SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Features

Students Start-Up their Dream Businesses

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By Marina Stuart, Staff Writer

By Marina Stuart

ILP’s are an essential part of SLA’s curriculum. But one ILP is going beyond the  meet-once-a-week-after school-for-2-hours routine and giving kids a path to a future of entrepreneurship and business endeavors.

Start-Up Corps has been an ILP at SLA for three years now and is helping kids start businesses out of their talents and hobbies.

“The idea behind Start-Up corps is order to start a business, one needs to actual start it rather than start a business plan.” Said Christian Kunkel, the leader of the ILP at SLA “That is our fundamental belief, we want the kids to solve real world problems, and improve and adjust their plans based off feedback.”

“We brainstorm about problems in society and try to figure out ways we can solve them. Once we find solutions, we actually follow them through.” said Sophomore Korah Lovelace.

“My perception has changed since I first went to the first class in 10th grade, business isn’t just about greed and capitalism, it’s about investing in yourself and putting a value on what you care about the most” said Senior Nathan Kamal, who was in Start-Up Corps two years ago .“As a musician you are not just trying to be creative you are trying to be an entrepreneur and that’s a part of life”

A few weeks ago, there was a competition among all kids who are in the Start-Up Corps. Not all were SLA students, but students from other schools in the Philadelphia area. Overall there were about 200 kids. The goal was to have students pitch their business ideas to a panel of local entrepreneurs. There were 5 finalists and an one overall winner, who all got cash prizes for their business.

All of the finalists were SLA students.

The overall finalist was a sophomore named Cameron Klales. His business plan was to create SLA pens with the school’s mascot, the rocketship on it.

Senior Jason Davis was a finalist in 2011 and was at the competition “Christian asked me to come out and film some of the competition to help give the kids a way to to see themselves on camera and help them improve speaking on camera. It was a showcase for everyone in the program and what their business consists of.”

“The competition was really fun” said Sophomore April Woodburn “I walk out of it feeling better than I ever have after presenting something”  Woodburn had presented the idea for a hat shop, which is only one of the ventures she is working on during the ILP.

“I liked the fact that you got feedback” said Sophomore Khari Evans, also in the ILP, “The judges gave really good feedback and afterwards they gave extra information about your plans” Evans presented his idea for a product that he is also working on in his advanced engineering class.

This ILP also differs from other ILPs because the businesses that the kids start usually succeed and some alums of the ILP are continuing to use the connections and information learned there to create successful businesses.

“I founded 322X productions, which became a non-profit for helping creative youth, to produce quality music and video at an affordable rate.” Said Davis “The money (won at the competition last year) helped me kick start some projects I wanted to do, my main priority was finding ways to generate revenue so after high school I could keeping doing what I wanted.  We invested it into bigger projects, music videos, other projects like that.”  Davis recently put on two concerts for another SLA Senior named Ryan Francis.

This program works especially well at SLA because of the curriculum and the way the students are taught. Kunkel said “Solving problems, that’s the value of a business. This program works at SLA because its action based, and works with curriculum.”

The students also really enjoy it.

“The ILP was not what I expected” said Evans “But I learned to accept it.  We have guest mentors who come in and help us, and coach us on what we are doing. Usually it’s matched up with what the person does and what the student’s business is. We also work with organizations”

Overall this ILP is helping students reach their goals and giving them a stepping stone to the world of entrepreneurship.

 

SLA Clubs Gone Extinct

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Ms. Dunn's knitting supplies. Photo by DeShawn McLeod.

By DeShawn Mcleod

Staff Writer

Since SLA opened its doors to students, many clubs have come and gone throughout the years.

Science and History teacher Gamal Sherif hosted Yoga club, which lasted for one year.

“During the times Yoga was available, we would sit down and talk about what the physical postures we would be working on and the relationship between the mind and the body for a few brief moments,” he said. “Then we’d do some warm up poses and then focus on one particular activity.”

Yoga club started in the school year of 2007-2008 and student interest was “very high, we had 20 the first time,” Mr. Sherif said.

But, in the same year, student interest began to take a downward turn.

“Then it was 10 for a couple of weeks, and then five, and then two,” Mr. Sherif continued.

The club discontinued for a couple of reasons. One was student interest. Mr. Sherif thought that, “some of the clubs like yoga are not as main stream as other clubs.”

“A second one is that specially with yoga, we did it once a week, and I think students were looking for not the actual activity, but students were looking for a sense of belonging or community.”

As for Improv club, it was supervised by Former English Teacher Zac Chase, who is now a graduate student in Education at Harvard University

According to Mr. Chase, Improv club “was more of a space where people met weekly and practiced learning improvisational theatre.”

“Each week, we’d meet for anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. We’d practice some warm-up exercises to stretch our bodies and minds to loose them from the rigors of the school day. Then, we’d play any number of improv games and practice scene work.”

The reason Improv club is no longer available because Mr. Chase ran the club, and as stated before he was no longer apart of the staff.

“The key is finding a sponsor who has a background in improv and feels comfortable leading it,” said Mr. Chase.

The Knitting club was facilitated by English teacher Alexa Dunn.

“It was Tuesday afternoons, we’d have music, I’d play something on my computer and we would sit around and knit and talk,” Ms. Dunn said. “It was fun.”

Towards the end of the 2010-2011 school year, Ms. Dunn decided to have the club come to a close.

“I was having trouble getting donations and I couldn’t sustain the club with just myself.” Dunn stated.

However, Knitting club might have a possibility of coming back.

“I’ve been asked to bring it back, there are kids who want it again. But for me to make it worth it, I would have to have regular attendance and more of a commitment. I don’t want to be sitting in my empty room on a Tuesday afternoon waiting for people to come in,” Ms. Dunn stated.

