Drawn to the Magnets

The school is not much to look at from the outside, and it has no football team or cheerleading squad. Yet students from across Los Angeles get up as early as 5 a.m. to be bused to the Downtown Business Magnet High School.

What the warehouse-shaped facility does offer is hands-on training and internships to jump-start careers in business, electronic information or fashion design.

“The small environment helps you have a better relationship with teachers and get better prepared for college,” said Daniel Yezhov, 17, a senior at the school’s Electronic Information Magnet program.

The school has operated for 19 years at Beaudry and Temple streets, next to the Harbor Freeway and west of the Music Center. The fashion career program was added there in 1992 and the electronic information program in 1994.

The school is part of a network of 150 magnet programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District. A magnet student takes regular academic courses but also receives specialized training in one focus area. The schools’ specialties range from medicine, science and law enforcement to the performing arts.

As many as 65% of the magnet schools’ 50,000 students are bused each day. Some of the magnet programs have their own campuses while others are housed in regular high schools.

Yezhov’s school day starts with the sound of his alarm clock in his Canoga Park home. He rushes to get dressed and--if he has time--to have breakfast. By 6:30 a.m., with his hair perfectly spiked, Yezhov is ready to board a bus for a 45-minute ride to school.

He wants to have his own business someday and says the magnet program is accelerating his journey to that goal.

“I don’t only learn problem-solving and critical thinking skills here, I actually put those skills to use,” he said.

Yezhov has six hours of Advanced Placement and honors courses each day. He is also preparing for his senior thesis, in which he will showcase his information and technological skills for peers, parents and industry representatives.

Last summer Yezhov interned at Alcatel, a Calabasas-based company that provides integrated voice and data networking communication systems to companies and consumers worldwide.

“Everything I learned [at the school] about computer software I put into practice there,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this internship without the skills I’ve learned.”

Yezhov, who has a 3.8 grade point average, has applied for admission to Caltech and wants to work toward a doctorate in computer science.

Participants in the electronic information program are shuttled to the Los Angeles Central Library for some of their classes, and some students earn certification to work on Cisco Systems network hardware.

For Sharon Su, work in the Fashion Career Center has already made a difference.

“It has the hands-on experience we need to go out into the real world,” said Su, a senior. “I have already learned to design and make basic garments, like jackets and dresses. I came here knowing nothing about fashion, and now I know a lot more than other students.”

Su, 17, one of the few downtown magnet students with a car, drives from the Hollywood area to the campus. She and her fellow fashion students take design classes, both on campus and at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Other courses emphasize clothing manufacturing and merchandising.

“I wouldn’t be getting this experience at any other school,” said Su, who aspires to become a costume designer and have her own boutique.

Staff members at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise also mentor students in the fashion program, said Dena Stitt, executive director of the institute’s productions.

“We mentor the students in choosing fabric or reviewing their sketches,” she said. “But most importantly, we mentor them in keeping obligations and having academic discipline.”

Marina Redovich, a student in the business magnet program, has made great academic strides since arriving from Russia two years ago.

“I carried a dictionary everywhere I went for the first year in school,” she said. “I couldn’t understand what 4 divided by 2 meant.”

But it wasn’t long before Redovich caught on. She now has a full semester load of honors and AP courses.

Like other students in the business program, Redovich takes courses in accounting, financial planning and securities operation. The business program includes the Academy of Finance, which sets up summer internships for qualified students.

Redovich interned as a teacher’s aide at Santa Monica College, helping to instruct students in computer software programs and overviews of the stock market.

Someday, she would like to have her own dot-com firm.

Student Demand for Magnets Is High

Across the school district, as many as 70,000 students apply for about 14,000 open spaces in magnet schools each year. Some go on a waiting list for two years before making it into the Downtown Magnet.

Any student in the district is eligible to apply for the magnet programs. A pre-admission test is required only for the 33 magnet schools designated for the gifted, officials said.

“We accept students of all abilities, from special education to gifted students,” said Linda Markham, assistant principal of the Downtown Magnet.

Priority is given to applicants who have siblings at magnet schools, those who have attended magnet schools before or those whose neighboring schools are overcrowded.

One Downtown Magnet graduate, Kristella Garcia, says the program “opened my eyes to the opportunities I could potentially have.”

Before she graduated from the business magnet in 1992, she had already attended business conferences and interned as a stockbroker assistant at Smith Barney.

Garcia went on to Simmons College in Boston, where she majored in economics and French. After graduation in 1996, she worked for a Boston hotel and later returned to Los Angeles as reservations and communications manager for the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena.

She recently left the hotel and is considering going back to school. “Right now I’m just taking the time off I haven’t had in years,” she said with a laugh.