Second Harvest Food Bank

On December 5th and 19th, Beta Zeta Nu and Beta Xi Eta (College of San Mateo) teamed up to help out Second Harvest, a local food bank dedicated to feeding the hungry with nutritious and wholesome foods, in the spirit of Chapters United. Eighteen members from both chapters sorted food from 9am until noon to be distributed to families struggling with low-wage jobs, growing housing costs and homelessness with dozens of volunteers from local high schools and the community.

Our tasks included largely of sorting individually donated food-like from the Healthy Food Drive Beta Zeta Nu did over the holidays. That food was arranged into boxes for people who needed it to take home. The other job we did was making little 3 lb. bags of fresh produce. One group on December 5th sorted pallet boxes of carrots in this manner. The group on December 19th did the same thing for eight pallet boxes of oranges.

Second Harvest’s efforts help feed low-income seniors as well as low-income volunteers who are helping others while helping themselves. Volunteer support is essential for Second Harvest to maintain efficient and cost effective services. Because of Phi Theta Kappa’s efforts and that of other volunteers, over 205,000 people a month are able to receive food. The food is distributed through our partnering agencies, their satellites, and through Second Harvest Food Bank’s directs service programs.

Second Harvest deeply thanks Phi Theta Kappa for the time we took to help them achieve their vision, "Providing food for people in need in our community," which has made a difference for many this holiday season.

We have now formed a partnership with Second Harvest and plan on doing one food-sorting session with them once a month.

The Giving Tree Holiday Gift Drive Update

On December 18, 2009, Tristan and Rene picked up all 50 gifts as result of our holiday drive, which was a success! This was only possible because all of the efforts of the members and officers in the chapter as well as the staff, faculty and students who participated. People helped the drive in different ways, ranging from spreading the word to buying a gift. This holiday drive(The Giving Tree)was part of an even greater holiday drive led by The Family Giving Tree organization that does this every year. According to one representative about 60,000 gifts were collected over all. All these gifts were Christmas gifts for thousands of unprivileged children.

http://www.familygivingtree.org/

http://picasaweb.google.com/fgtpictures/2008HolidayWishDrive#5287905849904495634

Spring 2010 Peer Counseling

Canada College has made serious budget cuts and consequently let a most all of our counselors go. (we only have three left) If we do not step up and help, our fellow students will be at an unnecessary disadvantage as they struggle through an unfamiliar registration system and plan for their future..

Foreseeing this problem, Isaiah Roggow (co-president) and Paul Roscelli (head advisor) spoke with the VP of Student Services, Peter Barbatis, early in the fall semester and again in the last week school. Peter is doing some very creative things to help new students get into the classes that they need with the least hassle as possible!

That's where Phi Theta Kappa comes in. We are helping by attending scheduled New Student Counseling & Registration Sessions. We guide new students in navigating our web-based registration program, Websmart, for the first time. There are usually 15-20 students per session and the peer counselors float around assisting as needed. There is one facilitator of the session, a counselor, that would be in charge.

The tasks include but not be limited to-helping with username/password issues, searching for classes, and registering for them. The greatest issue will be escalated demand and reduced supply of available and open classes. Most if not all classes in the convenient times are already full so much that students can't even waitlist for it. That translates to students being frustrated with having no options, having to take classes at CSM, or taking a class at an inconvenient time. Part of peer counselor’s job is to soothe people’s frustrations with so little available options.

We will have three peer counselors per session. The benefits for are many: helping your fellow future classmates, being a face for PTK and serve as its representative, and the privilege to say on university and scholarship applications that you participated in this event. The efforts put forth by our peer counselors may be the difference between someone getting a class or giving up on college.

AOAE

Every year, Phi Theta Kappa and the Office of the President of Canada College engage in a joint effort to host an event that honors 200+ local high school students that earn a 3.5 GPA or higher at their respective schools. There are five such schools in and around our area, and many of their graduates seriously take Canada into consideration in regards to furthering their educational goals.

Isaiah was placed in charge and created a team to help him when needed. He was in constant contact with the College president’s office about getting the student’s names, their medals, the food, and other logistics.

The Afternoon of Academic Excellence is always held one week before our college’s graduation, which sets it to a Friday in late may. Approximately 80 high school students RSVP’d, but we ended up receiving and honoring 130 students instead. Fortunately, Isaiah and his team planned for this and no hiccups were experienced. Add to that friends and family, we ended up packing out the entire theatre.

This was a very challenging event to plan for. Isaiah had to get the names of all students from our five satellite high schools that scored a 3.5 GPA or higher and then get invitation letters to each of them. Each student had to RSVP to their career center and then I had Phi Theta Kappa members gather them at the high schools. It was the only way, as real RSVPs would have been extremely expensive and was outside our budget, which was already generously given by the college president’s office. Then there was the logistics of food, awards, and choosing a keynote speaker. We planned months in advance and due to our diligence, the Afternoon of Academic Excellence went off perfectly and with no problems. Our college President, Tom Mohr, was incredibly pleased with both my performance, my team, and of Phi Theta Kappa.

This event is incredibly important to the surrounding high schools. The Afternoon of Academic Excellence showcases to the high school students, their parents, and the administration of the schools the high quality that has been the norm at Canada College. Everyone likes to know from time to time that they are appreciated and valued. Many of these students have the potential to be first generation college attendees. This is most likely the first time they were to receive official recognition from a college for all their hard work over the course of high school. This event provides an opportunity to show these young people how much their efforts are appreciated. The students of Phi Theta Kappa believe that success begets success, and when these students come away from this event, they will have caught a glimpse of what they are working so hard and sacrificing so much for.

Afternoon of Academic Excellence is also a great opportunity to showcase the Canada College to prospective students that may not have a very positive image of what a community college is or of the students that attend one. This may be their first and only exposure to that. This event is one of the best student recruitment programs
There is still a cultural stigma surrounding community colleges. Whenever an event like this is held and is as successful as we, the students of a community college, made it, the image of community colleges gets a little more polish than it was when these teens entered. This is the singular event of the year does a fine job to ensure that community colleges, our nation’s ‘best kept secret,’ are a little less well-kept.

