e-Newsletter: December 2006
IDEAL Scholar Candace Nisby with Congressman Mike Honda
Help Provide an IDEAL Scholar with a Summer Internship!
Summer internships are a critical way to give students a glimpse into real-time workplace situations, allowing them to explore possible career/major options by gaining first-hand experience. We need your help in providing internships for IDEAL scholars!!
Our college students are interested in 2007 summer internships in these areas: education, health/medicine, business, law, the arts, engineering/math, biology, government, and non-profit/social work. Look at a more detailed list here. If you work in any of these areas or have contacts who do, please contact the IDEAL Director (cbrown AT lpfi DOT org) with any leads. [read full story]
When seeking internship opportunities, we want to make sure that both the student and the employer have a meaningful experience. We match potential internship providers with students based on the employer’s needs and the intern’s skills and interests. Interns should be involved with challenging, thought-provoking work. Employers should also help interns to understand the structure and management of the organization.
Read more about IDEAL summer internships here
Read more about IDEAL here
Lawyers of Color Tell Their "Corporate Leavers" Stories
As is the case for people of color in other corporate and professional positions, lawyers of color are disproportionately affected by barriers in the workplace, compared to their white counterparts. The unique stories of lawyers of color are being collected as one part of Level Playing Field Institute’s Corporate Leavers Research Initiative. [read full story]
“Corporate Leavers” are people who voluntarily leave their corporate/professional positions to pursue new careers in an entirely different sector or the non-profit world, become entrepreneurs, or stay home with family. They are often prompted to leave by obstacles to their professional success and fulfillment.
Michelle Thomas--LPFI’s Associate Director of Workplace Programs and a second-year student at the Howard University School of Law--has taken several steps to increase our understanding of the workplace experiences of lawyers of color, including: helping with the establishment of a story collection website, conducting one-on-one interviews with attorneys who left large law firms or are considering leaving, and laying the groundwork for partnerships with national attorney associations to expand the story collection campaign.
In addition to Michelle’s efforts, the Corporate Leavers Team at Level Playing Field Institute is also partnering with the Asian American Bar Association (AABA) of the Greater Bay Area to do focus groups with member attorneys. The AABA is the largest local Asian American bar association in the country and is one of the largest minority bar associations in California. Its members are lawyers, judges, law students, and others, representing the entire spectrum of political, social, and legal concerns.
If you are a member of an organization (inside or outside of the legal profession) that might be interested in playing a collaborative role in the Corporate Leavers Research Initiative, please contact our managing director, Caroline Barlerin, at cbarlerin AT lpfi DOT org.
Read more about Corporate Leavers here
Read more about the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area here
Corporate Sponsor Barclays Global Investors, at 'IDEAL on the Rise!'
Year-End Fundraising Success
Almost 200 people joined together to celebrate and support Level Playing Field Institute’s IDEAL Scholars program at an October 25th fundraiser. The “IDEAL on the Rise!” event raised over $66,000 through a combination of corporate sponsorship, ticket sales, donations, and a silent auction. [read full story]
The IDEAL (Initiative for Diversity in Education and Leadership) Scholars program invests in the next generation of outstanding Californians by assisting exemplary underrepresented students of color to maximize their educational, service, and career opportunities. The program serves Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American undergraduates at UC Berkeley. Funds generated by the IDEAL on the Rise! event will support our students through scholarships, a laptop loan program, summer internships, tutoring, and leadership development.
At Level Playing Field Institute, we understand that progress on the path from the classroom to success and fulfillment in one’s chosen career can be hindered by barriers—some of which are blatant and obvious, while others are subtle or hidden. If you share our passion for revealing and removing these barriers, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today. Funding will be used to support our current education and workplace programs, and can be restricted to specific programs, if desired. Without help from individuals like you, private foundations, and corporations of all sizes, we couldn’t do the important “barrier busting” work that we do. We thank you for your many contributions! [Donate link]
Read more about our education programs here
Support IDEAL
IDEAL Receives $100,000 from The Education Financing Foundation of California
Level Playing Field Institute’s IDEAL Scholars program received a $100,000 grant from The Education Financing Foundation of California (TEFFC) to support its efforts in helping low-income students of color excel in college. [read full story]
The grant helps put Level Playing Field Institute on the way to reaching its $2 Million Funding Challenge, which aims to bring 50 percent more students into IDEAL by 2010. IDEAL enables exemplary, underrepresented students to maximize their educational, service and career opportunities. According to TEFFC president Caroline O. Boitano:
TEFFC is thrilled to support the Level Playing Field Institute's work in connecting bright and talented young people to the educational resources they need to be competitive in today's global market.
Currently 50 students are enrolled in the IDEAL program, which usually admits just 10 new students each year. Reaching the $2 million funding goal will allow 15 new students to participate each year. By the end of the five-year effort to attain the funding goal, 120 students, including past and current participants, will have become IDEAL scholars, with Level Playing Field Institute supporting over 13,000 semester units of college education. On IDEAL and the grant, Cedric Brown, director of Higher Education Programs at the Level Playing Field Institute said:
We focus on bringing fairness to the community – from the classroom to the boardroom – and IDEAL is our major college-level endeavor. We are grateful to TEFFC for their generous donation, and hopeful that others follow their lead in helping us meet our $2 Million Challenge to expand IDEAL's reach.
Read more about IDEAL here
Read more about The Education Financing Foundation of California here
Read more about our $1 Million Challenge Grant here
Fred Lopez, SMASH parent
SMASH Breaking Bread Holiday Event
On December 9th, over 200 students, parents, and community members of Level Playing Field Institute’s Summer Math and Science Honors (SMASH) Academy came together for the SMASH Breaking Bread Holiday Cultural Potluck. The event was entirely facilitated by a dedicated SMASH parent events planning committee. It was a testament to the community building and involvement that distinguishes SMASH from other programs. [read full story]
The student portion of the afternoon included presentations on their award-winning podcast channel, www.smashcast.org, and their exploration of the technology they use to produce it. Graduating seniors also talked about their experiences with SMASH’s support in the college application process. In addition, SMASH parents spoke about the benefits of the program for their families, and their passion to be actively involved in the program and their children’s education. Afterwards, everyone broke bread with a potluck of delicious home-cooked food.
The goal of SMASH is not only to support its students, but to incorporate the understanding that students who have a strong community have a greater chance of being successful. SMASH emphasizes building community by engaging and supporting parents, as well as students, to impact community-wide change. This community empowers both students and parents. SMASH parent, Yelba Collier, reflected on the event:
It was a beautiful event without barriers. Students and parents had no fear, and showed that they are proud to be who they are. It was so inspiring.
Read more about SMASH here
Support SMASH
Tilt
- a cartoon series from Level Playing Field Institute
Created by Jake Mix- www.jakemix.com
