South LA: Foshay Learning Center, Manual Arts High School Venice: Ánimo Venice Charter High School Watts: Ánimo Locke Academy High School West LA: University High School Please note: 826LA doesn’t provide transportation to the school sites, but carpools are possible. Maps and parking information are always provided to volunteers. Important: As required by LAUSD, all In-Schools volunteers must have a TB test letter of clearance on file with 826LA before volunteering in a school. If you’ve had a test done in the last four years, you’ll just need to have your doctor send the letter of clearance to 826LA. For more information about 826LA’s TB testing requirement, please visit 826LA.org/ TBinstructions. WHAT VOLUNTEERS DO IN IN–SCHOOLS As an In-Schools volunteer, you’ll spend time in high school classrooms throughout the city of Los Angeles. You’ll be responsible for working one–on–one with students on writing projects ranging from personal statements to essays on Catcher in the Rye and personal beliefs, and everything in between. You are there to support students in understanding the writing prompt and to encourage their ideas. It’s a lot of “That’s a really interesting idea, can you tell me more?” and “That’s a great thought; write that sentence down!” 826LA will always prepare you with goals for the day along with information about the writing project, the prompts, and advice on how to work with students on each particular project. Once you’re signed up for a project, the night before we’ll send you an email with all the relevant information you’ll need to know about the in-school session, including the date and time of the project, the school’s address and a map of the school’s location, information about how to check in and get a visitor’s pass, where to meet with the 826LA coordinator and other volunteers, and contact information for reaching the 826LA coordinator the day of the project. You can also reply to the email in order to communicate with the coordinator of the project about any last-minute questions or concerns you might have. Want more information about what you can do in the classroom? Examples of our many In-Schools projects follow.
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LONG–TERM PROJECTS These projects are composed of weekly sessions that span two to three months of the school year. Personal Statements These projects happen in high school classrooms throughout the city. We work with seniors in the fall and with groups of juniors and sophomores in the spring. Volunteers help students compose personal statement essays that they will use to apply to college. These projects are especially meaningful in a landscape where the majority of students we work with are attending schools with one (or even no) college counselor, and are often the first in their family to attend college. Young Authors’ Book Project (aka the YABP) This project takes place at a different partner school each year, and is the biggest in-school project we do. Over the course of about three months, volunteers work with students through multiple revisions of a theme-based piece. These pieces are compiled into a professional publication, under the guidance of a student-and-volunteer-led editorial board. The book is published and sold in bookstores and online. This is a chance for in-school volunteers to work with students through all aspects of the writing process and get to know them over an extended period of time. MEDIUM–TERM PROJECTS These projects are composed of weekly sessions that span one to two months of the school year. Chapbooks These projects focus on writing and publishing. With the support of volunteers, students write prose and/or poetry reflecting on a particular literary theme in the teacher’s curriculum. Volunteers help students brainstorm, flesh out ideas, and develop their pieces from beginning to end. At the end of each four-week project, we compile student work and publish an anthology.
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