Congressman Rick Larsen
Everett Office
2930 Wetmore Avenue, Suite 9F
Everett, WA 98201
Phone: 425-252-3188
Each spring, a nation-wide high school arts competition is sponsored by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Artistic Discovery Contest is an opportunity to recognize and encourage the artistic talent in the nation, as well as in our congressional district.
The Artistic Discovery Contest is open to all high school students in the 2nd District. The over-all winner of our district’s competition will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol. The exhibit in Washington will also include artwork from other contest winners nation-wide.
Art works entered in the contest may be up to 32 inches by 32 inches (including the frame) and may be up to 4 inches in depth. The art work may be
Paintings – including oil, acrylics, and watercolor
Drawings – including pastels, colored pencil, pencil, charcoal, ink, and markers
Collage
Prints – including lithographs, silkscreen, and block prints
Mixed Media
Computer Generated Art
Photography
For those in the Tulalip, Marysville and Everett area visit this page for further information, criteria and application
Hon. Rick Larsen, WA-02
For those interested and not located in the Tulalip, Marysville and Everett area, please find your Districts Congressman here. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/WA
ARLINGTON — Many area residents might not realize that Arlington has its own kangaroo farm, but Jacob Lykken came all the way from Bothell to pay a second visit to its animals on March 17, along with several of his fellow Boy Scouts, and to say that he’d recommend taking a tour for yourself would be an understatement.
“It was awesome,” Lykken said. “Best time ever. I used to think the lemurs were monkeys, but I remembered from my last visit that they weren’t. I liked being able to pet the kangaroos and feed the llamas and see the different types of birds, and I even got to pet a tortoise.”
“It’s well worth the 45-minute drive,” said Olivia Nelson, the mother of another Scout in Lykken’s tour group that day.
“My kids have seen kangaroos before at the Woodland Park Zoo, but you couldn’t get nearly this close,” said fellow parent Justin Schmidt.
Ray and Joey Strom’s Outback Kangaroo Farm on State Route 530 in Arlington lets families get hands-on contact with many of their exotic animals because their collection started out simply as their own pets.
“We were at an ostrich convention 18 years ago when we met this one woman who had a baby joey,” Ray Strom said. “Of course, my wife’s name is Joey, so she fell in love with it and went home with it.”
“It felt like destiny, since people had always said to me, ‘Oh you know a baby kangaroo is named a joey too, right?’” Joey Strom said. “That was the start of finding a passion we never knew we had before. Kangaroos are so gentle and affectionate and loving that it hit us both the same way.”
Since moving from Edmonds to Arlington in 1998, the Strom’s menagerie has grown from a kangaroo, a dozen wallabies, herds of llamas and alpacas, and an assortment of ostriches, goats, chickens, parrots, dogs and cats to also include tortoises, pheasants, peacocks, rabbits and ring-tailed lemurs, not to mention more kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos.
“We’ve sold wallabies, wallaroos and kangaroos for pets,” said Ray Strom, who encourages younger tour group members to hug his kangaroo jack, which Strom gets to stand up to person-height by holding food above his head. “It’s so much fun to see people smile when they get to touch and pet the animals. We only became a business because so many people stopped by wanting to see the animals. It was never anything we planned on doing. It just came about. We’ve been retired for years, so this is still a hobby for us. The admission fees just help us pay to feed and care for the animals.”
“Our visitors start smiling as soon as they first see the animals, and they’ll smile all the way through their tours,” Joey Strom said. “If we can help them forget about the troubles of the world for a while, it makes it all worthwhile.”
In order to sell and exhibit exotic animals, the Stroms’ Outback Kangaroo Farm is governed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and subjected to regular and random inspections to retain their license.
“Private people can’t own big cats, gators or primates,” Ray Strom said. “We got grandfathered in on the primates with our lemurs, and we’re affiliated with the Zoological Association of America. Our inspector is the same as the inspector for the Woodland Park Zoo.”
