(From the official press release): SANTA ANA, CA.—NOV. 20—The Nicholas Academic Centers (NACs) celebrated record student achievement last weekend at their fourth annual Thanksgiving Dinner event for more than 300 inner-city high school students and their families. Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) Co-Founder and former CEO Henry T. Nicholas, III, Ph.D. and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido praised the “NAC Model”—a nurturing educational “family” that combines personal tutoring, cultural enrichment and social and family support for underserved high school students.

“The NACs succeed where others fail because we create a support system that includes students, staff, parents and high school counselors,” said Dr. Nicholas, who established the first center in 2008 with retired Superior Court Judge Jack Mandel. “It’s a model that works. One hundred percent of our students go on to college, and we’re going to ensure that every one of them earns a degree.”

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-47) sent a statement of support from Washington, D.C. to the gathering at Valley High School and will speak to NAC students at a special event in Santa Ana on Dec. 10. “Education is the foundation of opportunity and the basis of our country’s future economic success,” Sanchez said. “The Nicholas Academic Centers produce dramatic results and provide a successful model for school districts around the country to follow.”

Last summer, a former NAC student who attends Georgetown University interned  in Sanchez’s Washington, D.C. office, and in May the congresswoman honored a NAC student at the Capitol who had placed first in a national competition (“Cooking Up Change”).

Currently, 231 NAC alumni are attending top colleges around the country, such as Notre Dame, Georgetown, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Smith College. Half of the students from the first NAC class are set to graduate from college this year and 87% will graduate within five years. Among Hispanic students nationally, only 13% finish college, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES).

NAC students have earned more than $3 million in scholarships and financial aid.

“The Nicholas Academic Centers are profoundly changing education,” said Mayor Pulido at the event Friday. “At Broadcom, Dr. Nicholas used brilliance and drive as a pioneer in the technology industry. Now, in collaboration with Judge Mandel, he has created an inner-city program that rivals the achievements of the nation’s best private schools.”

In a statement, Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, Ph.D., Superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District, voiced her support for the NACs:

“We are fortunate to have many innovative partnerships in our district, and none more important than our work with the Nicholas Academic Centers,” the Superintendent said. “The Centers have a profound impact on our students and demonstrate how we can work together to prepare all of our students to be college and career ready, and to assume their roles as part of the global citizenry.”

At the dinner celebration, NAC alumna Ivonne Huitron, now a junior at UC Irvine, told attendees how the NAC “family” has changed her life.

“I don’t know where I would have been if it were not for NAC,” said Huitron, who is majoring in Public Health and thinking about going to medical school or being a teacher. “Now I’m in college and looking forward to a brighter future. From my heart, I am so grateful to everyone at the NAC.”

Among other NAC milestones:

· The NAC’s 100% college enrollment rate far exceeds the 72% of all California public school graduates who continue on to college. More dramatic is the comparison nationally with Hispanic high school graduates, of whom only 59.7% went directly to college in 2010, according to the NCES.

· To date, 95% of NAC graduates who went on to four-year colleges are still enrolled. This contrasts with nationwide sophomore retention rates for all students of less than 80%, and only 47% for Hispanics, according to the College Board.

· About 25 of NAC alumni now in college are benefiting from the California Dream Act, under which undocumented immigrant students can qualify for financial aid, and the federal Deferred Action program, which enables young, long-time immigrants to avoid deportation.

Click HERE to watch the video.

Today, there’s a greater recognition of how the work that community-based organizations (CBOs) like the Nicholas Academic Centers have contributed to the number of students who now attend colleges and universities across the United States. The layered approach, combining academic services, personal and familial counseling, as well as cultural and college access services creates an ideal situation for students intent on pursuing higher education. The positive impact of CBOs like the Nicholas Academic Centers has not been lost on the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), who hosts an annual 3-day conference and college access fair that brings together college & high school counselors, CBOs, independent counselors & academic businesses.

