Summer 2011
Staff
Abby Adams
Executive Director
Rita Bower
Middle School
Coordinator
Sara Hahn
Co-Founder
High School
Coordinator
Angel Honda
Program Director
Middle School
Coordinator
______
Hank Azaria
Co-Founder
To contribute, please
visit our website:
www.dtsla.org
or you can mail a
check to:
On May 7th, our High School students gathered (minus Reign) to update their photos for our newly designed and updated website. There was lots of laughter, posing and reminiscing. Here are some of their
thoughts from that day.
“This is my family.”
-Lizardo, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
PO Box 12306
Marina del Rey, CA
90295
or call (310)452-7295
Determined to
Succeed is a project
of Community Partners, a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization
“Not only do I feel extremely lucky to have
such wonderful people working with me on
my journey to college, but i have also gained
confidence in myself and my future, thanks
to this program. I am very happy to be surrounded by driven peers, who are all truly
determined to succeed.”
-Victoria, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
“My time in Determined To Succeed has
turned me into a better student. I have
learned many great new things that i never
would have learned all alone. I am so grateful
to have this experience and I’m excited for
my future because i know that with the help
of others I will gain more knowledge and happiness.”
-Shou, 10th grade
New Roads School
“Being in DTS has helped me tremendously.
Without DTS, I would be lost in my life. They
make us feel like we are something and believe in us 100%. They push us to make better choices and motivate us to not give up in
anything. DTS will always be a big part of my
life.”
-Moe, 12th grade
New Roads School
“I am so proud of our DTS students and all they have
achieved thanks to the generous donations from The
Parent Lecture Series.”
“I was honored to have Lana help me get into Paul Revere Middle School even though she did not know me
personally at the time. On the night of this parent lecture I finally got the opportunity to thank her from
the bottom of my heart for everything she did for
me.”
-Mary Beth Barry
Admissions Director
Brentwood Lower School
- Lizardo, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
“It was great to finally have had a chance to speak at my
first Determined to Succeed event. Although I was very
nervous, it was amazing to meet some of our generous
supporters and volunteers and I was more than happy
to share how Determined to Succeed turned my life
completely around.”
“Lizardo is the ‘gift that keeps on giving’! To have the
privilege of seeing a young person thrive against all
odds is a truly fulfilling experience. Go Lizardo - fulfill
your destiny -it is mighty! You are the embodiment
of DTS.”
-May, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
-Lana, Advisory Board /Mentor
This photo captures the spirit of our Parent Lecture series. Our
students who spoke at our May K-6th evening impressed and
touched both the Admissions Directors and the audience filled
with parents there to be educated about Los Angeles private
school admissions
Lana Brody, Advisory Board member and Mentor, with DTS
student, Lizardo. Lana paved the way for Lizardo to get into
the Magnet program at Paul Revere Middle School 6 years
ago!
Determined To Succeed was selected as a project by an impressive USC undergrad business school club called Los Angeles Community Impact. Their work on our ‘expansion plan’
earned them a finalist berth in the competition. Vicky, one of
our New Roads high school students and Morgan Feldman, a
DTS tutor/mentor attended the finalists presentation at USC.
May toured Columbia University on her College Match college
tour this spring.
“Thanks to College Match, I was able to visit a little over
a dozen college campuses along the east coast, many
of them being Ivy League Universities or Ivy League
equivalent schools. After this amazing experience, I
was really able to figure out what type of colleges
were out there and which ones were right for me.”
-May, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
“I feel honored to be part of a program and in a community of young adults who strive to better ourselves. Personally, I feel that this picture shows how far
we have come and what is in store for the future.”
-Vicky, 12th grade
New Roads School
“What an amazing opportunity to expose our students
to potential opportunities in college. Not only did Vicky
get to learn about various business models and helping
other non-profits, but she held her own with a group of
much older college students, and was a poised and
articulate ambassador for Determined to Succeed.”