“When you go to a lot of zoos, they have these beautiful enclosures for the animals, but you can hardly see them sometimes,” Joey Strom said. “Here, kids get to interact with the animals, to pet them and feed them, which helps them learn to love them and care for them.”
The Outback Kangaroo Farm is located at 10030 State Route 530 in Arlington. For more information, log onto www.outbackkangaroofarm.com.
Please join us for the 42nd Annual First Nations at The University of Washington Spring Powwow!
April 19, 20 and 21st
Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Ed Pavilion, University of Washington, Seattle.
Our Beating Hearts, Dancing to Our Health
This is the largest student-run event on UW campus bringing in an average of 8,000 people every year. It’s a free event but we highly suggest you bring some extra money to support the Native American artists that will be selling their work as well as buying concessions (Indian Tacos) sold by First Nations. This is a zero tolerance event. No Drugs, No Alcohol, No Fighting. Grand Entries
Friday- Coastal Grand Entry 5pm, Powwow Grand Entry 7pm
Saturday- 1pm and 7pm
Sunday- 1pm Host Drum– Blacklodge Head Man– Victor Harry Head Woman– Rose Greene MC– Carlos Calica Arena Director– Cetan Thunder Hawk Specials
Men’s and Women’s All Around in Honor of Julian Argel
Men’s Grass
Women’s Fancy
Women’s 40+ Traditional
Mama’s Boy (Mother Son Owl Dance)
Tiny Tots
11th Annual One Man Hand Drum Contest
More Specials TBA
There will be a drum contest Dance Categories:
Golden Age Men & Women
Men: Fancy, Grass, Traditional
Women: Fancy, Jingle, Traditional
Teen Boys: Fancy, Grass, Traditional
Teen Girls: Fancy, Jingle, Traditional
Jr Boys: Grass, Fancy, Traditional
Jr Girls: Fancy, Jingle, Traditional
Tiny Tots Contact Info
For specifics regarding powwow contact our powwow chair, Maria Givens UWPowwow@gmail.com
VENDORS
For specifics regarding vendor information contact our vendors chair, Kiana Smith uwspringvendors@gmail.com
Vendor Applications are due by mail, post-marked by April 1st, 2013
You can find an electronic copy of the vendor application here —https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9A5KE10E65tMHpsZFVFM0xVWU0/edit?usp=sharing Send Vendor Contracts to
First Nations at the UW attn: Vendors, c/o
Ethnic Cultural Center, University of Washington,
3931 Brooklyn Avenue NE, Box 355650,
Seattle, Washington 98195-5650
PARKING
Here is a link to a campus map with all the parking lots for Powwow including the Elder/Disability Drop off Area https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7-kkNbHsXZGNGdsVWFmbWJNMUE/edit?usp=sharing
Friday- Parking in E-1 and E-18 will be $10, E-12 will be $15
Saturday- E-1, E-12 and E-18 will be $7, after 2:30 will be Free
Sunday- All parking is Free
This 3 day training is designed to strengthen women’s understadning of money, popular media, personal development, goal setting, leadership, tribal sovereignty, Indian law, networking, and self-expression. At the end of the Academy, women will leave empowered, engaged and prepared to reach their goals for Indian Country.
We encourage young Native women who are seniors in high school through their 4th year in college/university during the 2013-14 school year to apply. Applicants will be judged on the applicant’s potential for leadership and commitment to Native service, as reflected in her application.
Applications are available online at www.enduringspirit.org. Applications are due by March 29, 2013.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Looking for just a single win to earn a post-season berth, the Washington Stealth ran into a Minnesota team firing on all cylinders Saturday night, falling to the Swarm 12-5 before 7,830 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
For a Washington offense that at times has been stellar this season, including its performance in a three-game win steak leading up to Saturday’s trip into the Twin Cities, the output was a disappointment.
“Our offense failed to show. We just had a terrible night,” Stealth head coach Chris Hall said.
