Empowering Students at Valley High: High School Inc. Pathways

So I'm here today at Valley High doing a project for them, helping them out. It's the Santa Ana, California. It's an incredible school that's got different pathways. And we're going to talk about the new media program that they have, plus the culinary school that they have here, plus the automotive school. You guys are going to see that we're trying to get people engaged to also donate to.

High School Inc. Who provides all these programs for this high school. And you'll see we're going to be meeting with some students that we're going to meet with a principal. Just a wonderful day today. I'm looking forward to it.

So nice to see you. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for Miami Kitty.

Well, welcome to Valley High School. We're getting ready for the holidays, as you can see.

You look very festive. We got our adventure fest going on.

And I'm really anxious and pleased to show you around.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to view all the different pathways we have in the school and all the wonderful work that you guys are doing. Well, where are we heading to?

First?

Let's head over to our culinary and auto facility.

I'm looking forward. I've heard wonderful things. I've heard other people, actually, I've traveled across the country and I've heard Valley High mentioned a couple times, believe it or not, you might be more famous than you guys think. So, yeah, let's look. Let's. Let's go for it.

But you could see the kitchen here.

So. Okay, so I'm looking at state of the art equipment that I think even restaurants in Santa Ana probably don't even.

We do have some.

Restaurant owners or restaurant employees come in here and their jaws drop because they see everything that our students are doing here and what equipment they have to work with.

Wow.

It's just incredibly clean. What do you know what kind is invested? And it was made this in the culinary.

You know, I don't know the. The bottom line. I know it was. I'm done with grants and also support a private donation.

Wow.

Where to now?

Okay, we're going to go to auto.

Mr. Gonzalez, this is unbelievable. This looks like a Mercedes dealership or BMW.

I agree. And I think that you probably must have some pretty good tools here, right? Oh, definitely.

It's beautiful. I mean, what you see here. Steel the art. And what I love. And I tell my students all the time, I say, look, guys, get familiar with the equipment because what you're using here is state of the art. When you Transition into a shop. If this is what you want, you're going to be familiar with the equipment.

You're going to.

Even though we started entry level positions, like everywhere we go, but you'll climb the ladder a lot quicker because you're so familiar with the equipment. You're going to be more fluid, flexible, and faster than anybody else that comes in.

We're going to new media. So new media is brand new. So it's not brand new. It's been here for a while. So we're kind.

We're.

We need a little refurbishing.

Okay.

So we're. We're in new media right now. This is Ms. Sherman, one of our instructors.

Lewis, right?

That's absolutely right.

Yeah.

All right, nice to have you here.

So show me around. Tell me, what do they have? They're working with Macs.

So right now they're working on Macs that are like. They're pretty old. Right. And they've been used a lot by. By students. And so the memory in these Mac, not really up to par. But they have Premiere Pro in here. They have After Effects. Basically the Adobe suite is what they have access to. But really what we work on is Premiere Pro NES class.

Yeah.

There they move on to the capstone course, which is. Which is the TV broadcasting class.

Wow.

Yeah. So in here, what we do is we put on a daily live to tape news show. So.

Wow.

Yeah, it's pretty impressive. So if you look back here.

There'S a director, an assistant director, a technical director, floor manager, and so on, right. They do graphics, they do playbacks, they do prompter, they do all these kind of exciting things. And they put on a daily live to tape news show for the school, which I've always really proud of them for. So as I came in, one of my big things was making sure it was their show. And so something that we kind of worked on was making sure that they have control. Control over this. Actually, I have a student that was hoping to do a little interview with you. Are you okay with.

I'm perfectly fine with that. I love that. I'd love to see that. Are we gonna be doing it there?

Yeah.

So you're gonna be doing it right in here.

Awesome. That's great. Let's get it done.

Okay.

Well, hello, guys. I'm here with Mr. Barajas. He's awesome guy, you know? How are you doing, Daniel?

Nice to meet you. I'm glad to be here today at your school. Loving the pathways that you have here for all the students through all automotive and healthcare and culinary. And now under the new media and just really pleased to be here with you.

How do you think you and your involvement with the High School Inc. With New Media Academy are going to make a difference here?