This year, the NAC put together a team to present at the NACAC conference in Denver, Colorado. Rosa Diaz, NAC Director of Operations, and Janae Dimick, NAC Director of Higher Education Services, joined Andre McWell, Director of Student Success at Morningside College in Iowa, Gerry Oxx, Guidance Counselor at Godinez Fundamental High School in Santa Ana, and Clint Gasaway, Director of Financial Aid at Wabash College in Indiana, to discuss how the NAC operates within a larger educational community, and how its approach has helped increase college retention of the first generation Latino students it services. “One of the goals of presenting at NACAC,” notes Janae, “was to share how our partnerships have helped us ensure & improve retention of multicultural, first-generation college students.” In addition, the presentation was designed to help create partnerships between the NAC and other CBOs, high schools, and colleges.

The NAC team was scheduled to present during the opening time slot on the first day of the conference, alongside several other presentations. Because it was the first day of presentations, they did not know what to expect attendance-wise; in fact, fifteen minutes before the presentation, there were only a dozen or so people sitting in the seats. When the time came to begin the presentation, several hundred people had filled the seats. Rosa notes, “The conference offered the opportunity to highlight the success of the NAC on a national stage, and really look at the Nicholas Academic Centers as a case study that others could possibly emulate, looking at the way that we do business, the way we look at our students in a holistic manner, and the manner in which we reach out to partners in high schools and colleges.” The idea was to present the Nicholas Academic Centers as a “best practice” model.

During the presentation, Rosa and Janae shared Judge Jack K. Mandel’s story and how he came to partner with Dr. Henry T. Nicholas, III in 2008. In addition to covering NAC stats and stories, the panel focused on the NAC’s partnerships with high schools and colleges. One of the most important partnerships the NAC has made is with high school counselors.

According to a report on Counseling.org, California boasts one of the highest counselor-to-student ratios in the nation. The NAC in several respects serves as a continuation of the hard work that guidance counselors like Gerry Oxx, counselor at Godinez Fundamental High School in Santa Ana, do on a daily basis. Gerry has been very supportive of the NAC. “I think the NAC has proven to be the gem of a collaboration of this type. Through my close association, I have been able to foster relationships with college admissions reps that I would not have necessarily had the opportunity to work with. And, my continual communication with NAC personnel has strengthened my belief in what the NAC is trying to produce with our students.” Gerry adds, “[The NAC] is an enhancement – it takes a village and all parties involved with each student need to play an active role in that student’s life.”

To represent the college viewpoint, Andre McWell, the Director of Student Success at Morningside College in Iowa, shared his experience working with the NAC. “I saw my role as giving the audience that attended our seminar a look at what we do at Morningside College to assure that the students we recruited from the NAC continue down the road to success that was created for them while they attended the NAC in high school.” Andre also talked about how he believes other colleges can benefit from partnering with CBOs like the NAC. “For the colleges that get these students, it makes the campus communities so much more diverse, not because of race or color, but because these students come from a different part of the U.S. So our relationships must continue to grow because in the end everyone involved wins.”

Toward the end of the presentation, people had more questions than could be answered in the allotted time. This opened an opportunity for the NAC panelists to meet and connect with interested parties afterward. Smiling, Rosa says, “It was neat, because after the presentation we were mobbed. We talked to reps from Transylvania University [in Lexington, Kentucky] and Pomona College [in Pomona].” Janae adds, “As well as the United States Naval Academy, which is another big one.” Rosa adds, “We also had a lot of other CBOs approach us and ask how we manage certain aspects of our business.” Overall, the NAC team made new connections that will likely lead to more opportunities for NAC students in the years to come.