At one point after tying the game at 2-2 early in the second on a Mike Grimes goal, the Stealth went a full 32 minutes without scoring as Minnesota wracked-up six straight goals through the intermission and into the early minutes of the third to build an 8-2 lead.
From there the frustration only continued as not just Washington – but Minnesota faced brilliant goaltending.
“T-Rich stood on his head to keep us in it,” Hall said on his goaltender’s performance, which is becoming the norm night in and night out for the Stealth.
Richards, who faced 60 shots including 34 in the second half, only allowed seven goals through the third quarter.
His work included a double-stop on a breakaway by the Swarm’s David Earl mid-way through the fourth, that in any other game would have been a momentum changer.
With Earl grabbing the ball on transition and running most of the floor, Richards denied the shot from just a few feet out, then turned his attention to the Swarm’s trailer Jordan MacIntosh, who double pumped a shot on Richards that was also turned down. MacIntosh finished the night with five assists and 11 loose balls.
“I thought T-Rich was spectacular,” Hall said. “He kept us in it while we tried to get the offense unstuck. But it never happened.”
Swarm goaltender Tyler Carlson turned away 48 of 53 shots.
In the first, Washington opened scoring on a Dean Hill goal at 8:16 to take the early lead. Taking seven shots, it was Hill’s only score of the night.
Minnesota responded with back-to-back Callum Crawford scores just over a minute later.
Following Grimes’ tying goal at 12:15 of the first, the Stealth struggled over the next half-hour of play.
Trailing by four-goals to start the second half, Washington began the third with a five-on-three advantage but were unable to find the back of the net, while giving up a shorthanded goal, the only score by either team in the quarter, to Jay Card coming off the bench.
After Card’s goal, the Stealth was never able to come any closer than five goals.
Offensively, the Stealth was led by Rhys Duch with two goals and two assists for four points increasing his season total to an NLL-best 33 goals this season.
The Stealth also received a fourth-quarter score from Lewis Ratcliff, who finished with two points on the night.
For the Swarm, Crawford led all scorers with four goals all of which came in the first half of play.
In the faceoff circle, the Stealth’s Bob Snider was 11 of 20 for 55 percent, while MacIntosh was just nine of 19 for 47 percent.
With the Stealth scrapping and clawing their way into contention for the post season, Saturday’s game marked a low-water mark in production since a 16-5 home loss to Edmonton last January and is just the fourth time in franchise history dating to stints in Albany and San Jose where the team have scored five or fewer goals.
Prior to the game, the Stealth activated its third round pick (21st overall) in this last year’s NLL Entry Draft, Mitch Jones.
Jones, who spent the winter completing the collegiate hockey season at Northern Michigan University, delivered a solid performance, finishing with an assist and took two shots.
“I thought he was fine,” Hall said of the 6-2, 185 pounder from Delta, British Columbia. “He didn’t get a ton of shifts. But he got his feet wet. He looked like he fit just fine.”
The Stealth, who fell to 7-5 on the season, still retain a half-game lead in the West with Calgary sitting idle but lost ground to both Edmonton and Colorado, which won their games, enjoy a bye-week before taking-on the Roughnecks at home on March 30.
“It’s been a grind to get to here. (Tonight’s game) was a disappointing loss going into the last games of the season,” Hall said. “Our and goaltending and defense is rock solid, but our offense needs some work. I’m certainly looking forward to that first practice before the Calgary game.”
The Stealth return home to Comcast Arena for a Saturday, March 30 contest with rival Calgary and the first leg of a home-and-home series with the Roughnecks. Game time is 6:45 p.m. PT.
The University Center is expected to outgrow its home at EvCC by 2021 because of rising enrollment.
By Jerry Cornfield, The Herald
OLYMPIA — Washington State University is inciting the kind of concern in Everett that community leaders have dreamed about for years: too many college students, not enough classroom space.
