoima Beautiful would not have won several victories without the help of the youth.

“What we’re really doing is preparing the future leaders of this area to have an understanding of the fundamentals of what’s going on in their community and how they can be active change makers,” he said.

Ortiz always asks what they think about the environment after meeting new students. When students realize that they’re also experiencing environmental justice issues, such as access to clean water and energy, they become active and make a change in their own community.

“They think about the forest and the ocean, but a lot of them don’t think about everything around them,” he said.

For Ortiz, the youth’s outcomes are the most satisfying part of his work. The outcomes don’t come immediately and may take more than two years, but students go on to study environmental majors and intern for council offices. Once students graduate, many of them come back to support Pacoima Beautiful programs and projects as professionals.

“Some of them are interested in being community organizers, but they are already community organizers when they’re with us,” Ortiz said. “There’s no way we would be able to do everything without their help.”

Profile: Director and Filmmaker Dominick Argana

Four months after submitting a short commercial to two student film festivals, Dominick Argana was shocked to hear that he won two awards and a $2,000 scholarship.

His first work to debut during his junior year of high school, Argana’s short commercial for the brand Raid depicted Spiderman being ousted by the bug killing spray, with the sloga, “Kills even the mightiest spiders.” He submitted his short commercial to the Los Angeles Student Film Festival and the SoCal Student Film Fest with no expectation of winning. The two awards he received for best commercial helped him realize that his hobby could turn into a career path.

“I remember when they called my name and I was shocked because I wasn’t expecting anything. I didn’t think my work was good enough to win at a festival,” said Argana.

Argana, now a sophomore at CSUN, is studying to become a film director under the Cinema and Television Arts department two years after receiving his award and scholarship.

Creating films started out as just a hobby for Argana. As an avid fan of films by Wes Anderson, David Fincher, and Stanley Kubrick, he became a member of a film club. The $2,000 scholarship he received from winning at t the student film festivals went toward creating a better film program at Saint Genevieve High School, where he shot commercials for school announcements and projects during his time there. This allowed the film program to gain better editing software, more film equipment, and an upgrade of the equipment room.

His senior year of high school, he applied to film programs at University of Southern California, New York University, Chapman University, and California State University, Northridge. But the comfort of being where his hobby began being close to family and friends led him to attend CSUN, where he also heard great things about the Cinema and Television Arts department.

Outsiders may think that he did not face struggles with his hobby.

“Sometimes it was difficult at first because I didn’t have much experience filming and editing,” said Argana.

He spent a lot of his time watching video-editing tutorials and read a myriad of books on film making and writing to gain skills.

His stepfather, a professional editor, also mentored Argana and helped him generate ideas for his stories. At his stepfather's studio named Pistola Studios, he interned and sat in with his clients, while simultaneously learning about film making and editing his own work.

Another problem of his was telling his family about his career path. Argana identifies himself as an Asian American. In many Asian American families, there is an expectation for children to study in the fields relating to science or business. Argana steered toward a path that is often discouraged by many Asian American families.

"There is a lot of expectation to do a profession that is stable and makes a lot of money," he stated. "Some of my family members didn't take me seriously."

Fortunately for him, his stepfather, and mother, a fashion designer, were fine with his decision.

"I'm really lucky, they were completely supportive," Argana stated.

As a filmmaker, he enjoys writing dramatic romance stories and plans on expanding his genre in the future. He also is fond of casting Asian-Americans in his films.

"I take a lot of pride in using Asian-American actors, actresses, and crew members to give them a chance because there's so much potential in our community," he stated.

Argana plans on expanding his artistry at his time under the Cinema and Television Arts program at CSUN and constantly uses his awards from the film festivals as a testament to his abilities. He strives to become successful in the future and hopes to create stories that can move people.

"Once I realized people could relate to my work and actually like it, I knew that I could do it," said Argana.

What is stopping students from applying to scholarships?

What would you do if you won the lottery? This is an essay prompt for the Alan Campos Dream Big Scholarship offered to students at California State University Northridge.

When I realized I could potentially attend a private university, I knew that I most likely could not afford tuition. I spent my entire senior year filling one scholarship application after the other, and ended up not turning any of them in.