Well, I, you know, my background is wealth and business management. Right. I handle the finances for a lot of wealthy people and a lot of people in the community just like this. But because of. I've been so engaged in trying to writing books and doing other things. I've been done a lot of television. I've been able to do a lot of connections. And then I've brought on a business clients that are involved in the same industry. And so my involvement is not only to help raise money and, and, and bring in contributions and get people in the community engaged in a school like this that absolutely needs their support is. But also to help you find mentors and make connections of people who have years and years of experience in media, for example, that are living in Orange county that don't even know, are aware of programs such as, you know, High School Inc. And Valley High and how the students here are just would be, I mean, elated and extremely happy to have them to come in and mentor you guys, share their wisdom with you. That's the kind of engagement because at.

The end of the day, like I.

Said, I want to see that I can make an impact in that way, helping you build.

The students to come out of this high school so they can be very successful, whether they continue going on to college or find jobs that are making more than just the minimum wage. Right. Or really good schools because they're already prepared.

At Valley, we strive to be lifelong learners, always learning, never stop learning. And you know, it's the things I always see in my hallway. Lifelong learner, strong, connected. So I'm really happy that you're. You're also saying the things that our school teaches us. You know, it's. It's awesome.

Yeah. Well, I'm not saying them to say them. I'm saying them because out of. I've been working at this for a long, long time. Almost 40 years. Right. And, and, and I work with some of the most successful people.

And they are also lifelong learners. And I'm glad to see that you have that here to remind you every day that that's what it's all about.

Thank you for everything.

Thank you for showing up, Daniel. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. You're fantastic. And hopefully you'll be interviewing me in the future. Hopefully.

So, Mr. Rojas, I can't wait you got it?

Okay, great. Thank you.

Share with us if you, you know, living here in Santa Ana, coming to this school, you know, some of the stories that maybe people who live in this community would. Who don't live in this community don't know what it's like and what kind of maybe struggles you have. Is there anything that comes to mind, any kind of story that you might want to share?

Yeah.

So here in Santana, there's, like, a lot of sirens going on in the middle of the nighttime. Like, people in the neighborhood would, like, ponder, like, what's. What's going on. And I myself also hear it in. Where I live. I live in a car and apartment complex, so I'd be doing my own personal stuff, working on homework or doing some video editing. From there, I'll hear sirens or an ambulance, one of those two. I was like, is everything all right in my neighborhood? Do I got to worry about tomorrow or whatnot? So, yeah, I. That's one. That's a part of Santa Ana that most people don't know about.

Tell us a little bit about what's going on with you.

Well, I also live in an apartment complex, so I also. I have heard gunshots in my neighborhood. There has been some that were really near, and there are times where I don't know if there were fireworks or gunshots.

Where I live. It's. Yeah, it's a lot of. There's a lot of gang activity, and it's with my mom raising me and my sisters.

What struggles do you go through? I mean, just kind of like, living in this community, living in the household. What do you go through on a daily basis?

Some struggles that I have, and I know a lot of people have, is the fact that they can't put in 100% of their time into things that they love because they have to take time out of their day to go work and help their family out because, you know, it's hard getting a stable old job whenever your parents are from here. So it's really tough. And I know personally, I. I've been. I know my parents struggle sometimes, and, you know, I can tell because I had to save up, I think, a year or two to buy some glasses that I needed. It's tough. And sometimes I want to help them work, but, you know, it's kind of harsh.

Great. Is there. Is that a challenge for you as well, or challenge for your parents with that kind of getting you that kind of resources?

So I. When I was in. When I was in middle school, I had to. I had to help my mom work just to get a little bit of money. Took and get a high end PC that costed me around 1, 200, but it took me five months or five, not five months, five, four to five years to get that laptop sent.

Both.

My dad got kicked from the US and got sent to Mexico because he didn't have papers. So. Yeah.

So during that time was your basically your mom by yourself raising you And I don't know if you have brothers or sister.

I. I have two older brothers, so she's. She has three kids including me, so she raised us all alone.

Wow.

Well, I hope that you've had a chance to see all the wonderful things that are happening at Valley High and everything that High School Inc. Is helping at Valley High to really embrace and make the students so much more successful when they come out of high school and also to provide them career paths while sometimes their parents struggle to make ends meet. And so I ask you that if you do have.

Any level of engagement to get involved and you reach out to High School Inc.

Or Valley high and to Mrs. Berger, the principal.

Whether you want to donate money to Valley to High School Inc. For these programs and these pathways and for equipment that we need here in the media center and the things that we continue to grow and help the students out. So whether you want to donate your time, whether you want to donate money, whether you want to donate being a mentor coming in and helping the students out, we would really appreciate it and thank you for taking your time and watching this.