-Morgan Smith Feldman
Mentor/Advisory Board
Hank Azaria, DTS co-founder and Tufts University alumni, was
honored with the Tufts PT Barnum award. Hank invited our
students to attend the ceremony to get a first-hand glimpse of
the benefits of having a college education.
Determined to Succeed Co-Founder Hank Azaria with Geffen
Playhouse Producing Director, Gil Cates, at the 3rd annual
Playing for Good Poker Tournament. Once again, Determined
To Succeed teamed up with the Geffen Playhouse for another
SELL OUT event that raised lots of money for our students
and the Geffen’s Education outreach programs. 170 serious
poker players hunkered down to play this year with the winner,
long time supporter Richard Sondheimer triumphantly crossing the finish line 8 hours after the tourney began!
“This event made me want to go to Tufts even more and
I felt privileged to be invited to Hank Azaria’s award
ceremony.”
-Lizardo, 12th grade
Palisades Charter High School
“This event was an eye opening experience that gave
me an outlook on the type of people who attended such
a prestigious school.”
-Gabby, 12th grade
Fairfax High School
NEW PARTNERSHIPS
- Determined to Succeed has forged two very significant relationships that will be extremely beneficial to
our students’ academic learning and achievement;
MATHNASIUM, the Math Learning Center (www.
mathnasium.com/santamonica) has begun training our
staff in their Mathnasium curriculum; and Loyola Marymount University’s Graduate School of Psychology
and Education whose Chair and graduate students
are collaborating with us in several ways - one of which
is developing a Writing Curriculum for our students.
Both curriculums will be incorporated into our
after-school and weekend study sessions.
DTS was the beneficiary of Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s BIG SUNDAY community service activities in May. DTS Events Committee member, Jennifer
Friedman championed our organization to the temple, whose members embraced the idea of painting our office/student space. Wilshire’s volunteers
joined several of our students to brighten up our space.
“I had a great time at Big Sunday, painting the offices with the kids.
They asked us all sorts of questions, like what college is like, how we
picked our majors and what it’s like being away from home. By the
end of the day, my friends and I put our names down as possible volunteers to for Determined to Succeed in the future.”
-Sophie Bloom,
Wilshire Blvd. volunteer,
college freshman
On March 24th, a new Determined To Succeed annual fundraiser debuted on a blustery,
rainy night at the Geffen Playhouse. It was
the brainchild of Andrea Guth and Regina
Miller who came up with a creative twist on
the traditional Girls Night Out to raise money
and awareness for our students and program!
Pictured are special guest, Dr. Cara Natterson, co-founder Sara Hahn and DTS student,
Kathy.
- We are incredibly proud and excited to be a new
member of SoCal CAN; the Southern California College Access Network is an alliance of 30 nonprofit organizations working to promote a college-going and
completion culture in Southern California. SoCal CAN
is a highly regarded non-profit whose members
provide vital access, information and resources
to low socio-economic students seeking to attend
college.
SPECIAL THANKS TO….
- Donna Holloran, founder of Babygroup (www.babygroup.me) who in addition to moderating our Parent
Preschool lecture the past 2 years made Determined To
Succeed the sole beneficiary of her popular Grandparent
Babygroup this spring!
- Mandana Farmanfarmaian and her husband, Dr.
Amir Hedayati for hosting a wine reception concert fundraiser that benefitted Determined To Succeed at their
home this spring. The concert featured Dr. Hedayati, an
accomplished musician and classically trained pianist
and composer.
- Jeff Morgan, Determined To Succeed Executive Board
member and his company, Telic Interactive who have
radically redesigned and transformed our website. Check
it out at www.dtsla.org!
- Sony Studios, Bob Osher & Alexa Amin for holding
a screening of THE SMURFS for our students and volunteers and WME Foundation, Christian Muirhead,
Sarah Adolphson for their $10,000 sponsorship of the
screening!
Determined to Succeed welcomes
Angel Honda
to our team!
