South Hills High School senior Saniya Tillis developed a passion for service and improving the world at an early age, creating service clubs and volunteering at homeless shelters as an elementary school student. Tillis continues to work with at-risk families – through her own nonprofit Students Uplifting Students, which advocates for students experiencing homelessness. Tillis will take her entrepreneurial mind and service-based leadership to Northwestern University after being named a 2023 Posse Foundation scholar, one of just 10 Posse Los Angeles Chapter members to receive a full-ride scholarship to the prestigious university. Tillis plans to major in economics with a minor in business institutions to achieve her dream of becoming the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Covina-Valley Unified students, families, and dignitaries were greeted with a red carpet and balloons as they gathered at the new C-VUSD Health and Wellness Center for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 30, marking a new chapter in the District’s history of increasing access to vital mental and physical wellness resources. The Health and Wellness Center, located at the former Lark Ellen Elementary School, has been in development for the past year. The space will offer students and families services and resources that help eliminate barriers to school success, including medical screenings, mental health screenings, counseling services, and more.
Covina-Valley to Hold Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for Wellness Center
Covina-Valley Unified School District will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Health and Wellness Center and Family Resource Room at 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30. The center will provide a full-service location for students and families to access resources that help eliminate barriers to school success, and serve as a hub for the District’s social workers while providing a variety of no-cost and low-cost programs and services to C-VUSD children, youth and families. The Covina-Valley Health and Wellness Center (formerly Lark Ellen Elementary School) is located at 4555 N. Lark Ellen Ave., Covina.
Covina High School senior Kevin Nguyen will take his studies to the East Coast in fall 2023 after receiving early admission to New York University for his impactful academic and personal achievements. Nguyen is a first-generation Asian American student whose parents emigrated from Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Nguyen has worked at his family’s nail salon since he was eight years old, an experience that has inspired him to study business at NYU.
Covina-Valley Unified School District students will benefit from additional resources and support to help them achieve success in school and life, thanks to the expansion of its Elementary Comprehensive School Counseling Program. The District program has grown in its second year after C-VUSD increased its counseling staff for the 2022-23 school year. The program follows the American School Counselor Association National Model guidelines and offers elementary school students tier-level support that is data-driven and tailored to student needs in three domains: academics, social-emotional learning, and college and career readiness.
Covina-Valley Unified School District will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Health and Wellness Center and Family Resource Room, which will provide a full-service location for students and families in the communities served by the District to access resources that help eliminate barriers to school success. The Center will serve as the hub for the District’s social workers and the entire Health and Student Services Department, including a team of registered and licensed vocational nurses. It will offer a variety of no-cost and low-cost programs and services to children, youth, and families who reside in the communities served by the Covina-Valley Unified School District.
Covina-Valley Unified Business Students Gain Professional Skills
South Hills High School students are learning the unique skill sets they need to thrive in the world of business thanks to the school’s Business Management Career Technical Education pathway, which offers students the chance to learn and grow by operating as a real company. The pathway consists of four classes: Entrepreneurship, Sports Management, International Baccalaureate Business Management, and Virtual Enterprise. Virtual Enterprise, the most advanced class in the pathway, groups students into different functional departments -- including executive office, marketing, design, finance, and human resources -- and challenges them to design and develop a product of their own.
Covina-Valley Unified School District welcomed new Board of Education member Simon Wright and returning member Rachael Robles during the Board’s reorganization meeting on Dec. 12. Wright and Robles took the Oath of Office during a ceremony prior to the meeting affirming that they will fulfill the duties of a Board member and uphold the values of the District throughout the next four years. The Board selected Maria Caceres to serve as president; Maria Cruz was named vice president and Simon Wright was named clerk. Members Rachael Robles and Sue Maulucci complete the Board.
Las Palmas Middle School students are building lasting relationships and benefitting from a positive campus culture thanks to the Best Buddies program, which aims to foster connections between those with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Best Buddies, an international nonprofit that pairs students in one-on-one friendships, has had a home at Las Palmas for nearly five years. This school year, the program has grown to more than 50 general education students who work alongside the school’s 16 Life-Skills Education Advancement Program (LEAP) students with mild to moderate learning disabilities.
Northview High School’s Fine Arts, Media, and Entertainment (FAME) pathway, which has led students to careers at KTLA, CBS, ABC, and Disney, has won the California School Boards Association Golden Bell Award for its approach to fostering student excellence in media arts and broadcast journalism. This four-year pathway, in partnership with PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs, Atlas Digital, and KQED Education, teaches students a range of essential skills such as journalism, media literacy, camera composition, editing, story development, character creation, screenwriting, interviewing, and more.
