Fashion Program Makes Difference, Is Named for Award

When Richard Gonzalez first showed up for Myrna Craig’s fashion merchandising class at the East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program, he had purple hair, chains on his jacket and fingernails painted black.

Two years later, Gonzalez, 17, of Covina, dons a suit and tie for his part-time job in sales and visual display for a Robinson’s department store.

Nez Camarena, 26, had to endure hassling from his buddies when he became the first male to take the class in 1976. “Gentlemen in fashion didn’t go over very well then in Covina and Azusa, California,” he said.

But this year Camarena returned to visit the class driving his Porsche 911. He said he is about to open his own kitchen design firm in Palm Springs.

Gonzalez and Camarena are among the success stories to come out of the elective vocational course, which serves about 250 students from six local high school districts: Azusa, Baldwin Park, Charter Oak, Covina, Glendora and West Covina.

Now the fashion program is reaping a little success of its own. The state Department of Education has nominated it as California’s choice for the Secretary’s Award in Vocational Excellence, an annual award presented by the U.S. secretary of education to the best vocational education programs in the country. The winners are expected to be announced in June.

State officials say the West Covina-based fashion merchandising program has helped turn the tide for a number of students in gangs, on drugs or on the verge of dropping out.

“Myrna Craig takes high numbers of at-risk students and successfully intervenes and steers them to employment and success,” said Gary Thompson, program manager for business education for the Department of Education. He said the East San Gabriel Valley program was chosen as the state’s nominee for the national award over several hundred other outstanding vocational education programs throughout the state.

“They epitomize what we’d like to see happening,” Thompson said. “An extremely strong curriculum, strong business community participation and an outstanding staff.”

Craig said about 80% of her students come from “low socioeconomic” backgrounds. At their home schools, the dropout rate runs between 30% and 40%, she said.

The dropout rate in her program is lower--about 10% to 20%, Craig said. She estimates that more than half the students who complete the fashion program go on to higher education. Graduates have attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Otis/Parsons Art Institute, Los Angeles Trade and Technical College, Mt. San Antonio College, Cal Poly Pomona, and USC.

As part of the two-year program, students work for one school year as unpaid, part-time trainees in local stores. Last year, Craig said, all the students who worked as trainees were later hired for paid positions.

“(The class) made me realize that there’s more to life than having a good time,” said Gonzalez, who is working part time at Robinson’s as part of his senior year in the program. After graduation, he plans to enroll in a two-year art program at Los Angeles Trade Tech. “I mean, I still like punk music, but I know now that there’s a time for play and a time for business.”

Lila Feingold, a Covina High School senior, said the teachers make the difference. “When a teacher teaches you math or English, they’re there to teach you the basics, and when class is over, they’re done. But (fashion program) teachers are here because they want to be here. They want to find out what we want to do, and then make us really good at it. They put in 100% more time and interest,” she said.

Feingold started taking fashion merchandising just to fill out her list of credits for graduation. But she soon found that she could not just sit back.

“It was interesting. I got really involved and I couldn’t just walk away,” said Feingold, who is working part time for an attorney and will attend Mt. San Antonio College next year. She said she would like to be a lawyer.

Jennifer Abel, another of Craig’s students, said her teacher’s enthusiasm was contagious. “I’ve never accomplished something like this before,” said Abel, who conducted a seminar for learning-disabled students as part of the public relations component of the course.

Craig, named this year’s Outstanding Vocational Teacher in Los Angeles County, teaches her fashion merchandising students everything from color coordination and sales to public relations and advertising.

“Everything we do here has to be hands-on to keep this kind of student interested,” said Craig, 50.

She said she started out in the fashion industry as a model and has owned a fashion show production firm, Beaux Monde. Craig became a teacher in 1974 and joined the Regional Occupational Program staff five years later. “I gave up the business to do education. I’m a teacher first. I really feel I have to give the kids back something.”

The three other instructors in the program also have backgrounds in the fashion industry, Craig said.

Their students don’t just read about trademarks and advertising campaigns. In one project, they created their own mock cosmetic lines and labels, applied for copyrights, and recorded radio and television commercials touting the creams and hair gels.

In another course segment, students went beyond merchandising theory and actually set up a store in their classroom, putting out accessories, dressing mannequins, pricing and tagging merchandise and marking it up or down.

They also put on fashion shows, doing the lighting, publicity, music, videotaping and modeling.

Sandra Miranda, 21, a production assistant at a children’s clothing manufacturer in the City of Industry, is a program graduate. “I was very, very impressed with the way Miss Craig went about devoting a lot of her time to the students,” Miranda said.

“I wasn’t really career-choice-oriented. She devoted a lot of time into each student. She just actually sat down with the student and spoke to them,” she said.

The fashion students are a diverse group. Some are college-bound. Some are learning-disabled. Some have spent most of their school years dreaming up ways to get out of class.

“This is my second senior year,” said Shawn Raney , 18, of West Covina High School. “I was supposed to graduate last year, but I didn’t. I’m not very into academics, but this class is not really like a class. Everybody has the same interests. It’s more like a family.”

Craig said the class not only teaches fashion, it boosts students’ self-esteem. “This may be the first thing they’re really good at in school,” she said. “Some parents come to our fashion shows and it’s the first time they’ve really noticed their kids.”