Green Team Volunteers in North Central Clean-Up and Garden Project

SMAS Green Team Participation in North Central Clean-Up and Garden Project

Yay to community, green, gardens, clean-ups, and SMAS volunteers!  On Saturday morning, January 12th, the Home Association of North Central San Mateo, sponsored a clean-up and garden planting in the North Central neighborhood.  North Central is our neighborhood.  Our school is part of this community.    

Representing the San Mateo Adult School Green Team, SMAS Morning Student Council President Shelley Cheng and her daughter Vivien, along with SMAS student Grace and her daughter Kate participated in this event.

Here is Shelley's description of the event:

Grace, Kate, Vivien, Shelley
HANCM Leader Amo and her daughter
at the Neighborhood Cleanup Day

First, we are very grateful to our school and community for building a bridge of communication that gives us the volunteer opportunity to participate in this clean up event. When we picked up the trash on the street, the pedestrians and staff said “ thank you “ enthusiastically to us. It made us feel that we could help others and gain more worthwhile. Also we felt we were more integrated into this community. At last, my daughter told me, “I identified that it was not an easy task to keep our community neat, so I should remind myself and my friends not to throw the trash on the ground.”

Thank you to Shelley, Grace, and their daughters for representing SMAS at this event and for making our neighborhood cleaner, safer, and healthier!

Read what the editor of the San Mateo Daily Journal, Jon Mays, had to say about the event.

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From The Heart

San Mateo Adult School student Li knows it is very important to speak up now. More cuts to education - to our school and all schools - are possible. She has written a letter to Senator Leland Yee about how SMAS has helped her.

Here, with her permission, is her letter:

The Honorable Senator Leland Yee,

My name is Li, and I come from China. I write this letter just to let you know how much I deeply appreciate the San Mateo adult school from my heart. It has changed my life.
A few years ago, when I came to the USA, I couldn’t speak any English. I couldn’t help my kids with their school work or get involved at their school at all. I couldn’t see the doctor by myself. I didn’t have any entertainment. When my children and I needed to see a doctor, my husband had to take the day off to take us to see a doctor. When my husband or someone asked me to go to a movie, I couldn’t go, because I didn’t speak English and didn’t understand English. But the San Mateo Adult School helped me. I learned to talk, read, and write English at the Adult School. Now I can go to movies; I can see my doctor by myself; I can volunteer at my kid’s school; I can help our community; and I can do a better job when I teach Chinese to children in the US.
So, I like the adult school. I think it is very important for us, and very important for our community.

Yours Sincerely,

Li
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Students Speak Up

All across the state of California, students, teachers, parents, and members of the community are gathering on Thursday, March 4 to speak up for education, including right here at the San Mateo Adult School.

Read more about the actions planned for this day here.



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On The Road To Citizenship

Cindy Rong Zhen Sun wrote this letter to the San Mateo Adult School and with her permission, we share it here:

Dear Administrators and Teachers:

I am a new American Citizen, Cindy Sun, and I have been studying English as a Second Language in the San Mateo Adult School for about three years now. I feel very good about our school. In Spril 2006, I attended the San Bruno English Class with Teacher Charlene Spediacci, a very fine teacher. When I could not speak or understand English, Charlene told me, "Don't worry. it takes a long time to show progress." I always remember Charlene's words. When I recited some lesson, she was very happy and encouraged me. This encouragement gave me greater confidence in overcoming my difficulties. She was my first teacher. I am grateful for her kind words.

Druing the past three years, I have joined many different classes and studied with many teachers and assistants who have helped me. They are Lisa Dolehide, Mark Tharp, Fredy Gold, Glenn Cunliffe, Betty Chen, Aleth Reilly, Hannelore, Tia Marlowe, and Carolyn Pannu. They teach different courses abd taught me many ways to learn English.

Right now I can read, write, and speak better, but understanding English is still difficult. I have studied a long time in Distance learning in Room 28. Teacher Carolyn is helping me write correctly. I feel Distance Learning is a good way for me to learn. Citizenship Class is teaching the history of America in Room 29 and also at the Senior Center. The teachers, Aleth Reilly and Bety Chen, helped me prepare to successfully pass my Citizenship test.

I am thankful to our school for giving me more knowledge. Many students and I need our school to stay open so that we an continue to study and more students can become valuable citizens in this country.

Sincerely,

Cindy Rong Zhen Sun
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Not For Sissies

Wanda Nelson writes:

I, hereby, wish to inform you that old age is not for sissies. It akes a great deal of effort, good genes and healthy living to become old, and when we arrive there, we sometimes, suddenly, find that we are unnecessary. With ouir tender, loving care, our children have grown into responsible adults with careers and families of their own, and they no longer want us on a daily basis. Many of my friends have moved away or passed away. Life changes radically. This crossroad can be a confusing, lonely journey as we ponder what we can do to make life worth living and interesting again. I believe this stage of life needs passion and purpose with challenge, contribution and community or we are in danger of emotional and psychological deterioration. It is important to make a contrbution to the world, even if it is only a small one. I am also convinced that the moment we give up our dreams or the fight, we begin to die whether we are eighty or twenty. I needed to find something with purpose that I could feel passionate about.

After redoing the house, installing new windows, adding safety features, and clearing out clutter, I found that I was left with piles of memorabilia, home movies, old photos, and a box marked "Thomspon/Stanley Family." There was a similar box marked "Herb's Family Stuff," which my husband had left for me to deal with, and yet another that said "Mom's Papers." I, instantly, became the family historian-genealogist with the help of a Fifty-Plus class called: "Beginning Genealogy." There I met other people with imilar interests and I found friends with whom I could compare notes and travel to Salt Lake City each year to do even more family research. This new passion involved travel, research, writing, meeting new people and new familiy members as well as learning more and more about my computer. As my community contribution, I became the secretary of the local genealogy society and expanded my social circle even more. My resarch proved that I came from intelligent, hard working people I could be proud of, and that I had many new "cousins" out there who were anxious to know me and hear my fmaily stories. I found a purpose and a passion. I had something to offer.

