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T Read Across America T he National Education Association’s Read Across America encourages community volunteers to go into a local grade school classroom to read a new book to the students on Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Students and teachers enjoy having a new voice and face as a small part of their school day while celebrating the joy of reading together. The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce has formally partnered with the Morgan Hill Unified School District to ensure that we will have carefully selected new hardbound books and a volunteer reader for each of the 116 Pre-K through 3rd grade classrooms throughout the district. Many of our members have volunteered with this project in previous years, and we are thrilled to make that support official while increasing our level of partnership. Spending some time with these children is a real thrill, and we are glad to have the opportunity to do so. Several of our volunteers have become frequent tutors in local schools after their experience with Read Across America. Seeing a child’s light bulb of understanding glow is a real thrill. President’s Message By John Horner, President /CEO Morgan Hill he Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce’s activities span a broad range of community building arenas, none of which is more important than supporting the education of our youth. For the current school year our major projects include high school interview skills training (“Rock the Mock”), the All Morgan Hill Science Fair for middle and high school students, career days at Martin Murphy and Britton Middle Schools, and co-sponsorship of the Pre-K through 3rd grade Read-In program. Building relationships between people in the business, education, retiree, student and social services communities has been a significant positive outcome of our project-focused efforts. As we continue building connections of mutual respect and regard, more and more becomes possible. Feel free to contact me by email ([email protected]) if you would like to know more about our youth education efforts. Career Days C areer Days are hosted annually at both of our local middle schools, Britton and Martin Murphy. A variety of professionals from approximately 25 dif- ferent fields commit their time to setting up a booth and telling students about their chosen field and how they got to where they are. Participants have included major companies like Google, smaller local businesses, bankers, fire fighters, dentists and more. The goal is to have as wide a variety of businesses as possible so that these young students can begin to think about all the options available to them. The students travel in small groups from booth to booth to listen to each to listen and ask questions. It’s very important that these students start to get an understanding of all the types of careers they could potentially have. 76 GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 gmhtoday.com