A consortium of universities led by WSU thinks it will nearly triple its enrollment at Everett Community College this decade and need a new home for its students by the next.
WSU and its partners at the University Center predict the number of full-time students they serve will rise from 465 this school year to 1,179 by the spring of 2021.
By then the center will “outgrow currently available facilities on the EvCC campus and will need significantly more physical capacity,” according to a report delivered to the Legislature in December.
Area lawmakers are citing that prediction in their efforts to secure $10 million in state funding to buy land and erect a new building near the community college.
“It is a necessary next step if we are going to continue to meet the growing need for those four-year degrees,” said Sen. Nick Harper, D-Everett, who first submitted a request for funds to the writers of the Senate capital budget in February. Around the same time, Reps. Mike Sells of Everett and John McCoy of Tulalip approached the chief capital budget writer in the House, Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish.
Dunshee, long a central figure in efforts to land a university branch campus in the county, gave no hints on how he’ll respond.
“I have a lot of requests,” he said. “I have to consider all the statewide interests.”
Today the University Center is managed by Everett Community College and operates out of allotted space in Gray Wolf Hall. Its participating colleges include Western Washington University, Central Washington University, University of Washington-Bothell and WSU.
A state law passed in 2011 prescribes a path for WSU to take over management by July 1, 2014. That same law required that before the changeover the Pullman-based research university had to begin offering undergraduate degrees at the center and write a long-term plan for running the operation.
WSU launched its mechanical engineering degree program at Everett Community College in August and quickly filled its 60 slots.
It is seeking $2 million in the next state budget to start baccalaureate degree programs in electrical engineering, communication and hospitality business management. WSU also wants to add certificate programs in education. All told, these could push WSU enrollment to 450 students by 2021.
Western Washington and Central Washington also want to add generously to their respective enrollments at the University Center in the next few years.
Crowding is already a concern at the community college, where the number of full-time students was 7,842 in the 2011-12 school year. Enrollment is climbing, in part among students interested in taking lower-division classes that prepare them for WSU’s engineering courses.
“They understand what our needs are,” said EvCC President David Beyer. “We’re going to be supportive (of the funding request) because these programs at the center are very important to us, as well.”
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson is also deeply involved in trying to snare money to establish what could become a beachhead for a branch campus.
“What you’re beginning to see is the next evolution of the University Center,” he said.
There is no specific project tied to the money as of now.
However, officials of the city, WSU and EvCC are talking about constructing a 95,000-square-foot building on the parking lot of the former College Plaza shopping center, which is owned by the community college.
WSU would use the requested state funds to buy nearby properties and convert them into parking lots to offset those spaces displaced by the new building.
In recent days, the hunt for money gained a bit more steam in the Legislature.
In a rare show of unanimity, six of the seven senators representing Snohomish County on March 7 sent a letter supporting the requested dollars to Senate budget writers.
Signing the letter were Democrats Harper, Paull Shin of Edmonds, Maralyn Chase of Shoreline, Rosemary McAuliffe of Bothell and Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens, along with Republican Kirk Pearson of Monroe.
“If we’re not serious about this, we’ll never get the branch campus we need,” Hobbs said.
Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, who is a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that writes the budgets, did not sign.
“I felt it was inappropriate for me to do so since I sit on the (budget) committee” she said. “I need to try to stay neutral.”
Federal prosecutors say they’ve weakened a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing people in the Upper Midwest now that an alleged leader and two members have been convicted in one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.
By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal prosecutors say they’ve weakened a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing people in the Upper Midwest now that an alleged leader and two members have been convicted in one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.
But investigators acknowledge their work isn’t done in Minnesota or other states where the Native Mob is active, noting that the gang has been around for a long time.
“We have some conservative confidence that we did put a dent (in the gang) but we’re also very realistic and know that law enforcement will continue to pursue gang activity including the Native Mob,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter said after jurors handed down convictions Tuesday on an array of racketeering and other charges.