Healthy Food Drive

In conjunction with the Healthy Food Drive, on Dec 5th a group of 8 members from Beta Zeta Nu and Beta Xi Eta sorted food to be distributed to families struggling with low-wage jobs, growing housing costs and homelessness. Their efforts helped feed low-income seniors, as well as low-income volunteers who are helping others while helping themselves. Volunteer support is essential for Second Harvest to maintain efficient and cost effective services. Because of them and other volunteers, over 205,000 people a month are able to receive food. .

Second Harvest is deeply we appreciative of the time PTK took to help them achieve their vision: "Providing food for people in need in our community." PTK's gift of time has made a difference for many in our community.


Year round, the Food Bank is always in need of volunteer help and we plan you will be able to join them again. We look forward to that continued partnership.

Holiday Wishing Tree 2009

Last year, one of our members presented our chapter with the opportunity to give bay area foster children a happier Christmas season--through a "Wishing Tree". This toy donation drive works by connecting foster children's holiday wish lists with generous toy donors in the area through a "Wishing Tree" which is decorated with the children's individual Christmas cards, each with a child's name and wanted present. While we were honored to help foster children in need, this toy drive was a challenge as the request to help the drive came only a few weeks before the close of the school year and the Christmas holiday. Despite this challenge, BZN members, Canada students and staff were able to respond to every single card and gift request on the tree, and the presents were delivered in time to the local foster children.
In an effort to make a difference in the lives of young children this holiday season, PTK members again joined forces in order make this toy drive happen. We set up a Christmas tree at the entrance of the campus Learning Center and decorated it with wish-cards from poor children who may not get a gift this holiday season unless someone with a good heart picks one of those wish-cards.We are proud to sponsor this holiday drive and look forward to its success.

City Trees 2009

In 2007 Phi Theta Kappa and CityTrees, an urban forestry group, united in a joint effort with a simple mission: plant as many trees as possible in the Redwood City area. CityTrees has the full support of the Redwood City council and we plant trees on city land wherever there is space, most often in those patches of ground between the street and the sidewalk. We plant, prune, and maintain trees during the spring, summer, and fall. It is a very rewarding experience. There are always at least two of us present, and the plantings and prunings attract other students from Canada as well. Since we have started working with CityTrees, we have helped plant four hundred and twenty trees over the course of these past two years.
Following another planting experience with City Trees, Beta Zeta Nu Fall 2009 President Isaiah Roggow explained "My experience with CityTrees has raised my awareness and created in me a connection to the earth that I never before held. All my life I have heard it said that it is good to go ‘plant a tree,’ but to actually do that is a rewarding experience. Then to watch it grow and return to it a few years later to pull out the support stakes and prune the errant branches is a wonderful event for me. It really helped to raise my awareness of nature and of the verdant power of life. We as species are so destructive and prone to the taking of life. It helps me to know I am helping in a larger effort to give back to nature, to create and give life back and keep America beautiful, one tree at a time."
Here are a few pictures from our recent tree planting and pruning experience with City Trees.

PTK and the Canada College Honors Program - 2009

The Chapter continued their leadership and scholarship role in their contribution to, and expansion of, the educational opportunities for Canada Students. Capitalizing on research that showed an interest in an honors program, several PTK officers and members served the entire year on the honors program steering committee. The students were given the responsibility to help create, implement and review the success of: the mission of the program; criteria for entrance into the program; student learning outcomes for the program; criteria for graduation with honors; a reflection tool upon exit of the class; course offerings. The students also recognized an opportunity to market the new program beyond our college when our sister institution, The College Of San Mateo, due to budget cuts eliminated their honors program.

In addition, the students used the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Series reader and with their professor constructed a new honors leadership course in Spring of 2010 for all college students. The students, after researching and discussing the many aspects of leadership helped to create syllabus from the interdisciplinary readings in the Phi Theta Kappa reader. Finally, the class will be taught, in part, by campus leaders and is being called: Real Leadership: Real Leaders. The first of its kind ever offered at the college.

Rise & Fall of The Maya Lecture

On Wednesday, October 21st, Professor of Race & Ethnicities History, Charles “Chuck” Carlson in collaboration with Yolanda’ Valenzeula’s La Raza class co-sponsored an lecture on the rise and fall of the Mayan Civilization that Beta Zeta Nu chapter produced. Vice President of Fellowship, Ryan Calic brainstormed with Chuck Carlson, who agreed to be the main speaker for the event. Then Chuck Carlson came to one of our chapter meetings with his and Ryan’s proposal, which the chapter enthusiastically endorsed. A lot of leg work went into putting together the event. Ryan took the high demographic of Hispanic students into his considerations for choosing the topic of discussion; 1) Many Latinos have some collective, shared sense of Mayan ancestry and take pride in that aspect of their heritage, 2) Ryan and Professor Carlson wanted to show the rise and fall of a civilization on a trajectory based on the honors topic that would tie in with parallels of why modern nation states rise and fall based in a paradox of affluence and leadership decisions i.e., what worked and didn’t work in terms of leadership in governance of these civilizations ad naseam, 3) The consensus between Ryan, Carlson, and the chapter was that trajectories measuring the rise and fall of European and Asian civilizations had been “discussed to death,” so, in solidarity it was decided that a event should examine the rise and fall of a civilization that hadn’t been lectured on as much at community colleges.

Of course, we couldn’t have pulled it all off without the indispensable contributions of chapter alumni, Carl Noe, who tracked down and purchased containers of authentic Mayan style hot chocolate, produced flyers, which Ryan received stamps of approval for posting by Aja Butler, the Director of Student Activities Office on campus, and Carl also brought in an ethnic Mayan named Gerardo, a Canada alumni, who read a poem he wrote for the event. After a bit of confusion about when and where to pick up the hot chocolate, Ryan and Jonathan were able to secure a coffee vat to brew the cocoa prior to the event. Ryan and Jonathan then prepared the cocoa, stirred and mixed it. There was supposed to be a showing of a film about the Maya, “Popolvu,” between 12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M., but nobody came to watch it. The presentation began at 1:00 P.M. Ryan, Jonathan, Blanca, Carl, advisors, Lisa Palmer, & Paul Roscelli were in attendance. We had the event in Building 13-210. We had room for about 55 people and nearly every seat was fill by students that had come to see the program out of interest and or extra credit points from their professors. Ryan first introduced Dean of Humanities, Jenny Castillo, who in turn introduced Yolanda Valenzuela, and then introduced Gerardo. Then Ryan presented Chuck Carlson.

