Students Uncover What they Need to Succeed

With their sights set on graduation in the near future, San Bernardino City Unified School District senior students on Feb. 10 met with district officials and community volunteers to talk about how they’re going to stay on that track. Last Tuesday’s Operation Student Discovery event saw seniors meeting one-on-one with leaders to discuss the progress the students have made and what they need to continue to do to graduate high school. Forming out of Operation Student Recovery, the first Operation Student Discovery event was held last September as part of the SBCUSD’s Hope Makers initiative. Adults met with over 500 African-American seniors as mentors. In October, the district held a second Operation Student Discovery event to complete the process started in the prior month, district officials said. “The February 10 Operation Student Discovery expanded on the success of the first two events,” a release from the district stated. Both school and community leaders visited each high school and met with several seniors – providing everything from a simple congratulations and encouragement to keep up the hard work, to suggesting ways some students could make up missing credits, to offering alternative paths to earning a diploma, school officials said. “This is about the entire community showing our high school students we support them,” said Laura Strachan, director of Alternative Programs. “We support them when they are on the well-traveled path. And, we support them when they take their own path. Sometimes that means helping them blaze a new trail, and sometimes it means helping them correct their course.”