One square mile of success

There is one square mile of Huntington Beach that is quite different from most of the coastal communities of Orange County. In the area called Oak View, bounded by Beach Boulevard, Gothard Street and Warner and Slater avenues, Spanish can be heard rolling off the tongues of residents, and the smell of home-cooked meals tickles the taste buds. Most of the community’s residents immigrated to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, and that culture is evident on every street.

Now, a program created by a husband-and-wife team of Newport Beach residents is helping the community’s children get a jump on life in America. The program, called El Viento, makes a promise to kids: Participate in El Viento activities from fourth to 12th grades, and you’ll get a $2,000 scholarship to help pay for college.

Shaw, former vice-chairman of the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche, and his wife Ellen Shockro founded El Viento in 1997. Each year, the program accepts 25 fourth-grade students who proceed on an eight-year journey that ends with college, something many previously thought impossible.

“El Viento has been an incredible collaboration,” said Shockro, a professor at Pasadena City College and a devoted advocate on educational and women’s issues.

“I brought to this partnership different kinds of experience, with girls and women and athletics,” she said.

Despite having grown up poor, Shaw said, he was lucky to have opportunities simply because of who he was ? a white male with parents who were college educated. He wanted the students of Oak View, many of whom do not fit that profile, to be able to have the same opportunities he had.

“If we have a program that would give kids a break, not just give a check ? we could get kids ready for college,” Shaw said.

The El Viento program is focused on keeping kids in school and helping them excel. A report about high school dropouts released this week by public policy firm Civic Enterprises showed nearly half of Latino students drop out of high school.

El Viento is trying to counter that bad news with more positive figures. The program’s first group of students will soon graduate from high school; the group’s average GPA is 3.0 or higher. With all 10 of the students heading to college in the fall, the program is surpassing its goals.

“They [the students] all are the first ones in their families to go to college,” said executive director Zayda Garcia.

The program has three components: a twice-weekly after-school tutoring and homework session, a monthly field trip, and a six-week summer program that teaches swimming, kayaking and sailing.

“It’s allowed them to have another perspective in life and meet ? role models,” Garcia said.

Students cross city lines to the Sea Scout Base and the Orange Coast College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship to learn to sail, which is a core activity of El Viento. Many of the students have never stepped into the ocean before, even though they live a stone’s throw from the coast.

“We think that sailing teaches skills of self-reliance and independence and teamwork,” Shaw said.Teachers who work with the El Viento students said the program boosts the kids’ self-confidence.

Many of the kids at Oak View don’t know how to dream big, said Amy Moonly, El Viento’s fourth-grade teacher. Moonly previously taught at Newport Coast Elementary and said students in Oak View have completely different opportunities and experiences than those at Newport Coast.

“In this community [Oak View], you have lots of limitations,” Shaw said. “We want ? [the students] to dream like they’ve never dreamt before.”

Shaw has started another charity organization called the Oak View Renewal Partnership, which will focus on the community holistically. He plans to bring programs in education, healthcare, public safety and employment to the community with the hopes of seeing tangible results by 2010.

“The community has to improve in order for the kids to succeed,” Shaw said.

Private donors contribute 80% of the funds for El Viento, and all of that money goes to the kids and their activities, while the rest of the funds come from grants and endowments. On Oct. 16, El Viento will host the program’s first annual charity golf tournament at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

El Viento is committed to the students it supports and plans to track the students as they attend college and continue their lives.

As the students continue to succeed, Shaw hopes he can create more programs that reach out to other communities in Orange County.

“We want to change the world one community at a time,” he said.

For more information about the El Viento program, call (714) 913-1265 or visit www.elviento.org.dpt.12-elviento-1-CPhotoInfoEI1OS0O720060312ivshfhknLINDA NGUYEN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Teacher Christine Zimbaldi helps Jonathan Castillo, a member of the El Viento program, with homework. El Viento helps children in the Oak View neighborhood go to college. dpt.12-elviento-2-BPhotoInfoEI1OS1DS20060312ivshgjknLINDA NGUYEN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Christine Zimbaldi helps El Viento student Dania Barrera, 10, with her reading homework. -