The following day, Rosa and Janae set up a booth at the CBO Access Fair. The CBO fair allowed Rosa and Janae to pass out literature to counselors and colleges who were interested in finding out more about CBOs. The majority of the people who stopped by the NAC booth were college representatives looking to make new partnerships with CBOs or looking for innovative programs that could help them get some quality students into their colleges. Representatives from several colleges expressed interest in the NAC, and they asked questions about utilizing CBOs. Janae notes, “It was nice because, as a CBO, we’re the ones who are used to approaching college reps at the college fairs. At this point, they were coming up to us and asking us questions.” Rosa adds, “I met with two college representatives from all female colleges, Bryn Mawr [in Pennsylvania] and St. Mary’s, and they talked to us about how we, as counselors, might help our young women consider attending all-female colleges. It was pretty interesting.” Of all the connections the NAC made during the conference, one that stands out for Janae is Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the Transylvania reps, the university’s Board of Directors recently approved a move to partner with CBOs on a nationwide level. Smiling, Janae notes, “They told us they want us to be one.”

Later, Rosa and Janae attended a College Access Fair. At the College Access fair, it was the college representatives’ turn to sit behind the booths. Rosa and Janae took advantage of the opportunity and reached out to colleges and universities who were present at NACAC. They also caught up with many colleges and universities that the NAC currently works with as a way to strengthen the NAC’s relationship with them.

On Saturday, the last day of the event, Rosa and Janae attended a “Special Interest Group” (SIG) for CBOs. The SIGs help NACAC participants communicate with the greater NACAC body of voting members about issues that need to be addressed in the higher education system. They act similarly to a lobbying group within NACAC to help CBOs advocate for issues related to counselors, students, the college-going process, and more. Most of the CBOs attending the conference came together to discuss the current state of various CBO issues. Rosa declares, “We met with other CBOs and talked about how, as organizations banding together, we can advocate for changes within NACAC.” One change includes advocating on behalf of students who receive scholarships from CBOs. Many times, these scholarships negatively impact the financial aid packages that colleges offer students. In other words, colleges often lower the financial aid they will award a student if he or she receives scholarships from CBOs. Another change includes lowering conference fees for CBOs.

The Chapman Visiting Scholars Series returned to the Nicholas Academic Centers on Saturday, October 20, with Dr. Rafael Luevano’s lecture about violence against women in Juarez, Mexico. The lecture, which revolved around Dr. Luevano’s research for his recently published book, Woman-Killing in Juarez, challenged students to think critically about social problems on a local and global scale. Moreover, because Dr. Luevano is a theologian as well as a professor, he examined not only the socioeconomic and political aspects of the tragedy, but also the spiritual responses of those who have suffered in its wake.

To open the lecture, Dr. Luevano shared his experience of growing up in Santa Ana. Although he has travelled the world, earning a Licentiate degree from the Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, as well as a doctoral degree from Nijmegan Catholic University in the Netherlands, Dr. Luevano notes, “I grew up in Santa Ana, [and between] Chapman University, St. Joseph’s [Hospital], and the Catholic cathedral, I can walk my whole life in about ten minutes.” The anecdote closed the distance between Dr. Luevano and the students, which allowed the students to more openly join in the discussion.

After briefly sharing his personal background, Dr. Luevano expressed how he, as a theologian, contributes to the larger conversation concerning world events, in this case the current crisis in Juarez. “I talk about a historical crisis, something that’s happening in Mexico, but I use my Catholic faith to try to understand it.” He adds, “There’s a major moral issue here. There’s a crisis [involving] politics, money, and all of those things, but as a theologian who looks at ethics, morals, and what’s going on, that’s the contribution that I can make.”

Dr. Luevano first became involved in the crisis in Juarez while reading the paper one morning in 1993. “In 1993, I was reading the paper, like normal. Nothing had happened, and there was just this tiny, little article in The Los Angeles Times, it was about three or four lines, and it said that five or six women had been killed in Juarez, Mexico.” Then, Dr. Luevano mentioned his epiphany. “I was sitting there, and I lifted up my head… and in that instant, my life changed. Something happened to me; it grabbed me very deeply inside of me, and from that moment until the present, every day I’ve looked at the newspapers, and every day I’ve followed these stories.”

