Edith Ramirez, Speaker
Youth Engagement
Takes Center Stage
By John Horner, President /CEO
Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce
A
healthy Chamber of Commerce is all about building, sustaining
and strengthening appropriate connections throughout the many
facets of a community. Much of what the broad community sees
are large public events like the Friday Night Music Series and September’s
Taste of Morgan Hill Festival. While these are vital and fun events which
both create economic vitality and provide terrific recreational experiences
for participant, they are only one small piece of what we are all about.
In this issue we are focusing on the youth engagement aspect of the
Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce’s body of work. When viewed
from a long term perspective, the educational experiences of our youth
are the future’s critical foundation. When the Morgan Hill Chamber of
Commerce Education Committee first rebooted a little over four years ago
there were a few local businesses which asked “why is the Chamber
working on those projects”? The answer is that connecting the busi-
ness community to the local professional educators community around
a common commitment to doing everything possible to support and
motivate young people is essential to the local quality of life, economic
vitality and future prosperity. Plus, it is a fun and deeply satisfying. There
are perspectives and experiences business people can provide our
students which are not readily available through traditional educational
textbooks, classrooms and tests.
So far we have developed and implemented three major ongoing
youth projects: “Rock the Mock”(an interview skills training program
for high school students), Middle School Career Days (a half-day of
career options exposure for students) and the All Morgan Hill Science
Fair (originally developed by the Pauchon Foundation). Implementing
the larger projects has resulted in development of a number of relation-
ships between our volunteers and the local schools which in turn have
developed into ongoing programs like Britton Middle School’s Robotics
Club under the leadership of volunteer Frank Orlando and a terrific
gardening program at Sobrato High School led by Sue Villanueva. Our
volunteers have also become involved in student reading programs, anti-
bullying initiatives, the bond oversight board and numerous other areas
of engagement.
We are thrilled with the difference we have been able to make so
far, and look forward to taking it up another notch by partnering with our
schools to implement a full Linked Learning methodology. Please learn
more about that by spending some time at ConnectEdCalifornia.org.
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G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E
MARCH / APRIL 2015
Dress To Impress
Career Days - Firefighting
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