On Saturday, June 9th, Access Youth Academy celebrated the graduation of our 11 seniors. More than 50 staff, students, family members, and supporters came together to recognize the seniors for their hard work, inspire the younger students to carry on the positive example of the graduating class, and help all of our students feel the […]
Article originally posted by the National Urban Squash and Education Association (NUSEA). A big congratulations to Yan Liu, a graduate of San Diego’s Access Youth Academy and a senior at UC Berkeley, as the first recipient of NUSEA’s William E. Simon, Jr. Service & Leadership Award. The William E. Simon, Jr. Service & Leadership Award […]
Below is a copy of Sarabi’s moving speech at the recent 10th Anniversary Gala where she spoke about her experiences in the program, her experiences at UC Berkeley, and a special message to all of the students striving to become the first generation college students… …Thank you Renato and thank you to everyone for coming […]
I was once told that teaching comes from the heart. These words stuck with me in my darkest and most transformational moments in the classroom. In fact, they gave me strength and shaped my vision as an educator. Even now, as an Academic Coordinator at Access Youth Academy, I continue to manifest these words with […]
There is nothing like helping someone less fortunate than yourself. Sure, this seems a bit cliché, and perhaps it is, but that doesn’t make it any less true. At Access, we do quite a few different community service projects. These all require different skill sets, sure, but generally we walk away with the same good […]
By Kacey McCoig, Health and Wellness Coordinator. Last week, I organized a panel discussion for our middle and high schoolers here at Access The panelist were amazing community leaders and the students amazing future leaders. This panel discussion gave them the opportunity to ask anonymous questions that were on their mind or questions that they were […]
It’s been about 12 months since I started working with Access as their College Coordinator, and in those 12 months, I’ve come to learn a lot about working with students, managing and distributing information through various channels such as newsletters, Facebook pages, word of mouth, and many others, kept notes on services we could provide […]
By Kacey McCoig, Health and Wellness Coordinator. Practice. Not just a word. Sit for a minute and contemplate its meaning. The words that come to my mind: repetition, sweat, discipline, frustration and empowerment, growing, gaining. In fact, this is the unique component that attracted me to Access in the first place. Sport. Not squash, […]
Our students visited the Neustar offices on March 2, 2016. A group of engineers within the company hosted an “Hour of Code”– an introduction to programming and technology to get youth interested in the STEM fields. Our students worked in pairs and learned to code using JavaScript. They created applications that told jokes, a greeter program […]
PRINCETON RECAP On the third day, we drove to New Jersey to visit Princeton. Along the way, we drove into a small town. I spotted deers and foxes in the rows of beautiful green trees. I felt anxious because Princeton was in my top 3 colleges. When we arrived on campus, we saw the athletics […]