Chuck began with a powerpoint presentation. He showed some slides that showed what areas of Mexico and Central America that the Mayans inhabited, their governmental , leadership, and socio-economic infrastructure. He then tried to emphasize that the Mayans hadn’t completely faded away as a civilization and how the C.I.A. and Cold War paranoia had stifled the subsistence and socio-economic growth of the descendants of the Mayan. Some students seemed a little lost when Chuck referenced the C.I.A. and the Cold War, but the lecture went on smoothly. Chuck tied up the powerpoint with a slide giving reasons and questions for why civilizations rise and fall as well as what lessons we could learn from the Maya in terms of not repeating their mistakes in terms of a paradox of affluence and what leadership decisions should and shouldn’t be implemented of theirs. There was supposed to be a Q & A at the end, but it ended up happening within the lecture, which showed there was great enthusiasm and interest on behalf of those in attendance. The event finished on time at 2:00 P.M. Everyone said they enjoyed the presentation and generously helped themselves to the refreshments at the conclusion. Overall this leadership event met all the four hallmarks of Phi Theta Kappa, which should give everyone as reason to feel good as gold!

Arts and Olive Fest 2009

Our chapter recently participated in the Arts & Olive Festival by hosting the Phi Theta Kappa booth, which was open at the Arts & Olive Festival on Sunday Oct 4 from 10am-5pm.
Phi Theta Kappa has always been an organization that encourages new members to join. This was the exact goal of the members (Carl Noe, Rene Rivera, and Tristan Sheldon) participating at the Art and Olive Festival. During the festival we: informed people about the different programs that Phi Theta Kappa is participating in such as Project Read, engaged people in conversation about the benefits of joining Phi Theta Kappa and informed them of the orientation times and locations, and increased Phi Theta Kappa’s budget by selling bottles of water.
To organize this event, we gathered the appropriate resources: participants from Phi Theta Kappa, the booth, Phi Theta Kappa materials, bottles of water, and a bag of ice. We promoted this event by advertising via email, fliers, and our website which we updated to show our presence at this event. The booth was acquired from the school which held the event; we were assigned a location on the school grounds and a booth. The Phi Theta Kappa materials such as fliers and the banner were acquired at school as well from storage closet. The bottles of water were a last minute fund raising decision and we got the water from the storage room and Tristan picked up the ice for the water at a local grocery store.

This event was successful because the Phi Theta Kappa members helped promote Phi Theta Kappa to potential new members. We communicated with potential members about our chapter of PTK, talked with community members, students and parents about the role of PTK in the community and on campus.

Be the Change Day

On October 3rd, Beta Zeta Nu joined other volunteer workers for Be The Change Day.
In this project, students from our chapter (Jonathan Werden, Rene Rivera, Jeremy Morales, Estrella Morales , Ryan calic, David Carrillo, Francisco Lopez, and Rachel Rankin) went into a local school (Edison-Brentwood Elementary) to beautify and repair it. After splitting up into different task teams, we began doing various jobs that we were assigned to. These included the following; repairing benches, weeding the school grounds, planting new flowers and trees, and repainting the benches, various murals, playgrounds, and roof support poles.
BZN members participated in a community service project, learned about the material needs of less affluent school children, and beautified a local East Palo Alto school.

Secret Waterfall Beach Clean-up 2009

On October 25th, thirty total students participated in Secret Waterfall Beach Clean-up 2009. Canada College’s local chapter, Beta Zeta Nu, teamed up with three other chapters to lend our full weight to clean up a beach in Pacifica infamous for its pollution by the local populace. We joined forces with The College of San Mateo’s chapter, Beta Xi Eta, and the De Anza chapter, Alpha Sigma Alpha. The location we visited was ‘The Secret Waterfall,’ which has become a trash depository of the suburbia of northern Pacifica.

This entire effort was directed by a non-profit organization called the Pacifica Beach Coalition, lead by their president, Lynn Edwards.

When we arrived, the beach looked horrible. There is a waterfall deep in the cliffs that forms a stream to the beach. Trash was everywhere up and along the stream leading to the ocean, where the waves would then grab the detritus and take it out to sea. The usual suspects were present: bottles, bags, cigarette butts, lighters, and other flotsam. However, by far the most threatening, ubiquitous, and pernicious item was the thousands of pebble-sized pieces of Styrofoam scattered over the one hundred square feet of the environs of the stream. Birds, fish, and other marine life eat these bite-sized pellets ignorant of the death sentence they levy. The consequence is for every piece of styrofoam the size of a head of a pin a fish eats, a fish dies. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands, and it becomes clear why our world is in a fish population crisis.

To find out just how many pellets of styrofoam were strewn about the area, I measured out a 10'x10' square of ground. I had people gather every piece of styrofoam. We then measured the creek area and then extrapolated how many styrofoam bits there were on the entire site. It was calculated that there was approximately 1,500,000 bits of styrofoam in the Secret Waterfall site alone. There are hundreds of these kinds of streams feeding into our oceans and our food supply. That results in millions of pieces of styrofoam going into the sea and killing its equivalent in sea life. It really opened my eyes and significantly raised my awareness on how we are unwittingly killing thousands of members of the food chain that we as a race depend on for survival.

Our group picked up approximately 100 lbs of plastic at the site, which means we saved a lot of birds and sea life from choking and prevented more waste from polluting the environment. The president of the Pacifica beach coalition took the bags to the next city council meeting and presented them to them to give them a stark visual of how new ordinances need to be put in place if we are to have an impact in saving vital members of the food chain upon which we depend.

PTK returns to the Redwood City Symphony

Beta Zeta Nu returned to support the Redwood City Symphony at Canada College this October. Members, including Rachel, Jessica, Gavi, Jhatan, Sarah and Jacqueline, helped set up for the performance, attended to concessions before the concert, during intermission and after the concert and helped with clean up in the facility. We also filled in for absent ushers during the performance.
Here, members gained valuable service experience in volunteer work for a community performance, event organization and planning as well as the cultural experience of live, professional classical music. This performance helps bring prestige and positive exposure to Canada College, and Beta Zeta Nu provides the symphony with an appropriate venue as well as the necessary manpower to allow them to continue their performances in Redwood City.