“The verdicts reflect the seriousness of the crimes that were being committed by the Native Mob, which includes not only drug trafficking, but discharging of firearms at innocent people, and trafficking firearms, and basically wreaking havoc through communities throughout the state of Minnesota,” he said.
A federal jury in Minneapolis convicted the alleged Native Mob leader, 34-year-old Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, on drug and weapons charges – but also on a charge of racketeering conspiracy, which is often used to target organized crime.
Two of the gang’s alleged “soldiers” – Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25 – also were convicted of multiple charges including attempted murder in aid of racketeering. The latter charge stemmed from the shooting of another man that prosecutors alleged McArthur ordered, though his attorneys disputed the claim and McArthur was acquitted on that charge. But only Morris was acquitted on the top racketeering charge.
Defense attorneys said the government’s case was overblown, arguing that while gang members may have committed individual crimes, there was no evidence to support racketeering charges alleging the trio was part of a large, organized criminal group.
The three men were the only defendants who rejected plea deals after 25 people were indicted in the case last year. Several of those individuals testified during the trial, which Winter said should give other gang members pause knowing they can’t trust their co-conspirators.
A sentencing date has not yet been set, but all three men face between 20 years and life in prison, prosecutors said.
“The Native Mob has been a real detriment to native American communities throughout the state of Minnesota,” fellow prosecutor Steve Schliecher said. “Their game plan is to promote fear, and that’s the base of their power, and I think their power is diminished by this jury’s verdict. It’s going to allow people to have the rights to not live in fear, to continue on their peaceful lives.”
McArthur’s attorney, Frederick Goetz, said his client’s acquittal for attempted murder indicates the jury recognized the three defendants’ culpabilities varied.
“It was a mixed result for a mixed verdict,” Goetz said, adding that he would likely appeal.
Cree’s attorney, John Brink, said the verdicts were inconsistent, giving them an issue to use in their appeal.
Morris’ attorney, Tom Shiah, cited the same issue about inconsistent verdicts. He said he was glad Morris was acquitted of the racketeering charge but acknowledged his client was still “looking at a boatload of time.”
Federal authorities say they’ve been investigating the Native Mob, though not these three defendants, since 2004, and have now secured 30 convictions since 2007.
In the latest case, investigators said they were targeting a criminal enterprise that used intimidation and violence to maintain power. Prosecutors said the case was important not only because of its size, but because the racketeering charge is rarely used against gangs.
The 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment called the Native Mob one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the U.S., most active in Minnesota and Wisconsin but also in Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is made up of mostly American Indian men and boys, and started in Minneapolis in the 1990s as members fought for turf to deal drugs. The Native Mob is also active in prison.
The Native Mob had about 200 members, with a structure that included monthly meetings where members were encouraged to assault or kill enemies, or anyone who showed disrespect, according to the indictment. Authorities said McArthur would direct other members to carry out beatings, shootings and other violent acts to intimidate rivals.
The trial, which began in January, included nearly 1,000 exhibits and 180 witnesses.
—
Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this story.
We Day, an event to celebrate and encourage local and global action by young people, is expected to draw 15,000 to KeyArena on Wednesday.
By Jack Broom, The Seattle Times
Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times Sixth-grader Aimee Coronado, 12, left, and ninth-grader Emily Barrick, 15, have been fundraising for local and international causes at Federal Way Public Academy and will attend We Day on Wednesday. The event, held in Canada, makes its U.S. debut at KeyArena.
By themselves, jangly bracelets made from soda-can pull tabs by Emily Barrick, 15, and other Federal Way Public Academy students for a charity fashion show aren’t going to save the world.
Nor will the funky brown scarves made from shredded T-shirts by other Federal Way students, including Aimee Coronado, 12.
Same with the stack of book bags taken to a girls school in India by Bijou Basu, 16, a student at The Overlake School in Redmond.
But taken together — and combined with thousands of other acts by thousands of other students — these individual good deeds begin to have real power.
