An occasional look at South Bay classroom news. : Mattel Alumni Help to Educate 7th-Graders About Business

STRICTLY BUSINESS: Thanks to former employees of the El Segundo-based toy maker Mattel, 30 seventh-graders at La Tijera School in Inglewood are getting a close-up look at how business operates in the real world.

It’s called the Life Skills Program and it’s run by the Mattel Alumni Assn. in an attempt to give students a head start in a business career.

“These kids don’t know how businesses work,” said Sherry Simonek, an MAA member. To help, the association operates the two-year program in which students receive classroom business training in the first year and hands-on experience by creating their own business enterprise in the second year.

In a recent lesson, students viewed two different commercials marketing the same product. Later they discussed which commercial was more effective and why.

While the course work is geared toward business training, Simonek said the underlying principles of the program--cooperation in the workplace, creativity and problem solving--led the organization to adopt the term “Life Skills.”

“We hope to give them a toolbox of skills they can use all through their lives,” Simonek said.

Kamisha Johnson, a junior at Gardena High School, won first place in the Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Scholarship Contest for her essay entitled, “Riot or Rebellion? Los Angeles 1965, 1992.”

The 16-year-old received a $750 scholarship, which she said she intends to save for her college fund. She plans to attend either Hampton, Selma or Tuskegee University and major in business and engineering.

In her essay, Johnson, a magnet student majoring in Spanish, explained why she believes that both riots were actually rebellions against poor economic conditions.

Her essay was also based on personal experience, she said.

“In the (recent) riot, I saw buildings that I used to go to burned up--it was sad,” she said.

Elementary and junior high school students in the Hawthorne School District will be eligible for scholarships next May through a fund created by heirs of longtime Hawthorne resident Robert Hartman, who died last year.

Elmer Hartman, brother of Robert, donated $25,000 to the school district. In addition, Hartman has promised to match every dollar the school district can raise from the community, up to $12,500, by Christmas.

Robert Hartman, a Hawthorne resident for 40 years, died last year of colon cancer. He was a manager of the Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in bringing Northrop Corp. to Hawthorne.

Hard work has paid off for Gardena High School’s chapter of the National Forensic League. Under the guidance of their coach, Lois Paddor, individuals from the 55-member team have won numerous awards, including claiming first, second and third place in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy Oratory Contest. First place went to senior Rabiyah Kincey; second place to junior BeNeca Ward; and third place to senior Denitra Livingston.

The Gardena team also took top honors at the Western Bay Forensic League’s Fall Individual Events Tournament. Individual event trophies were won by senior Twanisha Baker and sophomore Breanna Freeman in the dramatic interpretation category; senior Rabiyah Kincey in the thematic interpretation category; sophomore Martinique Mays in oratorical interpretation; and seniors Cerissa Stein and Avery Wilson in the dual interpretation. The team also received 20 certificates of excellence.

Finally, senior Denitra Levingston was a finalist in the “USA America Oratory Contest.”

Palos Verdes Intermediate School received the Outstanding Achievement Award last week for placing second in the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s junior division Mock Trial Awards.

Ali Yazi of the intermediate school received an Outstanding Prosecution Attorney Award presented by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

Wayland Hsiao of Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates earned an Outstanding Defense Attorney Award in the senior division, presented to him by Barry Hildebrand of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Board of Education.

The team from Miraleste Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes was a semifinalist.