Three years after, I began working for the Student Outreach and Recruitment department at CSUN. During my student assistant training, I listened to CSUN’s scholarship coordinator Veronica Popovic give a presentation regarding scholarships offered by the Financial Aid and Scholarship Department. She stated that our campus offers a myriad of scholarship opportunities. However, the pool of applicants is always small.

According to Popovic, in the 2015–2016 academic year, the scholarship department received over 6,500 applications. In the academic year of 2016–2017, the scholarship department received 3,700 applications. California State University Northridge has an enrollment of about 40 thousand students. When comparing the number of applicants to the number of enrolled students, the numbers of applications received is extremely low. There are many donors that are willing to award students with free money. So, what is stopping students from applying to scholarships, and what could be done to get more students to apply?

Popovic believes that the hesitation begins due to the misconceptions about scholarships.

“Students may think it’s too time consuming to apply for scholarships, and they may feel intimidated about the scholarship application process.”

Students believe scholarships require a high grade point average to be eligible to apply and that students feel they are wasting their time applying for something that is not guaranteed, unlike federal grants or loans.

Scholarships are considered “gift aid” and can come from the federal government, state government, your college, or a private or nonprofit organization. Unlike loans, they do not need to be paid back. There are merit based scholarships that are for students who have a qualifying GPA. They are also for students who are involved on campus, such as in leadership activities or in clubs and organizations. Need-based scholarships are for students with high financial need as determined by the FAFSA or the California Dream Act.

The scholarship department offers a variety of resources for students. Staff members present the different scholarship opportunities available to freshmen in their University 100 classes. The department also holds workshops, tables at orientation fairs, posts scholarships on social media, and encourages students to come into their office.

But these tactics are still not bringing more applications in.

For example, the Jonathan David Schwide scholarship is open specifically to students who advocate for the LGBTQ community. After contacting CSUN’s Pride Center, academic advisors, making posters, distributing fliers at campus fairs and announcing this on Facebook, Popovic stated that the scholarship department only received five applicants.

But what resources are available to students who are not attending universities?

Esteffi Marquez, who previously worked as a scholarship assistant at CSUN, also worked as a scholarship supervisor at the non-profit Los Angeles Conservation Corps. At the non-profit, Marquez worked with students who had dropped out of the Los Angeles Unified School District around North East Los Angeles and were trying to get a second chance at a high school diploma. Many of these students from these areas used to be in gangs or were incarcerated.

According to Census Reporter, 26% of persons in the East Los Angeles area live below the poverty line and only 6.4% of persons have received a bachelor’s degree or higher. The median household income in this area is around 38 thousand dollars.

The base tuition for a full time CSUN student is 3,291 dollars. This does not include housing fees. If a student from East LA were to attend CSUN for 8 semesters, they would be paying around the same amount of the median household income in East LA. With that being said, scholarships would be extremely helpful for students from this area to help them pay for tuition, housing, and books.

“They needed a lot of guidance,” Marquez said. “They didn’t know how to apply for a scholarship at all, they didn’t know how they worked. So I had to do a lot more hands on work to get them to even know what a scholarship was.”

Marquez believes that students at the non-profit were discouraged from applying scholarships for the same reasons Popovic stated.

“As soon as they heard “essay” they immediately were turned off by that fact.” Marquez said.

So what could be done to get more students to apply for scholarships? After speaking with Popovic and Marquez, I found that only a handful of students are proactive in looking for them. College students at CSUN and students looking for a second chance to receive education both have the same misconceptions about scholarships, which could be a sign of larger problem of college and career counseling during high school.

We could lead a horse to water but we cannot make them drink. There is a wide range of scholarship resources available to students inside and outside of schools, but they aren’t applying to them. I believe that education about the process and different types of scholarships earlier on in a students high school career would be the most important step schools should take in preparing their students for the cost of college.

“If they start earlier, students should know the process and how to research them that way they already know senior year or during college how to apply.” Marquez said.

Bringing awareness early will set a foundation for students. This could include showing students how to research scholarship opportunities, allowing them to practice and build on their personal statements, and even teaching them how to fill out the FAFSA application.

In the grand scheme of things, some students will still complain about high costs of tuition, but will not apply for scholarships. But applying for them is extremely important because there are so many donors out there who are willing to help students. The first step we can take in having more students apply for scholarships is to educate. So, what would you do if you won the lottery?