Public Relations Committee SEED Cycle 2013-2015

SEED Program Mt. Hood

Community College

June 2014

What is SEED Program?

The Acronym SEED stands for

Scholarship for Education and

Economic Development. This

program is founded by USAID and

provides scholarships for leaders with

economic disadvantages from different

countries in Central America, Mexico

and The Caribbean. SEED program

helps these students develop different

skills like learning a new language,

improve their leadership skills, and

intercultural interaction.

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Newsletter April – June 2014 SEED Cycle 2013-2015

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Community Services

City of Gresham celebrates the Earth day with an annual recycling event. It is

one of the biggest Recycling projects in Gresham, OR.

With this project the City of Gresham takes noncurbside

items that are classified as difficult-to-recycle items. About 37 students from the

SEED program participated

SEED Students help the community doing volunteer work

doing volunteer work in this event. They did a lot of

different work like attending people that arrived to the

place and directing them to the right spot, taking the

materials out from the people’s cars, separating the different kind of batteries,

putting Styrofoam in bags and uploading those to a

truck, and each of these activities with a little bit of

rain falling on their shoulders but the rain could

not take their smiles away. City of Gresham collected

13,750 pounds of shredded paper, 1,115 yards of plastic,

5,880 pounds of Styrofoam, 3,364 pounds of batteries,

2,000 compact fluorescent lights, and 126 cellphones. This was a great job done by

all the volunteers.

Pleasant Valley community Service

In this community service, students from the SEED program went to Pleasant Valley elementary School to volunteer in the

Earth Day annual event that this elementary school. The volunteers worked with the students of the elementary school

planting different species of plants to help the environment. This work increases the habitat for native species of animals and plants to live and this school is doing a great job helping

the environment.

Newsletter April – June 2014 SEED Cycle 2013-2015

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As many people know, 5 de Mayo is a big Latin-

American celebration that represents freedom to the people. With the pass of

time it has also became an important tradition that

brings people together. Mt. Hood community college

celebrated this tradition with an event, which provided a little bit of Latin-American

food to the students and some traditional dances.

SEED students from the cycle 2013-2015 performed

three different traditional dances, one from Mexico, another one from

Dominican Republic and the

other one from El Salvador. It is worth mentioning that SEED students prepared

these dances for several weeks with a lot of

dedication to share their culture and to be good

ambassadors of their countries.

5 de Mayo

S.U.N. Program

S.U.N. Program works with kids

in elementary Schools helping and

supporting them with their

homework and doing other

activities. SEED students have

helped this program by doing

volunteer work in Hall

Elementary School. They help the

teachers organize activities such

as basketball, playground

activities, and especially helping

the kids finish their homework

before returning home. The kids

go home happy and ready to

enjoy the rest of the day.

Newsletter April – June 2014 SEED Cycle 2013-2015

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Every SEED Student has to

learn about different

subjects during the

program. We have taken

some classes about our

scholarship requirements.

English: During the first

three terms SEED students have to learn the English

Language. They learn how to speak the language,

grammar, listening, and writing.

Math: SEED students also

take math classes to understand better the other different classes. The math

class depends on their level. They study from MTH010

to MTH095.

Computer Lab: They learn the basics skills of using computers that include the

skills to use Microsoft Office, Power Point and

Excel.

Botany: They have learned

about the flora of the Pacific Northwest and learned to

write reports about different species. The students get to know many different

species, their scientific name, common name, their

description and importance.

Classes

Newsletter April – June 2014 SEED Cycle 2013-2015

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Ana Lucia Blandon Martinez was

born in March 8, 1993. She grew

up in a town called Estelí in

Nicaragua. She lived with her

mother and father. She have a

sister 12 years younger than her.

When she was teenager she had

many problem in her life, she had

to take care of her little sister,

clean the house, does the dishes

and also she had to go to school.

She was born with harelip and

cleft palate, because of that her

childhood was very difficult, she

needed a surgery to improve her

life quality, so her parents had to

look for the opportunity to find a

door to help their daughter

because they had no money at all

to pay an immediate surgery to

skip all of the suffering that they

and their daughter were felling.

Finally she did get four surgeries

that improved her life in many

stages as social, emotional,

physical and spiritually. The first

surgery that doctors did she was

10 months, the second surgery she

was two year and a half, the third

surgery she was 10 year old and

the last one she was 19 year old.

When she was 13 started her high

school. This stage was one of the

most difficult for her because she

used to walk one hour to get to

school in the morning plus one

hour to get back home in the

afternoon, her family did not have

enough many to buy food for her

at that time and she kept standing

this grind for five years because

she really wanted to finish her

school to get a better future. After

finishing her school she took the

decision to work by her own

because she wanted to keep

studying at the university, she

worked and studied at the same

time for about three years and she

also helped to her family

unconditionally. One they a friend

told her about a great opportunity

to get a scholarship to go to study

to United States, she was thinking

about that proposal and decided to

apply because she thought that is a

chance that will never show up in

her life again. Finally Ana Lucia

got her scholarship to study

Environmental Technology and

Climate Change in United States,

she remembers the surprise about

it as it was today she said her

family was sad and also happy

about it. Now Ana has been

studying around 10 months at Mt.

community and she is getting a lot

of skills about leadership and

environment because when she

gets back to her country she wants

to help people from her

community to develop their life

and take care of the environment.

She also wants to help to the

childhood in her town.

“SEED PROGRAM has change

my life and I know everything is

possible in life I don’t have doubts

now”

A SEED student’s life