Kiva updates

This fall we're are continuing our support of entrepreneurs in developing countries with our ongoing participation in the organization Kiva. Kiva is the first of its kind, an international micro-lending organization which connects impoverished nations and their burgeoning small business communities with individuals online who want to help these businesses grow through micro-loans.

Here's a little about the new group of entrepreneurs we're helping in Tanzania:

Garlos Robson is young business owner in Tanzania, who owns a "duka" ("shop" in Kiswahili) where he sells items like oil, sodas, and water and has had this business since 2004. He will use the loan to buy more inventory for his store and recycle his profits into the business to help it grow. Garlos is part of a business group called Kisiwani, which has sixteen members.The sixteen group members run a variety of small businesses, from clothes shops, to vegetable and fruit "table top" stands, to carpentry businesses.

To learn more about Garlos and the Kisiwani group, click below.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=146782&_te=ty

Make a Difference Day

On Saturday, October 24th Ryan Calic attended a Make A Difference Day event organized by the De Anza chapter through an organization called Save The Bay. He arrived at the wetlands by the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park around 9 am. He was met there by De Anza’s chapter officers, Therese Thian, Ka Lee and several others from their chapter. First they got together and listened to a Save The Bay representative who talked about a short history of the wetlands, of which 90% of had been destroyed by urban sprawl and salt pond production. Then they gave a demonstration of which invasive plants to weed out as well as instructions were picking up trash. Then everyone got to work after being provided with trash bags, gloves, and trowels. It took about an hour to pull most of the weeds; the rest of the morning was spent on trash pickup. Most of the trash consisted of paper and plastic waste, such a bottles, scraps of paper, wrappers, and Styrofoam. We finished at noon. Ryan along with the De Anza officers answers some trivia questions based on what we learned at the site. The morning was quite productive in terms of meeting our Service and Fellowship Hallmarks and helped motivate De Anza’s officers to participate in our beach cleanup in Pacifica the next day host by our chapter. This event also contributes to the Chapters United mission of Phi Theta Kappa.

Redwood City Symphony

"The Symphony's great strength is its intrepid explorations in repertoire, which are often quite courageous for a community group." --San Francisco Classical Voice

We had the great pleasure in once again hosting the Redwood Symphony Orchestra at Cañada College. The PTK volunteers (Jenna Murphy, Said Taibi, Violeta Crow, Aldo Garcia, Isaiah Roggow, and Johnathan Werden) set up, ran, and broke down the concession and ticket stand. In between those duties, when the Orchestra was performing, the volunteers could sit and withness one of the best volunteer symphonies in the country.

By volunteering to perform the logistics of a concert for an all volunteer orchestra, Beta Zeta Nu was able to help bring art to the local population of students and community members. We were also able to build relationships between Beta Zeta Nu members and the event coordinators.

High School Outreach

As part of our effort to connect with local high schools, Rene Rivera represented Phi Theta Kappa during a summer Cañada campus tour for high school students. The purpose of this presentation was to reach out to future students of Cañada and possible future PTK members. It was important to show the incoming students the programs and clubs available to them, including PTK, and show why it was important for them to stay active in their campus and community. The presentation was provided in Spanish to support these first generation immigrant students who spoke very little English. Thanks to Rene, these students have a better knowledge of the possibilities for greater enrichment as college students.

Library Foundation

On August 23rd, Beta Zeta Nu helped the Library Foundation of Redwood City raise money at the North Fair Oaks Festival in Redwood City. The money was intended to help the Library Foundation purchase materials for Redwood City libraries, which would benefit the community at large. We gathered volunteers from the chapter (Aldo Garcia, Violeta Crow and Rene Rivera) and sold raffle tickets to passers-by at our booth in the festival. The foundation was raffling attractive prizes, such as an iPod, soccer ball, tickets for a Giants game and more. The event was fun for the chapter as well as the community and we were able to raise about $400 for a noble cause. We were also able to represent students of Cañada College and Phi Theta Kappa.

2009 Summer events

This summer, Beta Zeta Nu members, officers and advisers met several times to discuss new and ongoing projects, as well as the Honors Topic in progress. As the summer progressed, we participated in several different events, including a 4th of July Parade, a tree planting project and a leadership event, summaries of which will appear in a later post.

We resolved that every time members create and engage a project make would write reports on these projects summarizing the project, who participated, our goals for the project and the outcome. We’re sure that these summaries will help guide our project design and focus in the future as well as provide inspiration readers and future members.

We also spent time consistently coordinating events supporting this year’s honors topic. We reviewed different books in related to the Honors Topic and possible projects, including but not limited to "The China Study" by Dr. Colin Campbell. After discussing possible projects and events, we decided on several new projects as well as reengaging community partnerships from last year. As part of our ongoing partnership with Garfield school, members will be creating a project for Garfield students to educate them on the stock market, investment and money management, which will ultimately be tied back to economic policy. There will also be a presentation related to education, focusing on whether college is necessary and/or the consequences of a less affluent or unequal education.

The chapter also discussed possible service projects for the upcoming year. So far we have considered several options, some of which include planting a garden and doing volunteer landscaping at a homeless shelter through the Shelter Network in Menlo Park, sponsoring a team for the Project Read Trivia Bee, pruning city trees, hosting events for Be the Change Day and helping with state beach and dune restoration projects in Half Moon Bay. Other events in the future may also include helping collect fish data aboard a research vessel in partnership with SF. We’ll also be using social networking sites to get member feedback on such events and recruit volunteers.

As part of our activities on campus, we’ll be redesigning our PTK information and display case to show recent events through photos, brief summaries and invitations to view our blog. We’re also considering different ways to help ease the impact of the state budget cuts on campus, and offering our assistance in any way we can to counselors and administrators. As such, we’ll be greeting and guiding students through the administrative building for the first few weeks of school to help students avoid lines up to 3 hours long.

We're all excited about a new semester and helping our fellow students and community at large.

