Three Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD) students have been named members of the 2022 Fellowship Class of the Orange County-based nonprofit – http://dragonkimfoundation.org – a social entrepreneurship incubator for high school youth. This includes Luz Luna from El Dorado High School as well as Shrika Andhe and Gabrielle DeCuir from Valencia High School.
Along with fellow team members, the students will receive three weekends of leadership training and hands-on guidance from mentors from the community, plus a single grant of up to $5,000 from the Foundation to implement their social service project in their local community this summer.
Luz’s organization is called “Seeds for New Beginnings” while Gabrielle and Shrika’s is called “Hoops and Coders.” Hoops and Coders is a summer program is a curriculum development effort to expose middle school girls, 6th through 8th grade, to computer science and basketball. Their goal is to show these young girls they are capable of achieving success in industries in which women are historically underrepresented. The camp will be launched the week of July 18-22 at Higher Ground Youth and Family Services, a mentoring organization for underserved youth living in at risk communities in Anaheim.
As always, the leadership training, which elsewhere can cost several thousand dollars, is provided for free to each Dragon Fellow. Cumulatively, the projects will benefit thousands of people, including many from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. At the end of the program, the top three teams will present their projects at the annual Dragon Challenge. One team will win additional funding to continue their project.
The Fellowship was founded in 2015 in honor of the late Dragon Kim, a talented young musician, athlete, and scholar who wanted to help others. It has become a seedbed for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change.
For more information, visit http://dragonkimfoundation.org.
Luz Luna from El Dorado High School.
Congratulations!! What a wonderful opportunity for them.