ASAS-LA Students attend UCLA’s Unicamp: June 2008
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July 28, 2008 -
LOS ANGELES – 150 middle school students from low-income families will get the chance to attend summer camp. The students will spend a week at UCLA’s UniCamp, located in the San Bernardino National Forest. Many of the young attendees have never had the chance to leave their inner-city communities and have not had the opportunity to be surrounded by the forest and nature’s amenities.
All students are members of the after-school program, After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for the students attending UniCamp to step out of themselves for a bit…out of their day-to-day lives, and enables them to envision a better future, away from gangs, away from violence,” says After-School All-Stars, Los Angles Associate Director, Carlos Santini.
The students chosen for this shopping event are all members of an after-school program called After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles.
Founded by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2002 After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles is a leading middle school after-school program provider serving over 3,000 students at 15 middle schools located in at-risk areas throughout the city.
The organization’s programs educate, enlighten and inspire thousands of middle school-aged youths each day through after school activities centered around health, fitness and nutrition; the visual and performing arts; and youth leadership and community service learning.
This is the second summer that students from the organization will attend UniCamp.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times Summer Camp Campaign, UniCamp was awarded $120,000 in 2008.
“In comparison to last summer, an additional 55 After-School All-Star, Los Angeles students were able to attend this year,” says Santini.
Santini, an UCLA alumnus also helped organize a “Camp Send Off” event for the students; getting them pumped for their upcoming camping sojourn.
To take place on the UCLA’s Sculpture Garden at noon on Saturday August 9th, the campers will enjoy a picnic lunch and listen to UniCamp and All-Stars staff speeches, prepping them for their camp send off the following weekend.
“I just want to make sure that the students know that people care about them. If such huge, amazing institutions like UCLA and The Los Angeles Times can give them an opportunity like this…it helps the students understand that they matter.”
