Valley College Given $100,000 in Grants

Valley College has received a total of $100,000 in two grants, one for a bilingual teacher training program with North Hollywood High School and the other for a community service project, a college official announced.

Both $50,000 grants come from the Fund for Student Success, part of the California Community College State Chancellor’s Office, and are renewable for two additional years.

The program with North Hollywood High School will include 160 honor students in the Acquiring Bilingual Leaders in Education Academy, who will be enrolled in two college-level psychology classes during the next school year.

The classes will be taught on the North Hollywood campus and will meet University of California and California State University transfer requirements for future teacher education.

Although Proposition 227 essentially eliminates bilingual education in California public schools, it “doesn’t mean we won’t need bilingual teachers and with this program a person who wants to be a teacher will get a jump-start at a four-year college,” said Yasmin Delahoussaye, dean of student services at Valley College.

North Hollywood students in the program “will be required to tutor at neighborhood elementary and junior high schools,” Delahoussaye said.

The second grant provides funds to continue a program called “Learn and Serve Los Angeles,” an effort involving college administration, faculty and students, as well as community leaders.

As part of their classwork, students in the program volunteer in a variety of activities, including working in homeless shelters, organizing food drives, delivering food to AIDS patients and helping with literacy programs.

In the current semester, 19 instructors have offered service learning in their classes and 67 students have been placed as volunteers in different agencies.