David Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Post #2

David Schmaier
7/8/17
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Steve Wilson
stevewilson@parksconservancy.org

After I volunteered at Rancho Corral de Tierra, I volunteered at Mori Point in Pacifica. The main thing we did was remove an invasive species called bristly oxtongue from a ponds in Mori Point in order to maintain an ideal habitat for the California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake. California red-legged frogs are an endangered species. Before being protected, the frogs were killed in the thousands every year for their legs since frog legs were a very popular dish served in French restaurants in the city. Another reason why they are endangered is that their habitat has been threatened by human development. For example, at Mori Point, the wetland area where these frogs live was going to be turned into a race track.
After volunteering at Mori Point, I volunteered at on a reforestation project in the Presidio. When the Army Corps of Engineers planted the Monterrey cypress trees in the area that I worked on, they planted the trees too close together. Because they were planted too close together, the trees grew to be tall and skinny (without growing proportionally wider as well) in order to compete for sunlight. Because many of the trees were so tall and skinny, they were not sturdy enough to survive strong winds during storms and were blown over, causing extensive property damage. Apparently, a single storm a few years ago blew over as many as fifteen trees.
In order to solve this problem, the Parks Conservancy cut down many sections of these trees and has been working to plant new trees in place of the old trees. When I was there, the main thing I did to help was remove weeds around the growing saplings. The species that we removed included both native plants - Lupin and Horseweed - and invasive plants - kikuyu. In order to prevent the weeds from growing back, we also dumped mulch around the base of the saplings. Removing these weeds is important because the weeds steal nutrients from the growing saplings, which can cause the saplings to die early in their development.

Chandna EPATT 2

At EPATT, I served as a volunteer tennis coach. I coached small groups (usually 3-6 kids) of elementary and middle school students from disadvantaged communities, to help instill a sense of confidence, and sportsmanship and competitiveness. We usually took the kids through a warm-up where they did laps around the court and stretched. This warm-up sometimes involved running as well. We then ran the kids through drills and games, which we sometimes played with the kids.

It was really moving to get to work with these kids. I thought I would be able to connect with them easily being close in age to them, but I realized that their backgrounds are extremely different from mine. Some have siblings in gangs or have parents who do drugs, which is nothing like what I went through growing up in a rich neighborhood.

Another thing that I was happy to see was that a few of the volunteer coaches had gone through the EPATT program themselves and have become quite successful thanks to it. It was great to see that people were so impacted by the program that they felt it was well worth their time to give back and help another generation of EPATT students.

I’m glad I got the opportunity to teach these kids but also learn from them over the summer.

Chandna EPATT 1

For my PACT project, I volunteered at EPATT (East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring). EPATT is a non-profit youth development organization for K - 12th grade students. EPATT's programs help disadvantaged students achieve academic and athletic excellence. Their belief, which I agree with, is that kids learn important life lessons from sports which they need to succeed in academics. I agree with their belief because I feel that sports have taught me valuable life lessons such as perseverance and teamwork that I would not have gotten otherwise. I chose to do EPATT for my PACT project because I enjoy tennis, and my coach Jeff Arons helped start EPATT many years ago. Since I enjoy playing tennis, using my knowledge of the game to give back to the community was a perfect fit. 

I thought I could see EPATT’s belief that sports teach life skills in effect many times while I was coaching there. For example, one day the head coach told us to take the kids through fitness to start off the day. As we had the kids run, there was one overweight kid struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. The other volunteer coach and myself told him he could sit out if he needed to, but he was insistent on continuing with the rest of the group. Eventually, towards the end, he did end up needing a breather, but it was clear he had pushed himself as hard as he could. I thought that kid really understood what it means to persevere that day, in a way he wouldn’t have learned in a classroom. 

Reading Partners Reflection 2

Mohini

Second Semester Junior Year

Reading Partners

Caila

In the last six weeks at Reading Partners, I’d seen a tremendous amount of improvement in Isabella’s reading. She had kept her same enthusiasm and is now less than a grade level behind in her reading. I do feel that I had a large impact, as I could tell that she truly benefitted from one on one attention so that she didn’t have the opportunity to distract herself. Although at my time at reading partners in my Junior year, I only helped one student, I could see the larger impact the organization had at the school. Constantly, students would be walking into the classroom asking if they could be put into the program even though they were reading at their grade level. The program unfortunately didn’t have enough tutors for those kids but it demonstrated the impact the program had on the students and the enthusiasm for learning that was fostered at the school. I realized that at a school that didn't have all the resources that one like Menlo had, it was even more important for the students to receive the attention they needed to reach their full potential, especially because they might have the ability to focus on their school work at home due to other distractions that they may be facing in their life.