Upcoming Events

Meetings
• Tuesdays at 2 PM

Immigrants Day Festival
• Saturday, May 16th throughout the day
• It will be at the History Museum (2200 Broadway) and Courthouse Square in Redwood City
• It will have great music and food
• We are looking for volunteers
• If you are interested please contact Kayla at BetaZetaNuNews@yahoo.com for more information

Afternoon of Academic Excellence
• May 30th at 2 PM at Cañada College Main Theater
• Looking for volunteers for event
• If you would like to volunteer or need more information please contact Kayla at B€etaZetaNuNews@yahoo.com

Former President Honored

Beta Zeta Nu's former president and active member, Alex Garcia, has been honored with winning a $60,000 Jack Kent Cooke scholarship. Below is an amazing story of his life by Canada's Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Robert Hood.

High School Dropout, Jailbird, Earns $60,000 College Scholarship to Pursue Economics Degree at UC Berkeley

Redwood City’s Alex Garcia will be honored on May 7 at a ceremony at Cañada College.

Alex Garcia spent his 20th birthday in the San Mateo County Jail, a high school dropout addicted to drugs. On Thursday, May 7, - nearly five years later - Garcia will be honored as one of only 50 community college students nationwide to receive the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.

Garcia, 24, will be recognized at the annual Transfer Reception at Cañada College. It starts at 2:30 p.m. in the Main Theater Foyer, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd., in Redwood City.

“I was arrested six times and was headed to prison,” Garcia said. “I was sitting in jail, my mom had maxed out her savings to pay for a lawyer to keep me out of prison and a guard came up to me and said I was nothing but a no-good gang-banger and I would spend the rest of my life in prison. It was at that point I said ‘no way, it’s not going to play out this way.’ ”

Garcia was released into a drug rehabilitation transition house in Redwood City and decided to enroll at Cañada College. “I hated school with a passion,” he said. “But I knew I needed more than a GED to succeed in life.”

It was at Cañada that Garcia met Paul Roscelli, professor of economics. He had scored an A on an economics test in Roscelli’s class and went to visit the professor during office hours. It was there that Roscelli challenged him. “He told me I was too smart not to pursue a first-class education,” Garcia said. “I was considering transferring to a university but he challenged me to apply to Stanford, Cal and other top schools. It was a verbal slap in the face.”

Roscelli recruited Garcia to be part of Beta Zeta Nu, Cañada’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the national honors society for two-year colleges. Garcia became co-president of the club and spearheaded several community activities including planting more than 50 trees in Redwood City, organizing debates on the Iraq War, and talking to potential students about the value of education.

“He told his story to about 500 of our students and they were absolutely mesmerized,” said Linda Haley, director of Cañada’s Community-Based English Tutoring (CBET) Program. “You could have heard a pin drop. They saw how it was all about the decisions one makes - decisions to join gangs and continue that lifestyle, or the decision to achieve an education and open doors in that direction. Alex's decision and steadfast commitment to his goals have gotten him where he is, and his audiences take note of that and are inspired by his story.”

Roscelli calls Garcia one of the most gifted students on campus. “He has earned A’s in all three of my economics classes as well as an A in my financial accounting course. The average grade in these courses is a C. His talents are enhanced by his life experience and together you get a student that is mature, accomplished, and a proven contributor to the college community.”

Garcia said he was surprised to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. “So few students receive it,” he said. “My plan is to major in economics at Berkeley and then go straight to grad school. My goal is to attend an Ivy League school.”

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship makes it possible for the nation’s top community college students to complete their bachelor’s degrees by transferring to a four-year college or university. The foundation provides up to $30,000 per year to each of approximately 50 deserving students selected annually, making it the largest private scholarship for two-year and community college transfer students in the country.

Garcia is the second Cañada College student to receive the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. Viviana Alcazar received the scholarship in 2004, graduated from Stanford University, and is currently working on her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley.

Highschool Outreach

Beta Zeta Nu, honoring our commitment to scholarship and service activities, decided to organize activities to promote Canada College new Honors Program. Four of our members went to Wood high school,Sequoia High School, Carlmont High, San Mateo High School. Rene Rivera, Jonathan Werden, Ashley Cohen and Sofia Lozano helped the out reach embassadors to explain en encourage high school seniors to join our new honors program!

Fourth Garfield Presentation

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On April 29, 2009, Alex Garcia, Rene Rivera, Astrid Caballero, Sofia Lozano and Clay gave the fourth presentation at Garfield Middle School with Youth Adelante. This time, the members created a power point presentation about leadership. The chapter members talked about what does it mean to be a leader, and specific steps to achieve goals. They also talked about their experiences as leaders and Honor students. Chapter members shared their goals in life and encouraged the kids to write down their goals as a way to make them concrete and easy to remember. After the presentation they organized a game that taught kids to plan ahead and reconcile needs and desires. The class divided into four groups. Each group had a budget and a list of things they needed to purchase. The kids budget their money and prioritized items in consensus.

This project, allowed us be role models for kids that are endangered of bad environments or neighborhoods with gangs and drugs. By doing this presentation, PTK was able to promote Engineering and the sciences to the kids at Garfield. We may have made a difference in the life of these children by what we are doing. We were able to see that we may not be able to change the world, but we understand that if we can make a change in these kids lives, that’s a plus for us and our community.

International Convention

This year, the international convention was in Grapevine, Texas. Our chapter sent 5 of our members, Ashley (co-president), Jonathan (VP of fundraising), and new members Rachel, Yvette and Clayton. The advisors that came were Professor Roscelli and one of our newest advisors, Professor Swanson. The convention was extremely successful as we won multiple awards for our achievements and learned a lot about future events we can do and how to make them successful. Our members and advisors went to multiple educational forums in order to learn about different aspects of the honor society and on the last day, we held a meeting to report back to the group everything we learned and how we can make our chapter even stronger next year. We were fortunate this year to see two keynote speakers - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (environmental activist) and Dr. Fareed Zakaria (CNN correspondent). Both speakers taught us a lot about the world we live in and what we can do to improve it. We hope our chapter can do as well next year, if not better!