That’s the thinking behind We Day, expected to draw some 15,000 middle- and high-school students and supporters from 400 schools across the state to KeyArena Wednesday.
“When young people choose to become active for a cause … When they are passionate about serving others, they are not alone,” said Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children, the Toronto-based charity organizing the event.
Students couldn’t buy tickets to the event, part concert and part pep rally. They earned their way in, by committing to work on at least one local and one global service project.
Performers and celebrities on tap include Jennifer Hudson, Magic Johnson, Martin Sheen, Mia Farrow, Nelly Furtado and Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil-rights leader.
Students will also hear from Spencer West, who despite having had both legs amputated, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, on his hands. And from 9-year-old Robby Novak, better known as “Kid President” in popular YouTube videos (including a recent one in which he picked Gonzaga to win the NCAA basketball tournament.)
Co-hosts are Munro Chambers and Melinda Shankar of the TV series “Degrassi,” who have made overseas trips on Free the Children projects.
This is Free the Children’s 24th We Day, and the first outside Canada.
The organization has been featured on “60 Minutes,” and past We Days have included such notable speakers as former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama.
It plans to continue its international expansion with an event in Minnesota later this year, and one next year in London.
Kielburger, now 30, was 12 when he saw a news report about the murder of a boy his age in Pakistan who had been forced into working in a carpet factory at the age of 4.
With his older brother, Marc, Kielburger formed Free the Children, which hosted its first We Day in Toronto in 2007.
Since then, backers say, the events have helped raise $26 million for 900 different causes, and led to 5.1 million hours of volunteer service.
Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times Federal Way Public Academy students created bracelets made from Starburst wrappers for a charity fashion show.
“Our goal is to systematically bring service learning into schools … just like reading, writing and arithmetic,” Kielburger said
That’s already happening. Federal Way Public Schools, which is sending more than 1,200 students and chaperones to We Day, has a districtwide focus on service, which includes raising money for an adopted village in Sierra Leone.
In addition, individual schools have projects of their own. Federal Way Public Academy, an academics-focused alternative school, is sending about a third of its 306 students to We Day.
Projects at that school include the fashion show to benefit homeless teens in the Puget Sound area, and an annual carnival to help build a school in a village in Kenya.
At The Overlake School in Redmond, 60 students, active in a variety of causes, are planning to go to We Day. Overlake students are required to put in a number of hours each year on causes they select.
Basu, an 11th-grader at Overlake, read Kielburger’s book, “Free the Children,” four years ago and was inspired by the idea of helping people but was unsure how to get started.
Last year, she and her mother, who is from India, traveled to that country as volunteers for a Seattle-based organization, People for Progress in India. In West Bengal, they visited a school for children of commercial sex workers.
“No child should have to go through what these girls were going through,” she said. She brought them book bags and other school supplies. “I could see it really meant something to them that there were people out there who cared about them.”
Returning home, she encouraged other students to join Free the Children or other causes.
We Day chose Seattle for its U.S. debut, Kielburger said, partly because of the enthusiasm of Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll, who’ll be there with several Seahawks players. Carroll is co-chair of the event, along with Connie Ballmer, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Carroll heard Kielburger speak two years ago at a Tacoma event honoring retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“Craig has this tremendous passion and energy about helping people,” Carroll said. “I tracked him down and I invited him to bring it to the U.S., which they were already thinking about.”
Microsoft and Amway are title sponsors of the event. The Seattle Times is among its regional media partners.
Students drawn to We Day already have decided to become active, and this will reinforce that decision, said Federal Way’s Coronado.
“I think everyone has the potential to do something great,” she said. “We Day is like a little shove to help get you going.”
On Sunday, March 24, Mitch Albom, the award-winning Detroit Free Press columnist and best-selling author of Tuesdays With Morrie, wrote about a Vietnam veteran who recently passed away, alone and homeless. The vet, who served with honor as a Marine in Vietnam, was living on the mean streets of downtown Detroit, struggling with alcohol and poverty and confined to a wheelchair. As Albom asks, “Does this sound familiar?”
