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.
Eight Covina-Valley Unified School District students will join the Board of Education and serve as a voice for their peers after being sworn in as 2022-23 student board representatives at the Board of Education meeting on Nov. 14. Every school year, the District will select a student board member and an alternate from each of C-VUSD’s four high schools to participate in the governance process of the district, learn essential democratic skills, and represent and advocate for their peers. South Hills High junior Ahriana Chavez, Northview High senior Princess Espinoza Conde, Covina High junior Ashley Raffaeli, and Fairvalley High senior Bryan Santana were selected as this year’s representatives. Students interested in running for student board representative seats went through an interview process and then took part in an election at their schools. Junior Thaiz Gonzalez (Northview), senior Sofia Lopez (Fairvalley), junior Aiyana Martel (Covina), and junior Izabella Vazquez (South Hills) will serve as the student board alternates.
Tri-Community Adult Education/Pioneer Center English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Cornella VerHalen has always had a love of teaching and a passion for sewing. In her more than 50 years as an ESL and sewing teacher, VerHalen has worked to enrich the lives of newly arrived immigrants and residents, giving them the tools and confidence to succeed in a new country. VerHalen, who just celebrated her 90th birthday, will retire from the Pioneer Center at the end of the fall semester, closing a chapter in a teaching career that began when Richard Nixon was president, “Marcus Welby M.D.” was the top-rated television program and the Jackson 5 were emerging as America’s newest pop music sensations.
Covina-Valley Unified School District students and families will benefit from a new Health and Wellness Center, which will provide a full-service location where they can access resources that best fit the needs of each family and situation. Located at what was formerly the Lark Ellen Elementary School campus, the Health and Wellness Center was created to expand the District’s emphasis on serving the whole student and will provide students and families with medical and mental health screenings, counseling services, and more.