Nearly ten years after he first learned of the killings, Dr. Luevano travelled to Juarez. While he was there, Dr. Luevano met with friends and family of victims and missing women, and he visited many of the sites where the bodies of women had been found. During the lecture, students saw several pictures that Dr. Luevano had either taken on site in Juarez or that he had collected from outside sources. Among the collection were images of various memorial sites, missing person posters, partial remains of discovered bodies, drawings of patron saints used by cartel members, and the factories where many of the women worked. While the images evoked a range of responses, NAC student Jackie Martinez said the images, especially of the dead or missing women, made her “angry”.

After spending nearly two decades researching the woman-killings in Juarez, Dr. Luevano has linked a number of factors to the tragedy, two of them significant. The first, the implementation of NAFTA, allowed several large businesses from the United States and Canada to open factories, or maquiladoras, in Mexico, eliminating most of the tariff trade barriers, and opening a floodgate for cheap labor. Because of its centralized location, which is ideal for shipping purposes, Juarez became a hub for new factories, as well as a cheap labor hot spot; thousands of laborers, or “invasiones”, migrated to the city, and the factories mostly hired women, under the notion that they would be more easily controlled. At the same time, drug cartels took advantage of the new “open” border, and Juarez also saw an increase in the narcotics industry. As the power of the drug cartels grew, increasing their stranglehold on local politics and law enforcement, the city of Juarez became progressively unsafe, especially for the women commuting to and from the factories.

The killing of women in Juarez has become significant enough to earn the label of “feminicide.” According to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission, “Feminicide is a political term. It encompasses more than ‘femicide’ because it holds responsible not only the male perpetrators, but also the state and judicial structures that normalize misogyny.” One of the reasons for indicting the state includes its “toleration of the perpetrators’ acts of violence,” or a failure to “protect the rights of women.” Interestingly, much of this “tolerance” stems from communal paralysis, wherein fear overrides any notions of retribution. Dr. Luevano notes that the killings have had a profound effect on the community of Juarez, and that most people are too afraid to counter the violence.

Dr. Luevano offered a step towards a solution: Solidarity. To illustrate the concept of solidarity, Dr. Luevano encouraged all of the students to hold hands. Soon, the students found themselves connected, holding hands in a web of outstretched arms. Dr. Luevano commented, “This is what solidarity is. We’re all human beings, and no matter what religion, or what we are, or how old we are, or who we are, when you are suffering, it puts you in contact with your deepest part of being a human… and when you see somebody else suffering, it puts you in deepest contact with your suffering.” According to Dr. Luevano, many of the friends and families of the women killed in Juarez often find support by forming relationships with others who are familiar with their suffering.

To close the lecture, Dr. Luevano asked all in attendance to name something they are thankful for. Some students mentioned they are thankful for having been born while others were thankful for the relationships they’ve formed with fellow students at the NAC. Dr. Luevano mentioned that he was thankful for having the opportunity to spend time with the students, and said, “You are such an inspiration.”

Click HERE to watch the video.

From a very young age, Katherine Mitchell dreamed of going to Harvard University. Initially inspired by Harry Potter’s fictional experience in Hogwarts, Katherine’s interest in education and her desire to attend Harvard grew intertwined like Ollivander vines over the years. Back in February, when Katherine learned she had been accepted to participate in Harvard’s “Secondary School Program”, her dream of attending Harvard quickly turned into reality; however, despite available financial aid, the high cost of the program nearly denied Katherine the opportunity. Fortunately, significant contributions from The Henry T. Nicholas, III Foundation, Judge Jack K. Mandel, and Judge Edward J. Wallin helped make the trip possible. As a result, for six weeks, from June 25 to August 10, Katherine earned undergraduate college credits as a Harvard student.