For too many vets, it does. This is especially true for Native vets. As ICTMN has reported, the 2010 Veteran Homelessness supplemental assessment report to Congress indicated a disturbing statistic that showed that American Indian and Alaska Native veterans who are poor are two times more likely to be homeless than American Indian and Alaska Native non-veterans who are poor
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that more than 300,000 vets are homeless on any given night. Here are excepts from Albom’s poignant column on one of these men; read the full article here.
If you knew Sanderious Crocker, please read this.
He died.
He was 67. Folks called him Sam. He was living in poverty in downtown Detroit. A Vietnam veteran who was seriously wounded, he’d been homeless for a while. He struggled with alcohol. Maybe you know this. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you lost touch. Maybe you wanted to.
Whatever the case, you should know that Sam’s body had been sitting at a Detroit morgue for a week before a friend called me and asked whether there was a way to find his family — any family — because a soldier shouldn’t die alone and neglected.
He left behind his papers. I am looking at his discharge form now. It says he served four years in the Marine Corps, in 1964-68. It says he earned badges for pistol and rifle marksmanship. It says he won several medals.
Under “Character of Service” is one word:
“Honorable.”
…
Maybe you knew Sam. Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you feel bad for his ending. Maybe you don’t. I can’t sit here and tell you Sam was a great man or even a good one. But I do know he served when his country called, and he paid a price, and the military sent him off with the word “honorable.”
Photo: Dan Bates / The Herald Madison Conlon works at one of three tables occupied by her fellow American Academy students at the Mountain View Diner in Sultan on Thursday. The students meet each week with their Sultan School district advocate, Dayna Monteleon, who helps students deal with non-academic issues to keep them on track with their studies.
Students at risk of dropping out of high school are taking classes online but also have an advocate who can address non-academic issues and keep them on task.
By Melissa Slager, The Herald
Willem Gmazel had just completed his junior year at Bothell High School when he said he started “acting really crazy.”
Anxiety and depression hit; he was unable to sleep in a regular pattern. The problems persisted into his senior year, so he switched to the Northshore School District’s alternative Secondary Academy for Success.
Attending regularly scheduled classes remained a struggle, however, and Gmazel was close to becoming a statistic — among the nearly 1 in 4 Washington teens who disappear from high school altogether.
But he didn’t want to give up.
“I wanted to graduate, you know? I didn’t want to have to get a GED or anything like that. I wanted my diploma, even though I was going through a tough time,” he said.
With the support of his mother, Gmazel asked school staff about the possibility of online courses. He soon was enrolled in The American Academy, which offers online courses and pairs students with hired “advocates” who help keep teens on task and on course for graduation.
The Northshore School District is in its second year using the program, also called NoDropouts.com.
Since it started, five students — including Gmazel — have graduated with Northshore diplomas through the online program.
The Sultan School District also has used the program for a little more than two years. Three students have graduated.
In February, the Edmonds School District penned an agreement with The American Academy to try the program for one year.
Like other districts, Edmonds already has a range of options for students beyond the traditional high school program, including alternative schools, online classes, Running Start college courses and more.
The American Academy program will target those who have already dropped out and work with them one-on-one to get back on track. “If that helps just one student acquire a diploma who otherwise might not have earned one, than it is an initiative worth trying,” Assistant Superintendent Patrick Murphy said.
Jordan Stengrim, 17, of Gold Bar, is taking courses through the Sultan-based American Academy program and is on track to graduate by next summer.
Stengrim said he was failing classes at Sultan High School, the result of frequent absences and a lack of focus in the classroom. Since switching to The American Academy online courses, his grades have improved dramatically, he said.
Stengrim said he likes doing things at his own pace. “To me it’s easier than regular school because I don’t want to talk to my friends all the time,” he added.
