Upcoming events

2nd Annual Public Policy Institute Spring Symposium                                  

Urban Youth: Fostering Success through GRIT

Join us for a spirited symposium on the roles that opportunities for youth play—and can play—in furthering the life, career, educational, and personal goals of urban youth.         

May 13-16th, 2013 

printable materials:                                                                             last update 5/8/13

     flyer | poster | maps |driving directions | alternate transportation  

printable handbills below

Monday, May 13th

Academic Resource Council Reception                       

This is a reception is to recognize those who make possible our students’ completion of the Associate in Arts Degree—the Public Policy Institute’s Academic Resource Council members and our partnering agencies that have consistently aided in the placement of Santa Monica College students in support of student experiential learning projects (service learning/internships). Honored as well are the 2013 Public Policy Interns. 

     Special guest Jonathan Mooney will provide insight on the City of Santa Monica’s Wellbeing Initiative.

Mon, May 13 |  5-7pm | by invitation | Pete and Susan Barrett Art Gallery

SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica 90401

"STOP REQUESTED"       to purchase tickets

by The Possibility Project and Southern California Foster Family & Adoption Agency  An original musical drama written and performed by a diverse group of teenagers in foster care, highlighting the realities of their lives and what happens when they leave the foster care system. This event is the symposium’s opening event and a benefit to raise scholarship monies for Santa Monica College students enrolled in the public policy degree/certificate program, and The Possibility Project that empowers teenagers who are transitioning from foster care through the Southern California Foster Family & Adoption Agency to create a better world. Our primary partners for this event are The Children’s Partnership, First Place for Youth, The Possibility Project, and The Broad Theatre.

Mon, May 13 | 7-10pm | $50 donation | The Broad Stage |

1310 11th Street, Santa Monica 90401  | Box Office 310-434-3200

Donations support PPI and Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation | handbill  | handbill with reception 

Tuesday, May 14th

 

Campus Keynote Address by PAUL TOUGH                                                    

Paul Tough challenges our culture’s belief that intelligence, endlessly measured by test scores, is the sole indicator of value in our education system. He lays bare how we might be dead wrong. In his New York Times best seller How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, he ushers in a tidal change in thinking and argues that non-cognitive skills—or, character—are better indicators of success: curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, self-control, and GRIT.

     How Children Succeed has spent 12 weeks on the New York Times best seller list.  Mr. Tough is a contributing writer to This American Life, The New Yorker, and New York Times Magazine, where he has written extensively about educating, parenting, poverty, and politics. Mr. Tough’s work on Grit has informed and inspired Santa Monica College’s GRIT Initiative. The intended audience for this campus lecture is students, faculty, and staff.

Tue, May 14 | 11:15am-12:35pm | free | SMC HSS 165  |  handbill  

 

Keynote Luncheon with PAUL TOUGH 

After the campus lecture, Mr. Tough will join invited campus administrators and faculty leaders, Associated Students, and PPI donors for a luncheon conversation on urban youth and the college’s GRIT Initiative.

Tue, May 14 | 12:45-2pm | by invitation | SMC HSS 301

 

Keynote Seminar with PAUL TOUGH                               

This small group seminar will feature Mr. Tough and is designed for the benefit of campus leaders engaged in the development and implementation of the college’s GRIT Initiative. Dr. Eric Oifer, SMC GRIT Initiative faculty leader, will facilitate the seminar.

Tue, May 14 | 2:30-4pm | by invitation | SMC HSS 361 

 

Community Keynote Address by PAUL TOUGH 

Keynote speaker, Paul Tough has honed his focus on education, poverty, parenting, and politics. His talk will focus on his work and our community's commitment to public policies. He challenges what we think we know about childhood and success in ways that every parent, teacher, and policy-maker should hear.

    Our primary partners in the community lecture are the Santa Monica Malibu-Unified School District, the SMMUSD Parent Teacher Association, the City of Santa Monica and its Cradle to Career Initiative, and the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. 

Tue, May 14 | 7-9pm | free | John Adams Middle School Auditorium |

2425 16th St., Santa Monica CA 90405 at Pearl Street | handbill 

 

Wednesday, May 15th 

 

Film Night with JOHN SINGLETON

The award winning filmmaker’s Boyz ‘N the Hood (1991) will anchor a roundtable retrospective on urban youth and violence led by the director. 

     Producer, director and screenwriter John Singleton was born in 1968, in south-central Los Angeles, and raised in the same type of neighborhood depicted in Boyz N the Hood. After receiving a degree from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television (1990), Singleton helped to create some of the more prominent and esteemed black films in the next decades. He first exploded onto the screen with Boyz, a tough, intelligent, plain-speaking look at friends in gang-ridden South Central L.A. that earned him Oscar nominations for best original screenplay and best director, becoming the youngest and first African American filmmaker to do so.

