Education Lab: Fresno students helping out in the community over the holidays

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Hello education readers,

With the holiday season in full swing, many Fresno-area students spent their time off over the Thanksgiving break helping their communities.

The Fresno Bee Education Lab caught up with student volunteers last week who helped give frozen turkeys and other food to senior citizens and community members in southwest Fresno.

Students came from Edison High School, Washington Academic Middle School in Sanger, Washington Union High School, Kings Canyon Middle School, W.E.B DuBois Academy, Stop the Violence Movement, and the DB Guru program.

The event was put together by Fresno Unified Trustee Kiesha Thomas, Fresno city councilmember Miguel Arias, County Board of Education Community Engagement Consultant Kimberly Tapscott Munson the Cecil E Hinton Center.

The event served 250 families.

“We don’t have very much notoriety in this community. We’re kind of like in the backside of nowhere. So it’s a good thing when someone remembers that we’re here. We appreciate it,” said Hattie McCullar, who lives in a southwest Fresno community living center.

Ed Lab Listening sessions with Hmong youths

The Ed Lab recently held listening sessions with young people from Fresno’s Hmong community.

Here are some take away we heard from our sessions:

• Youths who spoke to The Bee said because many Hmong students are first-generation Americans, they feel pressure to succeed academically, even though they may have limited resources. This pressure causes a lot of mental stress. The students said they’d like campus mentors who understand Hmong culture and the pressures and challenges young people confront.
  
  
• They said they feel “erased” from education due to the lack of Hmong history and ethnic studies classes.
• They also said they’d like to see their voices reflected more in media news reports and a greater diversity of voices in the media in general.

The students also suggested we release a survey specifically asking questions for the Hmong community. The Ed Lab will be releasing this survey soon. If you are interested in participating in the survey, please email us at edlab@fresnobee.com.

If you’re interested in coordinating a listening session between the Ed Lab and your community, let us know! Reach us at edlab@fresnobee.com

A bulletin board for education groups, events

Are you a high school or college student or teacher who is coordinating education-related community events? Do you need a virtual bulletin board to help spread the word about your education event? If so, please contact us! Our Ed Lab newsletter is creating a small community board for Fresno high school and college groups.

The Digital Divide: Tell us your story

Does your household have enough broadband? The Education Lab is exploring a series of stories about the digital divide in Fresno County.

Last spring, readers told us about shortages of laptops and tablets among local students. Now we are asking community members, teachers, professors, and students to help us once again with our reporting.

The Ed Lab has created this short survey to understand the broadband situation teachers students and professors face. Please fill out and share with others.

Thanks for helping to tell this story.

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Ask the Ed Lab

Do you have an education question you’d like for us to answer? Have a story tip? Contact the Ed Lab team at edlab@fresnobee.com.

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