CCEA Newsletter September 2003, Page 6

Text Box: By Janet Knoeppel Near the end of the 2003 school year, I had the pleasure of visiting Garfield High School in San Diego. Karlene Dockery had invited me to see the school many times, and I’d never found the time. I wish that I had gone when she first invited me. I was blown away by the wonderful programs, the caring staff, the beautiful facility and the students who were focused and happy! Garfield is located in downtown San Diego. It is the oldest continuation high school in the state, having begun as Snyder Continuation in 1921, only 3 years following the legislation that created continuation schools. Over the years, the school has had four separate sites to call home. The most recent move, in 1998, was to a beautiful new school located on the east side of the San Diego City College Campus. The facility cost 15 million dollars and was designed specifically to meet the needs of the continuation high school. There are four separate programs under the Garfield umbrella: the daily continuation program, an independent study component, a pregnant minor program and a School-age Parenting and Infant Development Program. In addition to all of these other programs, students also have the option to attend classes on the City College Campus in a program called City Middle College, where students attend classes at both City College and Garfield High School. 70% of attending students pass with a “C” or better, which is higher than those who are enrolled only as college students! One of the programs that particularly

Text Box: impressed me is the Events Planning and Culinary Arts classes that are supported by The Prado Restaurant, located in Balboa Park. In this class students not only learn to cook, but they learn the fine points of successful restaurant management. They have been involved in planning and putting on banquets for over 350 guests and serving over 200 homeless in the San Diego area. They are even taught how to do fancy folding of napkins and table settings. One of the positive outcomes of the cooking experiences is that the final product provides lunch for the young women in the Pregnant Minor Program. One student’s take on being a part of this class: “It’s easy to get a job with this class on your resume.” As a result of this class students have gone on to work at Seau’s Fashion Valley Restaurant (owned by former San Diego Charger Junior Seau), the Crescent Shores Grill in La Jolla, and other well known local restaurants. The staff at Garfield says that the program is successful in many ways and for many reasons, but one of the most telling is the fact that it is helping the students move beyond their own selfish interests. The day I visited Garfield happened to be the day that they were recognizing their partners. Imagine my surprise when I met students and professors from UC San Diego who had worked at and with Garfield High School. Students in the Education Department spend a semester doing field work at Garfield. Their comments were glowing about the students and the quality of work they are turning out in their classes. The professor was even more effusive in his comments about the difference it had made in his UC students. In addition, there were a variety of other

[ CCEA Home | Newsletters Home | This Newsletter Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]

[ CCEA Home | Newsletters Home | This Newsletter Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]