DreamCatchers |

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 13, 2012

We here at DreamCatchers would like to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day! It takes a community to help raise a child, and we are proud and honored to be a part of that community. Thank you to the mothers of DreamCatchers’ students who continue to support us by taking your student to and from tutoring and participating in our other activities, such as our cooking classes (pictured above: a student and his mother prepare vegetables for a soup dish at cooking class! Photo credit: Nick Salazar)! Happy Mother’s Day!

April Showers bring May… Awards!

Posted on May 5, 2012

We apologize for the lack of blog posts in the last week, but there has been no end to the action going on behind the scenes here at DreamCatchers. We are very excited to announce that DreamCatchers has been selected as a recipient of the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund! This is particularly monumental because the award is a very generous multi-year grant that gives us financial security for the next three years, allowing DreamCatchers to continue to serve low-income families in Palo Alto. Our Executive Director, Sarah Mummah, is pictured here speaking at the awards reception (photo credit: Palo Alto Online). A list of all recipients can be found here, and you can read more about the award here!

This past week, Sarah also attended another reception to represent DreamCatchers as the recipient of the Stanford Community Partnership Award. 10th grader Adriana, who has been with DreamCatchers since its inception four years ago, was also in attendance and spoke to the crowd about her experience with DreamCatchers. “It was an amazing moment,” Sarah says about Adriana’s speech. “She has a very powerful story, and everyone there was inspired by her.” You can find a brief video of the reception here (Adriana’s speech is featured starting at 1:28).

Tutor’s Corner

Posted on April 21, 2012

Chelsey is a current sophomore at Stanford studying Human Biology. This is her second year tutoring for DreamCatchers.

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“Joining Dreamcatchers as a tutor was more than just a resume-builder for me: it instead was my way of helping kids with similar backgrounds to me succeed. I’m a first generation, low-income student at Stanford, so I find myself identifying with the kids and parents in Dreamcatchers who struggle with an education system that just can’t give enough to talented low-income students. Working with Stella, my sixth grade tutee, every Thursday is something I look forward to every single week because she is one of those talented low-income students that I believe can go far. When she told me she wanted to go to Stanford one day and become a doctor, I knew that Dreamcatchers was my opportunity to make it happen. Her growing success makes me as proud as anything else I’m doing at Stanford, and Dreamcatchers is what makes it possible. I only hope people will finally start to realize what potential EVERY student has if enough guidance is given to them.”

DreamCatchers Receives Stanford Award!

Posted on April 8, 2012

As we kick back into gear for spring quarter, DreamCatchers is excited to announce that we have received the 2012 Stanford Community Partnership Award! The Community Partnership Award is given to deserving groups and partnerships that exist between Stanford and the surrounding communities. DreamCatchers was especially recognized for our ability to to establish a large network of local partnerships and engage them to provide an effective model for afterschool programming. You can check out the website for more details! Read the news article here!

Congratulations, Fairley!

Posted on March 15, 2012

DreamCatchers would like to send a huge shout out to one of our Site Directors, Fairley Nickerson! She is pictured on the left leading one of our quarterly Tutor Seminars. Fairley, a senior at Stanford, has been accepted to three separate prestigious and highly competitive fellowships for next year: Teach for America, Teach for China, and the Volunteers in Asia Dr. C.J. Huang Fellowship, which is only given to two deserving students per year! Each of these fellowships provides support and offers recipients the experience of teaching in under-resourced communities. We are sure that Fairley will succeed with her talent and passion for education in whichever fellowship she chooses!

Healthy Haikus

Posted on March 11, 2012

On the first Saturday of the Month, our Healthy Behaviors team hosted the second Cooking Class for our students and families. Check out a few pictures and their captions below!

A finished stir-fry whipped up by one of our students:

Vegetable Stir-Fry
So easy and delicious,
A colorful meal!

Mixing the sauce for the Peanut Noodle Salad:

Who knew that peanut
butter and rice vinegar
could season noodles?

Tutor Seminar

Posted on March 1, 2012

Last month, DreamCatchers hosted its quarterly Tutor Seminar for tutors. Led by our Site Directors, DreamCatchers’ Tutor Seminars are highly effective training sessions in which we share the latest techniques and methods of tutoring and education with our tutors. Tutors are taught the idea of “Growth Mindset,” pioneered by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, as the ideal thought model for students to pursue their studies. Our tutors also have the opportunity to swap their own tutoring stories and experiences with their peers in order to exchange effective successful tutoring techniques.

Congratulations, Sarah!

Posted on February 25, 2012

Our Executive Director, Sarah Mummah, was recently named one of the 40 American scholars to receive the prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship! The Gates Cambridge scholarship sponsors stellar scholars who will become future leaders to pursue a graduate degree in any area of concentration at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. In part, the award recognizes the work she has done with DreamCatchers, which has won numerous awards and was recently the recipient of a U.S. Congressional Certificate of Recognition. You can read the full news release HERE . Congratulations, Sarah!

Tabling at Whole Foods

Posted on February 22, 2012

February this year for DreamCatchers meant the partnership with Whole Foods Market in Palo Alto as the featured Nickels for Non-profits program for the month! Every time a patron shopped with a reusable bag at Whole Foods, a nickel was donated to our cause. Members of our Outreach team tabled in front of the store on weekends in order to show our appreciation to the patrons and to engage in community awareness and provide information on our program. Sarah Mummah, Executive Director of DreamCatchers, and Carlos Guzman, Academic Program Director, are shown in the photograph above. We are continuing our efforts to reach out and partner with local businesses and spread the word about DreamCatchers!

Saturday Cooking Class!

Posted on February 15, 2012

On Saturday, February 4, our Healthy Behaviors team put on the very first DreamCatchers Saturday Cooking class for our students. Nearly 40 students, families, siblings and staff gathered together in the kitchen space of the Arastradero Apartments in Palo Alto. The Healthy Behaviors team set up multiple stations for cutting, chopping, mixing, pouring and everything in between. The items on the menu were Greek lentil soup and rye bread from scratch. Thanks to the generous donations from Milk Pail Market, parents helped their students chop up fresh onions, carrots, and celery for the soup while others mixed rye flour and buttermilk to make the dough. The end results were absolutely delicious! Afterwards, families got to take home leftover ingredients to make the dishes themselves at home. Genevieve Tuveson, Director of the Healthy Behaviors program, was especially ecstatic with the results: “DreamCatchers’ first Cooking Class was extremely successful and exceeded all of our expectations! With a sunny day, full kitchen, delicious food donated by Milk Pail, and lots of hungry DreamCatcher friends, students, and parents, it ended up being a day packed with fun and healthy, delicious dishes!”

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