Is Anybody Listening? A testament by Village Academy High School students on the economic crisis

A Dream Comes True! Students meet President Obama on March 19, 2009! In addition, see President Obama's reference to Village Academy in his first speech to the nation about education. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29615027#29615027
Follow up with KCET.org/socal beautiful tribute to this project!

This project sprang from discussions held in our Advanced Placement Literature and Composition class during the reading of F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby, says Mr. Steinman, AP Lit. teacher at Village Academy High School (Pomona Unified School District). They opened up, shared deeply touching details of their current travails, and felt compelled to share their sentiments with those who were in a position to not only listen to them, but implement policies in order to make things better for them and the country they love dearly. The sentiments expressed in this project are true, heartfelt and totally unscripted. Students sat themselves down, the camera began to roll, and the resulting footage is as true as it gets. Spoken with innocence, directly, and with the courage rarely seen by teenagers today, the video was totally edited by students and is meant as a means of expression by which positive action will hopefully be inspired to evolve.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• high school
• students
• economic crisis
• Obama
• education
• video testimony
• anybody
• pomona
• unified
• school
• district
• village
• academy
• high
• homeless
• kids

[vmacommunications]

Thank you ALL for your kind words and wonderful generosity!

A fund is currently being established for accepting donations for the Village Academy High School Students!

Please be patient, we hope to have this completed for them this week. We will notify you as soon as it is established.

The kids are SO appreciative of the support and well wishes, we just can't relate it all here! Suffice it to say... a HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL!

[UncleOliver]

My name is Oliver, from Hong Kong, China. I watched the ABC boardcast on HKTVB-Pearl Channel tonite and learned that you share this on youtube.

In HK, there are also many people like you losing their jobs, homes and struggling on the edge. However, we may have no home, but we still have families. We may have no jobs, but we still have the courage to live, the skills to survive. We may have not enough food, but we stills have our strong wills to make the world change. Make you days!

[pkmon23]

i saw this on the news and i cant watch it without crying

[Lunafam1]

WE ARE LISTENING KIDS! LUNAFAM1

[cherrykitten68]

I saw you guys first on 20/20 and I was really moved. I'm 24 and I just lost my job and my home 2 months ago and I'm incredibly depressed but it helps knowing the president hears our crys.

[firstgovs]

yea same thank god i live in new zealand but its sad to see things like this happen i hope this ends soon

[stfuitslalashley]

im listening.

[pimpmorales36909]

I am Jose Lopez's brother and i think u guyz r right my name is pablo

[lmdabbs]

WOW! So moving...right in my backyard as I live in LA County. We need to keep the voice of Village Academy alive! I hope our President keeps listening...I hope he gets congress and the senate to listen...Prayers to you VAH...

[itzzzkimmm]

I watched this video in my Child Development class in college and wow it totally touched me.

[T3L3PROOF]

Whoopi Goldberg visited Village academy today, I was so excited Village Academy Rules!! Class of 2012 :(

[hikesnap]

very sad i live in nz we havent realy felt the crunch yet but i hope things clear up fou you guys

[QueenConceited]

I saw a story about this video on BBC World News. I live in New Zealand, a perfect little country but we are being effected by this world recession also. So many redundancies are going through, everyone's losing their jobs including myself and I know that people all over the world are listening to you, I certainly am. God bless you and your families and I wish everyone the best through this terribly difficult time.