Writing my family story made me realize that I needed to begin by writing my own personal story. I enrolled in the Fifty-Plus "Writing Your Memoirs" class to get started. I am still there as this class has become a personal support group for me. It stimulates and structures my thought process and awakens some of my own buried memories as I listen to the life stories of others in the group. Most of my personal memoires are interlaced with family stoies, and they are my life expeiences to leave as a legacy for future generations of family as to what life was about as I lived it. This experience is revealing. It proved to me that I had led a much more interesing life than I first believed. That improved my self esteem. I have shared some of these stories wtih nieces and nephews who thanked me for my contribution to their knowledge of fmaily history and the world of my time. I feel fulfilled. I foudn more purpose and passion.

In addition, I have taken computer classes and for seniors that expanded my knowledge of technology and gave me confidence in this new twenty-first century world. That transition has not been easy for me. The exercise classes proved to be a fascinating experience. The QiGong class for healing body, mind and spirit came came at a time when I needed all of these things to keep me healthy and nimble.

Life is good. As Dylan Thomas said:

Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day.



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The Highlight of Her Week

Kari Horwitz, a student in the Fifty Plus Program's Memoirs class, writes:

Six years ago, recently widowed, I met Cynthia Eagleton. She was teaching a "Memoirs Class." I have always been intimidated by writing, let alone a personal memoir. She was so welcoming, I decided to try it. It has been one of the best experiences that I have attempted. It is very difficult to explore and record one's life and then read it aloud to a group of strangers. Through Cynthia's warmth and encouragement, I was able to try to write and subsequently read. Thanks to the experience, the group has become intimate, cohesive and supportive. We worried when she left the group a few years ago but Katherine Lieban took charge of the group at that time. It continues to be exceptionally wonderful. The assignments have been very provocative. They inspire lots of soul searching. My writing style has hopefully improved which is difficult when one is eighty two and set in one's ways. Two years ago, I was inspired to buy a computer. I had always written my pieces by hand and now feel I have joined the twenty first century. Our class is the highlight of my week. The would be an immeasurable loss to have it discontinued.


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A Plea for English Classes

ESL student and mother Alejandra writes:

For me, it's important to come to school to learn English. So I can help my son in school.
And it's important so when people go shopping they don't need to find someone that speaks Spanish.
And so we don't have difficult time reading our mail in English and to get the bus.
Please don't take our chance to learn English.
Thank you.


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The Whole Story

Pat Bradley, a student in the Memoirs Class (part of the Fifty Plus Program), writes the following about her experience in the class:

My first story in the Memoirs class is dated 1999. I joined the class because I had spent several years in the Genealogy class researching my family history. I decided I should write my history for my family.

This class has been an amazing experience for me as well as for those who also attend. I have been achieving my goal of writing my life story for my children and grandchildren. However, over the time I have been in the class, I have also greatly improved my writing skills to the point where I have successfully written a couple of short fictional stories. I have also improved my earlier attempts at writing.

That is not the whole story.



This is a group of people who have had amazing life experiences, from tales of World War II, to internment in concentration camps, to living in camps for the Japanese in this country. We have heard stories of eccentric families, vacations and adventures in other countries, philosophy on the art of living, love, loss, and personal achievement. Our childhoods have varied a great deal and we have learned much about growing up in different parts of this country and different parts of the world. We have written about awareness of racial discrimination and gender discrimination and political awareness.

We have received great guidance from our teachers, leading us to think of various aspects of our lives, suggesting subjects, and bringing examples of other writing to inspire us. We have laughed, we have cried, and we have learned a great deal about one another. Because of this, we are family. No one misses this class if at all possible. We support one another when illness befalls us, we cheer on those who go off to the Amazon or want to climb the mountains in Nepal. And the stories return to us. All of our lives have been greatly enriched by this class and the relationships we have found here.

People in other places where I travel are envious of the opportunity I have to attend a class like this and to produce these stories for my family. They are hesitant to try it on their own. There would be an empty space in my life if this were to end.

I realize these are difficult times but I urge you to appreciate the value of this class for the Seniors who attend and the value of these histories for the families who will benefit from receiving them.

Sincerely,

Pat Bradley



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In Her Own Words

Grace Swan, a student in the Memoirs class offered by San Mateo Adult School's Fifty Plus Program, writes:

The Activity Guide for the city of San Mateo showed a writing class for those interested in writing their memoirs. I had thought about it for a number of years, but that's as far as I had gotten -- just thinking. I needed some guidance and something to spur me into action. So I attended the class and soon had ideas and suggestions about getting the stories out of my head and down on paper. I had encouragement from the instructor and from fellow writers.

I had thought that within a year I would have all the stories I wanted to tell to be written, but that's not the way it has happened. The instructor can think of more experiences to write about and I find the years slipping by. the stories of the other writers are so incredible and all true, that I could go and just listen be inspired.

We share our laughter and lives in such a way that that it boosts our immunity and recuperative ability when health problems loom over us. Going to class is like good therapy and helps to keep us functioning at our highest potential.





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Bianca Gonzalez Tells Her Story

Because of difficult circumstances, Bianca Gonzalez struggled to complete her high school education. Through San Mateo Adult School's High School Diploma Program, she was able to complete her education, receive a real diploma, and go on to become a full-time student at City College in San Francisco.

In the February 24th edition of the San Mateo Daily Journal's Opinion section, she tells her story and discusses the challenges adult schools face today.

You can read her story here:

"Adult Schools A Key Part Of Educational System"
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