List of Awards
Administrator Awards of Distinction
Dr. Steve Runnebohm, Alpha Omega Alpha Chapterm Mt. San Antonio College
Shirley B. Gordon Awards of Distinction
Dr. Chris McCarthy, Beta Beta Sigma Chapter, Napa Valley College
Mr. Tom Mohr, Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College


Distinguished Member Awards
Jeremy Madrigal, Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College
Elizabeth Fein, Beta Eta Psi Chapter, Sacramento City College
Jon Fournier, Beta Theta Kappa Chapter, Butte College
Eric Nolan, Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College


Distinguished Chapter Officer Awards
Helen Hagler, Beta Theta Kappa Chapter, Butte College
Richa Pandey, Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College
Rene Rivera, Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College



Distinguished Advisor Awards
Paul Roscelli, Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College
Kurt Meyer, Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College


Leadership Hallmark Awards
Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College
Beta Theta Kappa Chapter, Butte College
Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College

Top 100 Chapters
Beta Theta Kappa Chapter, Butte College
Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College
Beta Eta Psi Chapter, Sacramento City College
Beta Theta Omicron Chapter, Skyline College
Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College
Beta Beta Sigma Chapter, Napa Valley College

Distinguished Chapter Awards
Beta Eta Psi Chapter, Sacramento City College
Beta Zeta Nu Chapter, Canada College
Alpha Omega Mu Chapter, Irvine Valley College

Officers Needed!

Interested in being behind an award winning chapter? Please come to our meetings on Tuesdays at 2 or e-mail Kayla at BetaZetaNuNews@yahoo.com for more information.

Chapter President Recognized

Chapter Co-President, Ashley Cohen, was named All California Academic FIRST TEAM! She was one of the few to have a 4.0 GPA. We are so proud!!!!!!!!!!!!
She was also written up in the school's Olive Press. To see the article go to http://canadacollege.net/inside/newsletter/0809/current.html

BZN Awards

Regional Awards
· We won many awards for our great chapter.
· We were recognized as a 5 star chapter
· Named the 2nd Most Outstanding Chapter in the CA/NV region
· Paul Roscelli won the 2nd Outstanding Chapter Advisor
· We also won the Regional Leadership Award
· Our Co-Vice President of Service, Rene. was recognized as an Outstanding Chapter Officer
· Our Vice President of Fundraising, Jonathan, won the Literary Award Fiction for his screenplay
· An Alumni, David, also received an award for a video he made of our chapter last year.
· One of our members, Courtney, also won an award for her art.

Officer Awards
· We also had two officers noticed for their achievements.
· Our Historian, Sofia, was given The Ralston Presidential Scholarship to Notre Dame De Namur University. This allows her to now go to Notre De Namur University on a full ride.
· One of our Presidents, Ashley, was named a 2009 Coca-Cola National Finalist in addition to being in the 2009 All California Academic Team.

Honors in Action Breakout Session

By Courtney Caldwell


*Note* A PTK student in this meeting mentioned that Harvard, having lost $6B with Madoff, is no longer accepting transfer students.

• A 10 page Honors in Action Essay to replace the Hallmarks individually-they’re all being combined into one essay.
• Bring materials back to your chapter to help train officers, members
• Hallmarks = academic excellence recognized. What’s the #1 reason students don’t accept membership? They don’t know what PTK is, so try to spread the word to students and teachers.
• PTK about building servant leaders through Honors in Action.
• 1) Set goals down on paper—name of who’s in charge of it, the project details and the timeline (steps to get it done). You can also do this to teach.
• Make sure you set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, Timely.
• If you’re not a 5 star chapter, set 5 star development goals
• Figure out what issue from the Honors Guide you’ll address
• Comprehensive HIA projects should be clear about which level they’re applied to (can be more than one) – chapter level, college, community, outer community, region, international, etc.
• The scholarship hallmark—1) Honors Topic 2) Recognize academic excellence in students & faculty
• Service Hallmark – you’ll see needs pop up as you do research on a topic, maybe your projects should deal with these needs.
• If you choose to work with an organization, which organizations fit with your passions?
• “Operation Green”—International Service Program
• Leadership Roles –break down projects & delegate
• Teaching leadership roles—in chapter meetings, at campus level (through speaker series, workshops, etc) in community (girl scouts, other orgs) regional and international level
• Fellowship Hallmark is incorporated into other hallmarks
• HIA-- start with honors topic, use it as a lens to look at other things then RESEARCH a lot
• Ask around to see if any of your students are already studying a topic for the project, book special speakers on the topic, plan field trips to related places.
• KEEP DETAILED RECORDS! Journaling is recommended. Write down the steps, hours, #s (people, money, facts, lots of detailed records, and also anecdotal things like responses you got. This can also go on your blog.
• Talk to leader members to see how it affected them (Butte) after every meeting we delegate a member to post to our blog.
• Fill out the project form to help you track your progress
• Ch. Officers tab, then link to Project Planning, model, sheet to plan projects & track affects
• Hallmark Awards – HIA Project, but can be multi-dimensional (could take a day, could take a year)
• College Project – 3 pages max – project you do for the college, you can write an entry about this (responding to AOAE in writing)
• To be considered an excellent chapter you have to have an entry in both categories.
• Why should we spend time writing about this? These are the same skills that you need to apply for grad schools, writing grant proposals, scholarship entries
• HIA at International Convention – right now, top 25 chapters get called up on stage and recognized, and we find that the same chapters are there accepting awards.
• The new HIA will have up to 5 awards in each of the issues, 10 issues so a total of 50 awards given (therefore awards for 50 chapters)
• Some issues are more “sexy” than others- ie the environment, but not many about rise in civilizations, so you could go with a less sexy topic to be more competitive.
• 25 awards in College Project Category
• Jan –Dec = academic year, so that is the timetable in which projects will be considered
• Questions to make you think about the projects will be up on the website in a few weeks. Look at these questions when you’re dealing with your projects. It will help you write responses to your project.
• Don’t do so many projects that you spread yourself too thin, b/c you can’t do it all. Find out what your chapter members are passionate about b/c those projects are more likely to get done.
• Good entries  Advice
• 1) READ! Instructions and rules and FOLLOW the rules (mind your deadlines or you will be disqualified)! Example: most entries didn’t address the first question in the Hallmark so they were docked points.
• 2) GIVE SPECIFIC DETAILS – quantifiable amounts – 15 members walked 4 miles raised $4K, or whatever. Your choice of language matters  “supported relay 4 life” = fundraising = not strong enough, doesn’t suggest that you took enough initiative, or that you did any original work to help the project/organization. Versus “spearheaded a relay 4 life event, where we rallied volunteers to….”= this word choice actually conveys the qualities that are important, not just that you participated.
• 3) Impact—what difference did it make? In chapter members lives? In community? In region/world?
• 4) Well written—do lots and lots of editing b/c you will have errors and notes you leave to yourself, etc. Treat it as you would a cover letter or a resume, where you have lots of eyes look it over for different angles (grammar and spelling and form, etc) With cover letters and resumes, spelling errors and lack of clarity would get your resume thrown in the trash, so be mindful.
• How many essays were submitted? This year 421 chapters entered different essays, out of about 1280 chapters. This is part of why they’re trying to simplify the entry process, to get more participation from chapters.
• There is no such thing as luck—just hard work.