Since major budget cuts, it’s harder to support newer clubs because teachers aren’t able to host them. Ms. Dunn commented, “There’s no extra curricular money anymore, so teachers don’t get paid.”

Mr. Sherif had a different perspective.

“Everybody is really busy, if you stress a community and the community has to do more with less, like fewer teachers, there’s less leftover energy for other clubs and activities.”

They have a mutual under lying point: no school money + no teacher = no activities for students.

If the school community wants more clubs, it’s up to them to start a coalition and form a commitment. Students need to step up to the plate and act on what interests them.

“The club scene was built by students,” Ms. Dunn said, “not necessarily by faculty.”

Snack sales at school create profits, conflicts

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By Nia Berry

Staff Writer

Snacks are everywhere at SLA, from pretzels to hot chocolate to candy. All this in hope of fundraising for the various events and organizations within the school.

To raise money for their tickets, many upperclassmen at Science Leadership Academy have been going around school selling assorted chocolates, holiday candy grams and snacks in order to fund raise for Senior and Junior proms. These campaigns are organized by Spanish teacher Mark Bey, who is also the social coordinator at SLA.

However, these students are not the only vendors within the school trying to fund raise for a special event.

The cheerleading team, the Liverpool trip, Students Run Philly Style, and many more other groups all trying to sell to the fewer than 500 students  in the school, leaving very little room for profit and success in fundraising for Mr. Bey and his team.

Mr. Bey believes that the fundraising is key to the success of proms at SLA.  “

The School District doesn’t pay for these events, ya’ll do and everyone should have a chance to be a part of them,” he said.

However, he acknowledges that lack of funding for all events squeezes the school.

“International trips cost a lot, and fundraising in a small school like this is too much! That’s something the district should give some money towards.”

The process of fundraising over the years has had it’s challenges and success due to the size of the school. The most common fundraising tactic used within the school is food. The selling of candy grams, pretzels, hot chocolate, and other snacks initially resulted in a booming profit until the school store was opened. The store, located on the second floor near the office, also sells snacks and treats, and raises money for SLA’s Home and School organization.

Though most students look to the school store for their source of a more diverse choice in snaking, the school store has an irregular schedule, which can create conflict with other fundraisers.

In order to help manage sales, some fundraising events have been assigned specific days. For instance, the scheduling for pretzels sales has been back and forth between ILP Coordinator Jermey Spry and History teacher Matt Baird on Fridays to fund raise for student run and girls soccer.

Just recently, Spry relinquished his Friday spot to Girl’s Soccer after netting the quota of about $300 he needed for running supplies for the Student Run team.

Spry also doesn’t think that the pretzel sales are the best way to go.

“They don’t yield that much money,” he said. “Pretzels cost like $21 a box and only sell for 50 cents.”

Regardless of the little profit made by pretzel sales, Baird finds it a reasonable way to fund raise for members on his soccer teams who can not necessarily afford the equipment they need.

Though they do not have a set goal for how much they want to fund raise for, the girl’s soccer team is expecting to order new labeled jerseys and socks that will cost about $50 a player.

EduConcierge: More Than Just a Cart!

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Senior Jeff Kessler and Sophomore Jhonas Dunakin help EduCon attendees.

Marina Stuart and Matt Rinaldi

Staff Writer and Guest Writer

You may have noticed Senior Jeff Kessler pushing a giant computer cart in front of him through the halls of SLA in recent weeks, as he stocked up for his second year of EduConcierge.

The unique enterprise “helps people get around Philly and provides a way to provide tokens and just about everything else to make their life at the conference easier,” Kessler said, describing EduConcierge’s goal.

This was the second year Kessler made EduConcierge work. Originally conference goers needed someone to help with their travel arrangements.

As he began to help them, he saw a larger opportunity to help.

“I was sitting in the college office and thinking ‘this needs to be streamlined’ and I made a diagram, that included everything.”

Even the name makes sense, as Kessler is like the concierge service at a hotel, from scheduling people’s flights to giving restaurant suggestions and picking up people at the airport.

One thankful Educon goer told Kessler via Twitter: “Thanks for your help! You know your stuff…made our trip back to the airport a breeze. What a difference 1 person can make!”

As the program grew, parents and Kessler stepped up to help. “One of the most important things we do is boarding passes, we now print them for every single person who is flying somewhere.”

Behind the EduConceirge cart, where boarding passes are printed.

However, next year might be a little different. This year, EduConcierge is Kessler’s capstone, otherwise known as his senior project. Once Kessler graduates in June, it will be run by a group of students that Kessler trained over the course of Educon this year. The group included Freshmen Nikki Adeli and Dylan Long and Sophomores Jhonas Dunkain and Matthew Marshall.

“Jeff Kessler told me about the program and recruited me to be Assistant Concierge for this past EduCon,” Said Adeli. “It was training to become Chief Concierge for the upcoming EduCons.”

Even though this was her first Educon, she is excited about it and working more next year.

“It has been A LOT of fun! It’s gratifying to see many different educators come to SLA from all across continent to talk about making education and how to make learning for kids and teens (like me) a better experience not only in but also out of school.”

Any one from Educon can tell you how important the conference is and how much innovative thinking gets done there. It is something SLA prides itself in, and making it easier to travel to is vital to its continued success.

Adeli emphasized that student involvement is key.

As SLA students, we should all take advantage of all the resources and experiences we are allowed to have because most other schools don’t have these kinds of activities for their students to part take in.”

Educoncierge is year was so intriguing that some teachers and students of Science Leadership Academy collaborated to create a theme song for EduConcierge. The song was written by Internship Coordinator Jeremy Spry, former Librarian Josh Newman, and the lyrics by Senior Whitney Washington.

The chorus? “Educon — it’s more than just a cart.”