And theres daniel, thank you for being on this show. Celso, tell us first about this Great Program that youve implemented there at evergreen. Celso batalha well, its a Pilot Program, its not institutionalized yet. Its just an attempt that we are trying to outreach to the community that serves our Community College. And we expect that some of these students will be part of our cohort. But the idea is if you look at thehello . Damian yes, keep going, were looking at your video. Celso oh, okay. So, should i start all over or damian no, go ahead, keep going. Celso okay, so if you look at enrollment in american universities, about 5 million of students are immigrants, or sons and daughters of immigrants. And thats where the numbers, about 30 of the population of the students in the university. If you look at california alone, the number jumps to 50 , which means if you go to the College Campus and you bump into two students, one of them will be a son or a daughter of an immigrant, or him or herself is an immigrant. The reason for this program is or this project is when you look at my students, because im teachingphysics courses, there are pretty much in the interface between, you know, k12 and stem workforce, i mean, those who are going to be engineering, or medical doctors, or computer scientists, or theyre going on to be involved with science and technology, i dont see the latinos. So, where are they . So, our Community College, for instance, evergreen, 42 to 45 of students are latino. And but my classes, i dont see them in that significant number. So, something needs to be done. And our college has very good programs in place to guide and to support latinos. Like in last program, theres one of them, affirm is a program that also supports africanamericans. But in Community College alone, i dont think thats when the reversal to bring these students to stem or to Science Technology can begin. According to studies, students in their seventh grade, between sixth and eighth grade, around seventh grade, thats when they make a decision to determine what theyre going to be as a professional in their field or career. And so, we decided to go down all the way to the middle school and even further. Now, we are in the elementary school, and try to create a program that we work with the kids every week, in fact. We have online interaction with our kids, and then we try to provide them with an environment with science andwhere science and technology is relevant. Damian thats a celso in a very small nutshell, this is what our program is all about. Damian well, thats great. Thats great, we saw a video that you showed, thats from one of your zoom classes, that were all doing zoom these days, and heres streamyard. Daniel, what is your role in this Pilot Program with those students . Daniel reyes let me give you a little bit of a background. Im a retired Automotive Instructor from gavilan college, and that helped me to understand the needs that minorities have. Usually, minorities do not graduate from even a Community College. Theres a lot of dropouts from high schools. And theres a lot of Community College students, hispanics and minorities, that do not get to retire i mean to graduate. So, as a mason, we give scholarships and also we have a program that is called to to raise a reader. So, for that reasons, i was interested in helping professor celso to accomplish what he had, his goal in bringing students from anot high school, but from middle schools because when he tried to do it with high school students, he wasnt successful. So, he approached me, and i told him that i will bring students, minority students to the program, and that way there would be a better chance that the parentthat the children, the youngsters will have a better chance of continuing their path to education starting at a Community College level. Thats what we intend to do. Damian well, thatsits fascinating thati mean, it is true, you have to start at a very early age. Again, this is at Evergreen Valley College, they do have a web address if youd like to contribute because it does need some funding to keep this Pilot Program running, so well have that information for you. But well be back and talk about this Great Program on stem, science, and astronomy on comunidad del valle. So, theres the information on the screen, theres the phone number to call, and the web address. Well be back with this fine group, so stay with us. When theyre sick, they get comfortable anywhere and spread germs everywhere. Nothing kills more viruses, including the covid19 virus, on more surfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. Lysol. What it takes to protect. Great program out of Evergreen Valley College. And celso, i mean, youre teaching science and astronomy to all these young students, so i guess the idea is to observe the stars, but also reach for the stars. Celso yes, well, to reach for the stars, it was a support at our foundation that some of the evergreen Community College district foundation, they pretty much came to us and said, listen, we need to support your idea. And they created this fundraising in the fall, but we couldnt do it, you know, this year because of covid. In