Up With People Gets Its Message Across

Up With People, the international student performing group, continues its World in Motion Tour in the San Fernando Valley this week, with performances scheduled today at Oxnard Elementary School in North Hollywood and at Pacoima Elementary School in Pacoima.

Thursday, the group toured Haddon Avenue School in Pacoima and Lassen Elementary School in North Hills.

The Haddon students were thrilled with the visit, said Sonia Ugarte, the school’s Chapter One coordinator, on Thursday. Chapter One is a federal program that subsidizes special reading, math and language instruction for economically disadvantaged children.

“They love it,” Ugarte said. “One of the groups didn’t even want to go out to recess. They wanted to stay with the (student performers) who were talking to them.”

The group gave two performances, visited fourth- through sixth-grade classrooms and had lunch with students. The group talked about self-esteem, about having a purpose in life, about avoiding gangs.

“It seems to be good for them,” Ugarte said. “It’s not just coming and doing a performance and leaving.”

The visit was especially helpful for students at Haddon, where 98% of the students are Latino, Ugarte said.

“Because we live in an area that is a little more segregated, they don’t know people who speak a different language or know people who look different from them,” she said. “All their roles models are here. They don’t see the other opportunities they can have in the future.”

But the Up With People performers--145 students, age 17 to 25, from 22 countries--gave students a larger view. “They can view the world in a different way,” Ugarte said. “They can see the other kind of languages and other cultures that compose our world.”

Up With People also expands the horizons of its performers. In the learning program, participants are instructed in intercultural education, performing arts, community service and career skills development.

Up With People was incorporated in 1968. The group grew out of a summer chorus started in Tucson, Ariz., by a naval officer and congressional aide interested in multiculturalism and international education.

By traveling for a year to about 85 cities in several countries and living with host families, the students learn about different cultures and personal relationships.

For every two-hour public performance the students give, they participate in two public service activities, whether in hospitals, high schools, senior centers or prisons.

The goal of the Broomfield, Colo.-based group is that students will end their year’s work more mature, more self-confident and more likely to become leaders in their communities and countries.

Up With People continues its performances next week at elementary schools in Los Angeles and Palos Verdes.