Angel is our new Program Director. She comes
to us from Paul Revere Middle School, where
she was the Magnet Coordinator and a teacher
for the past 12 years.
“Being a part of DTS is a blast! After years of
phone conversations, I was finally able to see old
friends from 7th grade and meet new ones.”
Determined To Succeed had a reunion of sorts when Reign traveled from her home in
Midwest City, OK to Los Angeles in July. She got to visit several of her DTS student peerspictured here with Lizardo and Victoria. She also got to check out our expanded office
space with its floor to ceiling world map! Reign packed everything into her visit from college counseling and test prep to meeting with Hank about his Tufts experience to surfing
with Sara’s husband, Noah! Then she took off for a 3-week intensive writing program at
Bard College. Go Reign!
-Reign, 12th grade
Choctaw High School
DTS co-founders Sara Hahn & Hank Azaria at a celebration honoring Sara.
“For me this afternoon visit brought about a lot of
excitement. After a year of working with these exceptional kids, I felt a great deal of pride that they
jumped at the opportunity to participate in Brentwood Summer School - that they were so eager to
learn. It was an amazing culmination of the first
year of the creative writing workshop and made
me grateful to work with each and every one of
the students this year.”
-Haley Fisher,Volunteer/Mentor
“Haley coming by Brentwood summer camp was
really nice, and I am really happy she helped us
go by raising money. There was a lot of excitement all around us, like the trees and the bees.”
-Sara, 8th grade
Paul Revere Middle School
“During the time we took that picture, I was really surprised and excited that Haley had come
to visit us. It was really fun having her visit us.”
-Julieta, 8th grade
Paul Revere Middle School
Volunteer/Mentor, Haley Fischer, a screen and television
writer, developed a Creative Writing Workshop exclusively
for our Middle School students which met once a month for
the past year. Haley’s enthusiasm and passion for the kids
propelled her to raise funds to send Julieta, Krystal, Sara
and Sydney to Brentwood School’s 3 week summer program
to continue to hone their writing skills.
Our 8th grade middle school students attended a week long
Iridescent Science Underwater Robotics Engineering Camp
this summer. Katherine Wilcox, a DTS volunteer/mentor as
well as our resident science and math whiz introduced us to
this amazing program and attended with the students!
“It was the cherry on top to my summer. I couldn’t
have done this on my own.”
Our students described their first day as…
- Sydney, 8th grade
Paul Revere Middle School
“interesting”
“exciting”
“awesome x12!”
“entertaining”
“As a new member of the DTS Advisory Board,
I was honored to administer the first round of
achievement tests to the most recent group of
DTS candidates. This photo shows the diligent,
attentive group of students as they were presented with the instructions and sample items for the
OLSAT assessment test.”
Once again, our dear friends and partners at The Geffen
Playhouse afforded DTS students a wonderful opportunity.
The kids and even some of their parents were treated to a
matinee performance of SUPERIOR DONUTS. For some, it
was their first time ever to see a live performance!
-Julie Morris, Ph.D, UCLA
“June 18th was a very exciting day for Determined
To Succeed. The students were from Palms Elementary School and they were all enthusiastic
and very high in energy.”
-Rita Bower, DTS middle school
coordinator
“We had just finished watching an amazing play
called Superior Donuts. I had a great time seeing
the play, it was funny and sad.”
May 18th was a monumental day for Determined To Succeed. 34 very eager Palms Elementary 5th grade students
who had been identified by their teachers and principal as
candidates for our program arrived at our office for a marathon of interviews, assessments and council sessions administered by staff and a battalion of volunteers. After assessing all of them, we selected 14 students for our 3rd
group of DTS students. They will enter 6th grade at Palms
Middle School this fall!
-Mario, 8th grade
Paul Revere Middle School
“Determined to Succeed is an awesome program, I
am thrilled to be a part of it.”
-Cory, 8th grade
Paul Revere Middle School
“perfect”
“great”
“cool”
“fun”