which donors come by and they provide donations because each one of our kids receives every year 500 scholarship. And the point of this money is to ensure the kids sees at a very early age the involvement with stem, with science and technology, its something possible. If you give some of the kids, they might not be aware of it. So, we doright now, we have, you know, small donors, which is okay for a Pilot Program, but what we want to do is to expand this to make something part of our institution not only as a unit, but Community College in general. And but for that, we need to be funded. We need to be supported by private sectors and by business. So, as of now, we are in the process of collecting data to demonstrate this program is feasible and is successful. Damian we saw your video. I mean, kids, children, theyre hands on, they want to touch things. You want them to touch the telescopes. Right now we cant, you know . Its covid. How difficult is itwe sawwe saw your video, its all online teaching. Thats got to make it a little more difficult to get your point across, but youre doing it. Celso yeah, it is and its not because since the very beginning, that was our commitment. We would meet online every week. Even before covid, thats our plan. And we would meet once a month to do some Technical Work together, either in the observatory or in our class, that was the idea. The idea is that toother Community Colleges, the same thing can be done in the campus because they will have Something Special to be offered to the kids. So thatfrom that goal, that was the idea. And what we want to do is to put itis to keep the pace of achievement in the high school in which the students are going to take online classes. There are too much on the days of classes that they really need to transfer to the university. So, in high school, if they are stick to the program and if this program is able to survive for a few more years, then in high school they take the certificate of achievement, they will be trained in taking on classes. They will have the discipline to be successful in these classes so when they go to Community College, even if they are not interested in Science Technology, they have the skills and better opportunities to make better choices for their lives. Damian yeah, and daniel, we have about one minute. If you can tell us, all these kids sometimes need is just somebody to crack the door open, to let them in a little bit before they kick the door down themselves and they become successful. They just need someone to give them a chance. Daniel let me just give you a little bit of a history also. We started by bringing them to my home, offering them pizza. But with the caveat of having the parents be there as well because i had to talk to the parents of the importance for them to support their children. cause theyre first generation. Even though they may have lived here fortheir parents lived here for 10, 15, 20 years, they havent been part of the educational system. So, i have to tell the parents to support them by bringing them to the college and make sure that they were present whenever they were told to be at the campus. And it has been successful. We havent had that dropout that usually we would have otherwise. So, its involving the parents, making sure that the children maintain an a and b average in math and science. And i think its also important to be in the reading comprehension and writing because those are the skills that theyre going to need to continue to be successful when they are in college. Damian yeah, that is right. Well, youre doing some awesome work. And we have about 15 seconds. Celso, any final thoughts before we let you go here on comunidad del valle . Celso well, just if youre a parent out there and if you have a kid in k12, and if you want your kid to be part of the growth of this country, make sure your kid is doing well in science and math. So, 70 of the workforce in this country, 70 of it is dependent on science and technology. You want your kid to be there. If your school is not stepping in and providing those resources to the kids, make sure you raise your voice. And take advantage of programs or projects like the one we are trying to organize. Damian all right. Celso and daniel, thank you so much, some amazing work. Again, theyre at Evergreen Valley College in san jose, its a great stem program with astronomy. There is the web address for the foundation for more information. Thank you all so much for what you are doing. Up next on comunidad del valle, the annual holiday food drive with a familiar face, stay with us. Brought to you by nbc bay area telemundo channel 48, safeway, and the local food banks of Silicon Valley, Second Harvest food bank of Silicon Valley. With me is Blanca Garza Jacobs, my old pal here at telemundo. Blancita, welcome back to the airwaves. First of all, well, first, welcome back, como estas . Blanca garza jacobs [speaking in spanish]. I am so happy and so grateful to be with you, thank you so much for having me. Damian yeah, for those of you who might remember, blancita was with us on telemundo channel 48, shes one of our greatest anchors here. So, tell us about you, you have