Club Day

On March 10th the Associated Students of Canada College, or ASCC, organized and sponsored Club Day. Students belonging to different clubs gathered in the cafeteria to promote their students clubs and encourage students to join. Beta Zeta Nu had a booth in the event to represent Phi Theta Kappa. Members of the chapter talked to eligible students encouraging them to join and be active in campus. Through our involvement in this activity we were able to not only encourage membership, but also reach out to our community.

PTK Regional notes

PTK Regional notes – General Session I
• State of the region – everything is fine! Financially healthy, chapters are growing, Heald college now has a chapter, Hayward, Stockton, more chapters. But we’re coming close to the limits of our capacity. 87 chapters now in CA
• Involvement is growing too, lots of awards have been given (Shirley B Gordon award has gone to Tom Moore @ Canada College) also new faces at events, like today.

PTK Regional Notes – General Session II
• Awards for Bridge to Peace Project in Sri Lanka, regional projects recognition
• Palamar College, Skyline, Butte to name a few. Accomplishments - $5500 was raised for the village to build a water pipeline, and to establish a teaching program.
• A few PTK members (some from Skyline) traveled to Sri Lanka to teach children there.


PTK Regional Notes – General Session III --Saturday

• International conference is in Grapevine, Texas April 16-18 2009, get 4 people to a room if you’re in the same region. Robert Kennedy Jr will speak. Bring seeds to beautify the area—there is a list on the website of seeds that are acceptable.
• Scholarships - collegefish.org
• Economic downturn – still need recruits, rewards chapters for membership increases. 1 int’l member scholarship for every 5% increase all the way up to 25%
• CA/NV region is now the largest region w/ 87 chapters, but only 31 5 star chapters participating, not high.
• Always report new advisors, new contacts and contact info, new officers
• Better World Books—power point presentation available if we contact them.
• 11.4 mill lbs of books saved from landfill, CA/NV was 4th in the nation for this drive.
• Scanners for BWB – use it and $ back per book goes up to $1/book rather than $.50/bk, and every book over a 1000 is $1.25/book
• Contact BWB to get a free scanner –Roselle campus@betterworldbooks.com
• You get $ for your chapter by sending books, scanner will tell you if book is acceptable or not and all unacceptable books you can have a book sale on campus and sell at $1/bk.
• Regional Honors Institute – July 24th – 26th at University of Redlands in Redlands,CA

Mezes Park Build

Both Co-VPs of Service were first contacted via-email by a woman named Keli Amann. She emailed Beta Zeta Nu asking if we could gather as many volunteers for an event her husband, David Amann, a financial advisor for Edward Jones had put together. Mr. Amann had just found sponsors that donated money to build Mezes Park in Redwood City. After a Co-VP of Service, Astrid, contacted her by phone she told her that they needed 200 volunteers to build a park in one day! Mrs. Amann was contacting every school and college to gather up as many volunteers as possible. The jobs were: laying down mulch, registering volunteers, painting bathrooms, putting together park equipment, cement mixing, laying cement, putting together benches, painting a mural that was designed by children of the community, and serving food. There was a job for anyone! The event was held on Saturday March 7th 2009 and both VPs of Service participated in the event along with, Edgar, Elmira, Arturo, Steve, Concepcion, Alfredo, Francisco, Jeremy, Aldo, Violeta and other students from MESA. Many of our group members were separated from each other, but still played a part in the event. Rene, one of our Co-VPs of Service, and a few others helped put together the equipment for the park and Astrid was also separated with others to lay down mulch in the park. First Rene and many other volunteers had to read instructions on the grass aside from the build site in order to put the equipment together such as the slide, swings, crossing bridge, ladder, rock climbing wall, etc. together. After the parts were put together they were carried individually from the grass to the build site. This project took a lot of man power. After the pieces were put together the playground structure was screwed together. In the meantime, there were piles of mulch on the sidewalk next to the build site. Many volunteers, including Astrid, were assigned to shovel up the mulch onto pieces of tarp. After a nice load of mulch was piled up on the tarp four volunteers had to carry it to the build site and lay it around the playground. Volunteers had to fill the entire playground with mulch! Although it was a back breaking job, all the volunteers were so determined to build the park on time that we finished building the park by 11, which was an hour before the deadline. Many volunteers from the Redwood City community turned out that day to make the build possible and it was by far a success.

PTK-Opedia

PTK-Opedia—Overview of PTK and general advice.

