Project EGO Banquet, Offsite at Ridgecrest Intermediate School

PV Sunset President John Turner opened the meeting and introduced the guests, including PVUSD Superintendent Walker Williams, Rancho Del Mar High School Principal Rosemary Humphrey, and members of the Board of Education.  Special thanks were given to the Norris Foundation for its $15,000 grant and to special benefactor Rowena Schaber, who donated $7000 to Project EGO.

Clinical Psychologist Robert Babb (pictured) has been with Project EGO (“Exploring Growth Opportunities”) for 19 years and helped to develop its curriculum.  It offers career direction and experience to high school juniors and seniors in the Palos Verdes School District who need extra help to qualify for graduation and achieve their potential.  The Project EGO program is sponsored by the Community Association of the Peninsula (CAP) in cooperation with the School District, and is supported by the Norris Theater Foundation and the Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary Club.

School counselors refer students to the program.  They often start with little belief in themselves due to previous adversities and failures, but the program helps them to think formally about their goals (often for the first time).  They can apply for financial grants to help them achieve goals, such as college or trade school or computer training, which helps to motivate them to plan their course schedule and focus on the skills needed to succeed academically to qualify for these goals.  After acceptance into the program, they are required to attend evening seminars twice a month by community business professionals and psychology interns, and they also attend some evenings for more work on deficient academic skills.  Attendance is required to maintain eligibility to continue in the program.  Small groups of these students help each other, facilitating bonding and showing up consistently and on time.  Some of them attend occupational training classes at SCROC (Southern California Regional Occupational Center) outside of their regular school schedule.

They start with about 40 students, ending up with about half of that number (15 this year).  Students are out if they miss meetings or don’t follow up as expected.  They can make up missed time by community service at the rate of 2 hours for every hour missed.  Most program dropouts are early in the school year, after which the survivors are determined to succeed.

Different topics are presented every month on careers and appropriate skills development.  Students are required to stand up before their peers to speak to them.  This feels intimidating at first, but they soon gain confidence in their ability to present themselves to others.  They fill out a resume (with coaching assistance), engage in a job interview and write an essay on their future plans and goals.

This banquet dinner at the end of the year, with their parents and sponsors, recognizes their struggles and successes.  The students were called to the front individually to describe their achievements and goals and to receive a completion certificate and financial grants of $500-$1750 toward their goals such as college tuition (if they have completed an interview).  This year’s students are: Wyatt Adams, Natalie Bruno, Sungduk (Daniel) Cho, Shannon Duke, Joshua Engeln, Kellen Goff, Alexander Gramajo, Krysta Holloman, Isaac Kim, Brittany Kuran, Aida Mahram, Moneeba Malik, Melissa Marsh, Brandon Ojalvo and Hailey Weebe.