…over the past 18 months we have increased our staffing, provided training to our caregivers and had the full time services of a psychologist and teacher available for our kids thanks to support from many of you. So today, instead of our kids being several years behind academically and exhibiting a variety of emotional and behavioral issues, for the most part they are incredibly happy, loving, well-adjusted kids who are doing well academically. Meanwhile, we have been doing a lot of community outreach to try to find wonderful local families willing to adopt our kids and I am thrilled to report that we now have 9 children out with families in the process of being adopted and three families ready to begin the adoption process with 5 more of our kids!
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Since its inception in 2002, StarShine has believed that a holistic approach to education is the best way to teach a child and ultimately improve the world. StarShine principles are based on the belief that nobody knows everything; that a person only knows what he knows, and therefore, every teacher is a student and every student is a teacher. The 15 Guiding Principles (which, because of their critical importance, are reproduced below in their entirety) are the philosophical fountain from which the StarShine Academy curriculum is designed and is credited with earning so many international scholastic, educational and peace-oriented awards…
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Late in the afternoon of Tuesday the 12th of August 2014 it was a combination of all the above that permeated through the Los Volcanes convention and meeting facility on the 2nd floor of the Sonoran Sky beach front Condominium Resort in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. To a group of 34 K through 12 education leaders of this quaint seaside village the anticipation was positively contagious as they assembled to learn as much as possible about the breakthrough StarShine Academy educational system that has received worldwide acclaim since it was introduced to the world over 12 years ago…
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Chef Julio Velázquez has proven himself a gifted culinary artist, having worked and trained under such renowned Executives as Epicurean Chef, Eddie Matney and French cuisine icon, Chef Christopher Ross in Phoenix. He also served as Sous Chef and Head Chef of the award winning Cheuvront Restaurant in Phoenix.
It was this combination of hefty culinary experience, and the sage advice of a wise doctor that pulled Julio through the traumatic diagnosis of Lupus in 2009. By all accounts, his future was to be filled with massive changes in activities, diet, indeed, even his ambitions to become a…
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José, a well-intentioned young student from the impoverished San Rafael Barrio in the far east of Puerto Peñasco is an example of how many students can get displaced in the over-crowded education system here. Up until the age of 15 when kids advance into the “secundaria” (secondary) and “preparatoria” (preparatory) levels of schooling, similar to junior and senior high school grades, space is tight but with a double shift everyday they all seem to get a desk at their school, at least through secundaria.
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One of the oldest and more ubiquitous of those organizations is the major social assistance and family development program known as DIF (Desarrollo Integral de La Familia), founded in 1976 by the state of Sonora and designed to…
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Mark and Barb Olszewski pulled their pick up to the front gate of “Elvira Fabiola Ceceña Rubio”, the very first primary school they adopted 10 years ago, the federalized school that motivated them to found their Adopt-a-Classroom Charity Organization. (http://www.rockypointclassroom.com)…
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