The American Academy is accredited and is on the state’s OK list for digital learning programs. Licensed teachers teach core classes, which are said to meet the state’s learning standards. Tutors are available via live chat, 24/7. Students who don’t have access to a computer with Internet are provided a laptop.
A key component of the NoDropouts program is a “student advocate,” who is not a teacher but someone who keeps regular tabs on students and tries to address non-academic problems.
“I’m available to the kids on weekends, at night. If they have a problem they can call me or text me,” said Dayna Monteleon, the American Academy-hired student advocate for the Sultan School District. “If they’re not getting their work done, I’ll go knock on their door. … I’m basically the only face-to-face contact they have. Everyone else they interact with is online.”
Monteleon worked with youth in Sultan before taking the advocate job. Now living in Bremerton for a second job, she maintains her role with The American Academy and commutes to the east Snohomish County city for weekly meet-ups with students. Her 18-year-old son also still lives in Sultan, completing his studies at the district’s alternative Sky Valley Options program.
In both Northshore and Sultan, prospective students must meet with district administrators first.
In Northshore, Donna Tyo is that gateway. She heads up the district’s secondary alternative programs as principal of the Secondary Academy for Success.
The American Academy is not for everyone, Tyo said.
Students who take online courses must be self-motivated, she said. They tend to be bright students who simply have a barrier to learning in a traditional environment, either because of work schedules, anxiety problems or other issues.
Gmazel, the recent graduate, for example, was already engaged in other aspects of high school life, competing on the Bothell High School wrestling team, and his SAT scores were good enough to pursue college studies.
Tyo has turned to the online classes to convince a professional skateboarder that getting his diploma is still important and for a high-anxiety teen who struggled in the classroom environment.
The online program has become part of “a palette of options” and creative maneuvers Tyo employs to prevent dropouts in the first place. “Whatever works,” she said.
Indeed, while NoDropouts is billed as a kind of dropout headhunter — tracking down students who have already left and getting them to come back — the program often becomes more of a prevention tool for school districts.
Phil Bouie is the American Academy-hired student advocate for the Northshore School District. Most times, students find him.
“We get a lot of students who get recommended to us through the school district. A lot of our students also have other peers or friends who are in a similar situation,” Bouie said.
As an advocate, Bouie has helped students craft resumes, locate organizations for required volunteer hours and find shelter. “Pretty much anytime a student needs help, I try to help,” he said.
The American Academy is not without its problems.
State auditors have scrutinized online education programs in recent years. The American Academy was at the center of two audit findings, in Sultan and Sunnyside. A lot of the problems linked to bad record-keeping. In Sultan, it means $66,619 of state funding is in question and may have to be paid back, pending a state review.
The American Academy is hired to do the work. “But it’s under our name. So if something gets messed up, we pay the piper,” said Dan Chaplik, superintendent in Sultan.
Only a fraction of students who enter the NoDropouts program earn diplomas. A few are too far behind and are steered to GED programs. Some are brought up to speed, then transfer back to district-based programs. Others drop out again.
Program staff focus on the positive stories, including 200 successful exits last year nationwide — students leaving the program with diplomas or to head back into regular school programs. Roughly 1,100 students are currently in the program, including 600 in Washington.
“We are working with the toughest cases,” said Matthew LaPlante, a spokesman for the Utah-based American Academy. Regardless of teens’ reasons for dropping out, “they deserve a second chance.”
In January, Gmazel donned cap and gown and attended a Northshore School Board meeting to receive his diploma.
Now living in Olympia, Gmazel is volunteering and looking for work while waiting to hear back from The Evergreen State College on his application. He wants to study sustainable agriculture.
Gmazel said he’s sleeping and feeling better. He has a plan and is hopeful about his future.
“I’m pretty good. I feel like before all this happened, pretty much,” he said.
Congressman Rick Larsen
Everett Office
2930 Wetmore Avenue, Suite 9F