a new venture here. Tell us what youve been doing since you left the news. Blanca well, my friend, let me tell you, my idea was that i was going to start traveling with my musician husband all over the world and stuff like that, and just have that life. But then so i left telemundo at the end of november, and i had the opportunity to travel with him everywhere he went. The last trip we took was to indonesia. And the last week of february, when we came back, it was the 2nd of march, the week after we were in shelter in place, and weve been here. He has not been able to go back to concerts, but i did have the great opportunity to start working with an amazing, Amazing Organization that i did so many stories with as a news anchor and reporter for telemundo. I always admired their work, i always admired their mission. And when i knew that i could be part of their organization, i jumped into the opportunity and became the storyteller for Second Harvest, which is an Amazing Organization that has been helping so many people around our community in the Silicon Valley and San Mateo County, santa clara county, feeding the need of, you know, so many people. There is strikingly, my friend, and im sure you know this before even covid started, the Second Harvest was responding to a level of Food Insecurity in Silicon Valley that indicated that there was already a crisis. And so, we were providing, you know, record numbers of groceries to our community. And that was about 250,000 people that we were giving food to even before pandemic started. Now, after pandemic, Second Harvest is providing foods to an average of half a Million People every single month. Damian wow, it soundsit sounds like, blanca, that the need that we see through the holidays has become a need throughout the year for Second Harvest. I mean, the need is there year round, not just during the holidays. Blanca that isthat is correct, that is correct. Just so you can have a perspective of how much we have expanded the operations, we used to have 24 trucks to deliver the food, and now we have 35 delivery trucks. Thatsnow for example, we have 130 Distribution Centers all over San Mateo County and santa clara county, where people just drive in their cars and get their boxed food in their trunks. And its such a fast and great way to go get your food. We want everybody to come and get their food. We dont want anybody to be hungry in our community, and we are here to help. Were asking our community to please do not be afraid. Dont be afraid of asking for help. If you need the food, if your family needs to be fed, come to us and well give you nutritious food for you and your family, absolutely, no questions asked. It has nothing to do with immigration, we dont even ask for any information. We maybe sometimes will ask for an id, but that is all. We want to help the people, thats our mission, and we hope to help you and your family if youre listening to us. Damian and at the same time, i knowi mean, im fortunate enough that i still have a job, i havent been laid off from work. So, were asking folks who can, throughout the Holiday Season especially, if you go to safeway, the same thing weve been doing every year. Theyll have a barcode there for you, you can donate 10, thatll feed a familia. A 10 donation will feed a family. Blanca and just so Everybody Knows and get an idea of how much that is, if lets say people donate 50. With 50, we can provide 100 meals. Thats extraordinary. And like last year, in 2009 with our safeway campaign, we were able towell, actually it resulted in more than 1,241,000 pounds of food. And that created more than 2,000,482 meals for people around our community. Damian wow, thats just amazing. And you just feel bad, your heart breaks for everybody whos going through all of these dilemmas during covid, but its nice to see that the organizations like Second Harvest are still doing their thing. So, if you could donate a little bit throughout the Holiday Season, the food drive is yearround, but especially now during the holidays, if you go to safeway, again we do have some information for you. Just a 10 donation will go a long way, but you can donate as much as 50 as blanca was saying. Its a collaboration between safeway, nbc bay area, telemundo channel 48, and also the bay area food banks, especially Second Harvest food bank of Silicon Valley. There is their web address for more information. Well be back with Blanca Garza Jacobs when we continue here on comunidad del valle, stay with us. When theyre sick, they get comfortable anywhere and spread germs everywhere. Nothing kills more viruses, including the covid19 virus, on more surfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. Lysol. What it takes to protect. Were joined by Blanca Garza Jacobs with the Second Harvest food bank of Silicon Valley. And blanca, tell us about this partnership that youre very familiar with between telemundo, nbc, safeway, and Second Harvest. Bianca we just want people to come and help us. Every time you go to safeway, if you could just donate 10 to help so many families that are in need during these holidays, we dont want anybody to go hungry during this season. And were hoping