Getting into the mix of things

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Fourteen-year-old David Barrera got into a lot of

trouble.

Unwilling to divulge the details, the eighth-grader knew he wanted to

make a change.

He joined Club Mix at Dwyer Middle School, which formed in December

and is the first ethnic-based club on campus. Open to all ethnic groups,

most of the members are Mexican-American.

While the members are tied together by their culture, the focus of the

club is for the students to build leadership, raise their academic and

career awareness and get involved in their school and community.

“We were looking to build a group for them to identify with,” said

assistant principal Judy Parks, who co-founded the club.

Teachers started noticing that students were losing hope in themselves

and didn’t have a focus or any goals. Parks and teacher Tracy Gaglio

wanted to help these students see their potential.

“The goal is for them to see successes beyond high school,” said

Gaglio the club’s advisor and co-founder.

Though most new clubs tend to dwindle off in membership, this one has

grown. Club Mix is now the largest club on campus with 45 members, and

meetings have a high percentage of regular attendees.

Since most of these students had never been a part of a campus club,

advisors had a hard time getting them focused and involved, said Aurora

Nunez, the youth development specialist from Community Service Programs

-- Project PATH (Positive Action Toward Health) -- who helps advise the

club.

Attending the meetings was made mandatory for some students who club

advisors were really trying to reach. Now, attendance is voluntary, but

all the students keep showing up. Some have to miss the bus to stay after

school, which means walking a mile to get home.

“We understand each other more,” said eighth-grader Brenda Clara.

Many of the students, like Brenda, 14, are proud to be part of a group

with a shared culture and background.

Those who aren’t Mexican, like sixth-grader Jaspreet Mavi, are also

excited about the experience.

“I feel like everybody else,” said Mavi, who wants to learn to speak

Spanish.

Some kids were already good students with good grades. They joined to

take advantage of the club’s opportunities. Others joined to be with

their friends.

“I joined because I was doing bad stuff,” David said. “I thought this

was gonna make a change in me.”

And it has.

He is more aware if his actions and has goals, a better attitude

toward school, academics, peers and authority, said Gaglio.

“I see that other people are good in a lot of stuff, and I want to be

like them when I see them,” Barrera said.

Eleven-year-old Marcos Saldivar is one those people.

“I’m proud to be an example,” the sixth-grader said. “It makes me do

better, to give the best that I can give.”

Six months after its inception, the club has already surpassed

Gaglio’s expectations.

Teachers see growth in the students. Discipline problems have

decreased, while grades have gone up, Gaglio said.

At meetings, some students are vocal in discussing the issues at hand.

Some are quiet, but all of them listened attentively. The club’s student

presidents effectively lead their peers.

“I do very little at the meetings now, they do most of the work,”

Nunez said. “They’re developing into young leaders. They have hope that

they can do something with themselves.”

Last month, the students completed their first big community service

project, Poster Shock.

With the help of the police department, the students organized the

project with the purpose of informing people about the laws against

selling to those underage.

Students went around to grocery stores, liquor stores and a bar asking

managers to replace their posters advertising alcohol with one

advertising the laws against selling to minors. Twenty-one posters went

up around the city.

Excited to get a positive message out to the community, members of

Club Mix learned something themselves while doing the project.

“I see what’s happening in my community about drugs and I’m learning

how to protect myself,” Marcos said.

Club Mix will continue to meet during the summer. School officials

hope to launch a similar club targeted at the Asian community.