By Courtney Caldwell


•Going through the 4 Hallmarks and why they are important. Honors in Action – using the hallmarks together. Use leadership workshops to practice outside your comfort zones
• 5 star development program designed to get you involved and explore every facet of the society. When you’re a 5 star chapter help lesser starred chapters.
• Nevada/Ca region – 5 districts (CA = NW, NE, SW, SE) and NV. Know who your VP is and contact them for advice, update them on what you’re doing that’s great and stay in touch, even when things aren’t great.
• Regional Officers – they help organize multi-chapter events, provide support, guidance and information (They want us to contact them) they’re there to enable multi-chapter communications and have special training to assist.
• Regional service projects – regional board creates these (new board = new projects)
• As a chapter, you need to report your projects. Some projects just start out as chapter projects (ie. Bridge to Peace), but spread to the rest of the region.
• On the chapter level: 1) planning your calendar – hallmarks, decide your goals (in community, etc) also find local community calendars, campus calendar, student organization calendar, etc
• Create committees for projects—make someone responsible/accountable for them
• Keep your advisor happy- effective communication is key (keep in mind that PTK is secondary to their teaching). They do a lot of extra work to do stuff w/ PTK. Some advisors are apathetic but if you share your passion with them, you can win them over.
• Infiltrate student government if you can. Maintain effective relationships with student government to overcome issues, participate, etc. you can influence the outlook that they have of PTK
• Induction ceremonies should be classy—formal (you will retain more people and first impressions are important). Show the accomplishment of being part of PTK.
• Gain administrative support to have relationship b/c they control your resource cap on campus. They’ll also share their ties with the community (Rotary, etc) also funding comes from them, so they’ll support you in tough times.
• Charlie Klein can talk to your college president if your advisor or President is inactive or unsupportive. Charlie can put pressure on them – if your advisor is apathetic, talk to them first, maybe see if you can figure out if they are overloaded and take some of those duties off them, or maybe get a co-advisor. Try to improve your relationship before removing an advisor.
• Conventions – lots of them. Check PTK.org. These are here for your training, more depth. Go to workshops for your honors topic. Ptk.org/chapters/resources  chapter resource manual. PTK.org/hallmarks info on the 4 hallmarks, definitions, how to write them, previous winners, etc. Chapter recognition is important so write your hallmarks.
• Ptk.org/fivestar steps to 5 star status – also, report your status on website so we maintain communication of activities.
• Keep projects rolling so that members and chapters stay involved and DOING not just brainstorming.
• Maybe have a project sign up at induction ceremonies so people commit
• Fundraising – depends on each chapter. Some from college budget, some from college pres budget, some just fundraising b/c they don’t get college support, also community sponsorship (Rotary, etc)
• If your foundation keeps track of ptk alumni, their business may sponsor you.

San Jose Regional Convention

The Phi Theta Kappa Nevada/California Region Convention was held in San Jose California from March 5th to 7th.

Ryan Calic, Courtney Caldwell, Sofia Lozano along with Advisor, Paul Roscelli, represented our Chapter. Ryan ran for the position of Vice President of the Nevada/California region, although he did not win, the entire chapter is very proud of his excellent performance. (See Ryan's Speech)

Our Chapter did extremely well this season, in addition to Ryan's candidature, the chapter won several recognitions.

1) Five Star Chapter Level (the highest activity level possible and for the 11th straight year)
2) A Regional Art Award went to multimedia student Courtney Caldwell
3) A Regional Literary Award went to Jonathan Werden
4) A Distinguished Officer Award went to Rene Rivera
5) A Distinguished Chapter Advisor Award went to Paul Roscelli
6) A Leadership Hallmark Award was earned by the Chapter
7) The college's chapter was recognized as the second most Distinguished Chapter in the entire Region--out of 87 chapters.

The chapter is very proud of its achievements. As always this standard of excellence was a joint effort of members and advisers that so we will keep working on and improving as time goes on.

Ryan Calic's Speech

Greetings my fellow Kappans,
An old Viking proverb says, “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, but if you rip their little wings off they’ll eat whatever the heck you give them. I’m not here to pull your wings off. And I’m not here to lure you with honey. You have a choice of who to vote for during this election. You are the voice of a new generation. I believe we have and shall continue to see a paradox of affluence in the challenges that face us. But, in solidarity we can utilize the four hallmarks to use the tools of education and arm ourselves with knowledge! I have a talent for getting people to work together and convincing other chapters to coordinate fellowship endeavors. I really love working with people and nurturing their enthusiasm for teamwork.
And I’ve been active in Phi Theta Kappa since November 2006. As my chapter’s historian and current vice president of fellowship I’ve successfully met every commitment I’ve set out to accomplish. I believe honor is more than just awards, but how you serve others and the legacy you leave behind. As the great Roman historian and lawyer, Cicero said, “Honor is the reward of virtue.”
I’ve successfully built and maintained relationships with chapter officers in my region and at the international level. I’ve worked with individuals such as Christopher Hagermann and Crist Antolin promoting regional fellowship projects such as a statewide beach cleanup in 2007. Also I have done fundraising on the Bridge2Peace project that helps build schools for children of the 2004 Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.
Many in Phi Theta Kappa seek me out for advice because they know that they can count on my trustworthiness and dedication. These are qualities I will bring to this office. We cannot solve the problems that face our chapters and our region simply by marching ahead and hoping for solutions. However, as your Northwest Vice President I can assure you that I bring experience and practical, no nonsense answers to the challenges that we face. And so my fellow Kappans, help me to help you use the use the tools of education and arm yourselves with knowledge by casting your vote for the strength that you’ve come to depend on! Thank you!

Electronic Project Lab: Hands on Activity with Garfield

On February 25, 2009, Edgar De Loa, Ame, Aldo Garcia, Violeta Crow, Jeremy Morales, and Rene Rivera gave a third presentation at Garfield Middle School with Youth Adelante. We had the children do an electronic project lab where they had to make a circuit board with different kinds of sounds. The sounds were highway patrol sound or ambulance sound. The sounds could be made by connecting the right cables on the circuit board. The main purpose of this hands on activity was to promote engineering and the sciences while exposing these kids to it. Before the activity started, Edgar talked to the kids about what engineering is and Aldo explained to the kids the procedures of the activity. There were 5 tables and each of our volunteers were at a table with a group of kids. We were there to help the kids with any questions they may have while doing the activity. It was interesting to see the kid’s curiosity when trying to connect the right cables on the circuit board. At first the kids were confused but as they kept asking questions and get organized with a little guidance, they were able to complete the electronic project lab.

This project, allowed us be role models for kids that are endangered of bad environments or neighborhoods with gangs and drugs. By doing this presentation, PTK was able to promote Engineering and the sciences to the kids at Garfield. We may have made a difference in the life of these children by what we are doing. We were able to see that we may not be able to change the world, but we understand that if we can make a change in these kids lives, that’s a plus for us and our community.

KIVA UPDATE

The three entrepreneurs that our chapter funded are already making their payments. This is an update on their situation.



Bifotima Kimsanova in Tajikistan (Activity: Cloth & Dressmaking Supplies)
Loaned:$375.00
Total Repaid So Far:$187.50 (50.00% of total loan)
View loan profile at:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=58950



Bahodir Toshmatov in Tajikistan (Activity: Agriculture)
Loaned:$225.00
Total Repaid So Far:$120.50 (50.00% of total loan)
View loan profile at:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=68462



Karomat Umarkulova in Tajikistan (Activity: Livestock)
Loaned:$$75.00
Total Repaid So Far:$50.00 (67.00% of total loan)
View loan profile at:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=68468