     Our primary partners for this event in addition to the SMPD are the SMC Associated Students, the City of Santa Monica, and SMMUSD.

Wed, May 15 | screenings 4:30pm and 8:00pm; Singleton LIVE 6:30pm | free |

Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2^nd St., Santa Monica 90401

 

Thursday, May 16th 

 

Roundtable: Hearing, Reflecting, and Advocating—Municipalities and Youth Services 

Don't miss this thought-provoking discussion with community leaders from the Santa Monica Bay Area Human Relations Council, the City of Santa Monica, local non-profits, The Children’s Partnership, First Place for Youth, and young people in our community. The goal is to identify and discuss the needs of our community’s youth and possible public policy responses.

Thu, May 16 | 11:15am-12:35 pm | free | SMC HSS 165

 

Roundtable Luncheon "Bringing a variety of voices to the table" 

After the campus roundtable, presenters will join invited guests in a brown bag style luncheon with “Table Talk” facilitated by the Santa Monica Bay Area Human Relations Council.

     “Table Talk” is a proactive activity that engages participants, often seated in an inter-generational or novel arrangement rather than seated with friends and associates, in an opportunity to discuss issues that impact the larger social fabric of our community.

     This community dialogue will focus on mapping out possible policy improvements in support of our community’s needs surrounding youth services.  

Thu, May 16 | 12:45-2:00pm | by invitation | SMC HSS 301

 

Community Forum: Foster Youth—Lost or Found?

More than 20,000 foster youth and children live in Los Angeles County. This program explores the lives of our older foster youth under current federal, state, court and local policies and how those decisions succeedd or fail. Join our stellar panel for a one-hour presentation followed by robust audience discussion.

• HOLLY MITCHELL, Member of the California Assembly and Chair of the Select Committee on Foster Youth.
• WENDY SMITH, Associate Dean, USC School of Social Work and author of Youth Leaving Foster Care: A Developmental, Relationshiop-Based Approach to Practice.
• JAMES WILLIAMS, former foster youth and Spokesperson for the California Youth Connection.

The panel will be moderated by the SMC Public Policy Institute’s Director, Sheila Kuehl.

Thu, May 16 | 7-9pm | free | Bundy Campus

Please send email to: ppi.rsvp@smc.edu with the number of guests attending.

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

Co-sponsors and event donors:  SMC Political Science Association, SMC Foundation, SMC Workforce Development, SMC Associated Students, City of Santa Monica, City of Santa Monica "Cradle to Career Initiative," SMC Associates, SMC Academic Senate, Santa Monica Police Department, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, SMMUSD Parent Teacher Association, The Children's Partnership, First Place for Youth, Southern California Foster Family & Adoption Agency, The Possibility Project, The Broad Theatre, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Santa Monica Bay Area Human Relations Council, Community For Excellent Public Schools, Santa Monica YWCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Monica, Social Justice Learning Institute, and our generous private donors.

 

Institutional support: Chui L. Tsang, Jeff Shimizu, Georgia Lorenz, Christine Schultz, Eric Oifer, Karen Gunn, Judy Neveau, Parker Jean, Carolyn Palmer, Linda Sullivan, Joy Bice, Marian Winsryg, Vanessa Butler, Chip Potts, Donna Savory, Charles-Mark Walker, Vinnessa Cook, Taynara Costa-Moura, Barbara Ige, Lizzy Moore, and Cary Greif.

 

Special thanks: Mitch Heskel and the house management crew at The Broad Stage; Tami Darrell and Gregory Gardner at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex; Brennan Wheeler at the SMC Peter and Susan Barrett Art Gallery; and PPI Interns.  

 

Academic Resource Council: Sheila Kuehl, Founding Director; Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein, Associate Director; Ben Allen, Carolyn Baugh, Shari Davis, Oscar de la Torre, José Escarce, Omai Garner, Nancy Greenstein, Peggy Gutierrez, Laurie Lieberman, Richard McKinnon, Jonathan Mooney, Gerda Newbold, Pam O’Connor, Terry O’Day, Jacqueline Seabrooks, and Ted Winterer.

 

Partnering Agencies: Arboretum Santa Monica, Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Monica, City of Santa Monica Office of the City Manager, City of Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment, City of Santa Monica Planning Commission, Clare Foundation, Community For Excellent Public Schools, Downtown Santa Monica Inc., First Place for Youth, Heal The Bay, Human Relations Council of Santa Monica Bay Area, LA County Arts for All, Liberty Hill Foundation, Metropolitan Transit Authority, NAACP Santa Monica Venice, Santa Monica Bay Restoration, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Santa Monica Community College District, Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica Spoke, Social Justice Learning Institute, Southern California Foster Family and Adoption Agency, The Broad Theatre, The Children’s Partnership, The Possibility Project, Westside School of Ballet, and Westside Family Health Center.