Katherine left Santa Ana with her parents a week before the program started, on June 18. After arriving in Boston, they stayed at a bed and breakfast in Central Square, one stop from Harvard Square when riding the red line on the “T”, Boston’s subway system. During the week, Katherine stayed busy on and off campus, taking care of last minute details, waiting in immunization lines and filing paperwork; when the weather permitted, the family ventured outdoors in search of Boston’s best fish ‘n’ chips. A couple days before Katherine’s parents returned home, they found a restaurant whose fish batter recipe beat all others. Ironically, the restaurant turned out to be California-based. Katherine jokes, “We travelled to Massachusetts to eat at a restaurant from California.”

Of all the landmarks in Boston, Katherine preferred Harvard’s very own Widener Library. During the six weeks of classes, Katherine kept a busy schedule, dividing her time between classrooms, the library, and the dorm, but the library was her favorite. Katherine comments, “It’s just so big and so old. There are books I found from the early 1800s! We were allowed to look through the books and check them out. When the books are torn or damaged, they are stored in boxes, but students can still access them.”

On Mondays and Wednesdays, Katherine attended Professor Ellsworth Lapham Fersch’s class, “The Insanity Defense” from 8:30 to 11:30 AM. “We focused on the legal aspects because [the insanity defense] is an actual defense that lawyers can use. We learned about the M’Naghten (often spelled McNaughton) test and what one needs to actually invoke the defense; it’s a last resort defense, really, because you know your defendant committed the crime, but you’re saying it’s because he’s mentally ill.” She adds, “Mainly, we learned that insanity is a legal word, not a psychological or medical term. People often use it improperly.” The course load included reading three books (Thinking About Insanity, Religion, and Terrorism, Thinking About the Insanity Defense, and An Introduction to Forensic Psychology), taking written tests, and writing a ten-page term paper.

Tuesdays and Thursdays found Katherine taking Professor Thomas Derrah’s Introduction to Acting course, from noon to 3:30 PM. Although the “Insanity Defense” class demanded more of Katherine academically, she found the acting class to be the most challenging: “I like acting, but, getting up in front of people I don’t know and letting go of all of the social barriers we have to keep up to survive in this world, it’s really hard.” During the six weeks Katherine attended the class, she participated in several improvisation games, including a word-association exercise in which students had to say a word and then point to someone to continue the line of words; the tricky part, according to Katherine, was bringing the game full circle and ending with the first word given. If the game started with the word “peacock,” it also had to end with “peacock.” Ultimately, the games paid off. Smiling, Katherine states, “My final went well. We had to choose a genre of music we don’t like and then interpret a song from that genre. I chose Country.” Although she wasn’t overly familiar with the genre, Katherine remembered listening to Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” in sixth grade, and it seemed ripe for interpretation. While another student decided to put on a puppet show, Katherine improvised a phone call to a friend about the song’s subject matter. Before the scene ended, Katherine hung up the phone and performed a country-themed soliloquy. “My professor loved it!”

In the spaces of time not dedicated to studying, Katherine developed a bond with a group of her fellow Harvard Secondary School Program colleagues. “All of the girls on my floor, there were seven of us, became really good friends,” Katherine says. Early on in the program, Katherine joined a few of the girls and walked door to door through the dorm, introducing themselves to anyone who answered the door. Eventually, the group of five grew to twenty, as more and more students joined the traveling ensemble. While sharing this story, Katherine recalls other roving groups that stood out during her stay at Harvard: Tourists. “Because I lived on the first floor, I could always hear the tours going by. It was always the same spiel.” In her best blue-blooded accent, Katherine impersonates a tour guide discussing the “Statue of Three Lies”. While trying not to laugh, she says, “The three lies are, number one, this is not John Harvard, but a friend of the sculptor. And they would continue.”

After returning home, Katherine found herself wanting to go for a walk through Harvard Square and then remembering it was over 2,500 miles away. She states, “The trip was surreal. Harvard pulls a part of you in and keeps it.” If she has her way, however, Katherine might someday return to Harvard to attend school on a more permanent basis and pursue an undergraduate degree.

(From the archive: read about Katherine’s acceptance into the Harvard Secondary School Program HERE).