for youwere asking for your donations and for your help this season. We dont want to leave anybody behind, and so we need for our community to come together and be strong for the people that are going through hard times that are struggling right now. Especially now during pandemic, its a very hard situation, its a crisis that were going through, and so we have to stick together. And if you can just donate 10 on your next visit to safeway, thats going to help us a great deal. The way we are responding to this situation at Second Harvest, we are doing double, double, double. What that means is that now were helping double the people, so we need double the food and double the cost. And so, if you just donate 10, thats basically so much help, you have no idea. If its 50, if we get 50, we can create 100 meals for our community, and that means a great deal for us. Please help us. Damian and i know where your heart is, blanca. I know that its right there with the community. On a personal level, how difficult is it for you to see when the shelves are maybe bare, that the lines are getting longer, that the need is growing . Bianca exactly, it is hard. Let me just show you the picture of ernesto right here, i have ernesto right here. Ernesto, 70 years old, and he was a school bus driver. He lost his job as soon as shelter in place was ordered and the schools were closed, and he was left at home and afraid to leave his house with no food. But thankfully, his daughter knew about Second Harvest, and she called us in, and we are able to bring food for people that cant leave their homes or are afraid to leave their homes. We bring their foods to the steps of their homes so they dont have to go anywhere. We have a Home Delivery programs that we also have for our community. All you have to do is come to us, we have a website where you can get all the information, shfb. Org. And were also asking for people to become volunteers if they can. If you can spare some time, just go to our website again, to that website, volunteer, get all the information, and maybe become a volunteer and help us out this season. Damian yeah, and there is the website, its very, very simple, shfb. Org. And you can log on and find out maybe how you can get help or maybe how you can help. And again, any final thoughts, blanca . Because this is such an important time, its a time of giving. Unfortunately, were doing that yearround, but any final thoughts that you might have for the viewers out there so they can continue to keep giving to Second Harvest food bank and to those who are in desperate need right now . Blanca absolutely, were just going through such a hard time during this, as you know. And if before we needed your help, we need your help even more this time around. I mean, we definitely have a situation where people are afraid. Theres a sense of panic since pandemic started. And so many families that lost their jobs, they need food, they need to be fed. And were trying to do our best to come together and bring some joy during this season, and only 10 can make a huge, huge impact in our community. Damian well, thank you so much, blanca. We hope that you hit the concert circuit very soon with your awesome husband and enjoy those concerts in the near future as we get rid of this pandemic. [speaking in spanish] blanca thank you so much, thanks for having us. Damian thank you very much. And again, the Second Harvest food bank, you cantheyre the ones who are organizing this, but theyre in partnership with nbc bay area and telemundo channel 48, and also with Safeway Stores all across the bay area. A 10 donation, you dont even have to buy a bag anymore, you can check on the barcode and then your money goes directly to Second Harvest food bank. We do want to thank you for joining us here on comunidad del valle. Once again, we are back in the studio until the foreseeable future, but were glad that you joined us. If youd like to get ahold of us, we do have some information for you. You can log on to our website or you can follow me on twitter, my handle is newsdamian. My handle on instagram is newsdamiantrujillo. Also, pick up a copy of El Observador newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies all across the bay area. We thank you once again for allowing us into your home on this beautiful sunday. Well see you once again here back next week on comunidad del valle. Pasa usted. Cc by aberdeen captioning 18006886621 www. Abercap. Com upbeat music 2019 National Champions return to purina farms, and for most of the competitors, 2020 has been a challenging and unpredictable time, but its also been a positive time for many families and their pets, more bonding, more playtime, more smiles, and precious time together. And for todays competitors, more training for the sport they love. And for them what remains the same is the greatness and history of the purina pro plan incredible dog challenge. upbeat music 45 minutes west of downtown st. Louis. What a Beautiful Day here in gray summit, missouri, and the spectacular property of purina farms. We hope you, your family and your pets are safe and healthy during these challenging times. Hello, everyone im trace worthington