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Meet Three New VISTAs: Michael, Josh & T

Last week, 826LA welcomed three new AmeriCorps VISTA members for the 2015-2016 school year! AmeriCorps VISTA members are committed to bringing individuals and communities out of poverty. VISTAs make a year-long, full-time commitment to serve on a specific project that will have a big impact on our community. This year, VISTAs will develop a Writer’s Room at Manual Arts Senior High School and improve 826LA’s volunteer management systems, focusing on improving volunteer retention.

826LA is grateful for the support of these three individuals and of the AmeriCorps VISTA program, supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Please join us in welcoming new VISTAs Michael Reyes, Joshua Rushing, and T Sarmina!

Michael ReyesMichael Reyes grew up in Mar Vista and Del Rey, which have informed much of his poetry and short stories. His creative writings also engage his interests in mental health and gender inequality. He believes completely in writing as transformative and healing. After college Michael began freelance writing for community news and art publications, which he still continues. He transferred from community college (Santa Monica and El Camino) to UCLA where he studied English and Chicana/o Studies and developed his passion for ethnic studies and literature. He was the former Editor in Chief of UCLA’s La Gente Newsmagazine, a Latina/o alternative news publication, where he developed a partnership with LA CAUSA YouthBuild’s high school writing course. The partnership focused on writing mentorship and college readiness, and helped launch the high school students’ first news publication, La Identidad. At UCLA, Michael also researched the interconnection of mental health conditions and high school push-out rates, the role of mental resiliency in students’ educational trajectories, and the significance of in-school writing programs. He used LA CAUSA YouthBuild as a case study and received a Vice Provost’s Recognition.

Michael ReyesJoshua Rushing is a Baltimore native and an inspired educator. Prior to joining 826LA, Josh worked with City Year Los Angeles at Manual Arts High School. As a Team Leader Josh led events and outreach programs, developed City Year’s after-school program, mentored and trained new, passionate City Year AmeriCorps members, and tutored ninth- to 12th-grade students. As an AmeriCorps member, Josh spent time working on planned intervention for ninth-grade students in ELA and math classes, was the after-school coordinator, and planned events for the engagement of the students at Manual Arts High School. Josh attended and graduated from University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in African-American Studies and Public Policy and is a proud first-generation high school and college graduate. At College Park, Josh led a student organization called Terp Tracks that worked with underprivileged students in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, where he mentored, coached, and tutored students by creating an after-school program that inspired students to attain higher education after high school. As a walk-on student athlete football player, he learned the importance of education through sports, and wanted students like himself to pursue higher education and not stop at the field. Josh’s favorite quote is: “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” This quote from Malcolm X has helped shape Josh’s passion for educating youth as much as possible, because they are our future. After working at Manual Arts High school for three years, Josh has seen students grow as great citizens for this country and also great human beings that believe education is the key to success.

T SarminaT Sarmina is a first-generation Xicana writer from the boiling valley of central California and was in her mother’s belly when her parents heard Cesar Chavez speak at a rally. She was first published when she was seven years old in a local newspaper. It was through words that she was able to delve into the stories of her childhood as a Mexican-American tomboy living in the valley with her mother and sister. She earned the English Chair’s Award at Cal State Fresno’s Young Writer’s Conference for a collection of short stories and majored in Creative Writing as an undergraduate at Mills College in Oakland, California. While there, T received the Ardella Mills Prize for a nonfiction piece titled “Maru,” a story about her mother selling meringues in Mexico City. After graduation, she interned at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and within three years was trained as a professional pastry assistant, pasta maker, and savory line cook. It was during that time she became passionate about food justice, including access to healthy food in under-resourced communities, and sought to support community gardens, local farmers, and small food businesses. She left Chez Panisse to pursue work that reflected her drive toward social justice and community activism; writing was at the core of that activism. T presented a collection of poems at the Oakland Museum of California that expressed her concerns with the extreme conditions of drought affecting her hometown, Porterville, California. Throughout her life, T has used writing to heal and believes it is a vital tool to help empower communities through words and voice.

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