Entries by jpmktg

Personal Employee Stories Prompt Addition of ‘Be the Match’ to May 8 Blood Drive

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Blood donation vector symbol, two hearts connected with pulse cardiogram tube donate blood, flat logo design, creative emblem illustration isolated on white background

Personal Employee Stories Prompt Addition of 'Be the Match' to May 8 Blood Drive

“Save a life” is the phrase you most frequently hear when being asked to become a blood or bone marrow donor. While most times the idea of saving a person you’ll never meet is enough to prompt so many to give, when you find someone who has a personal story connecting a real person to a real need, suddenly the phrase carries more weight.

That’s what happened when Visions employee, Dinah Malkin, approached us with the proposal to add Be The Match to the Visions Blood Drive on Monday, May 8. Dinah has a close friend who, at just 30 years old, discovered she has Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia and is still actively looking for a bone marrow match that will save her life.

Upon hearing Lisa’s story and Dinah’s effort to spread the word about the importance of bone marrow donation, we coordinated with BloodSource to add Be The Match to the drive.

In its first step, Be The Match involves only a swabbing of your cheek to see if you are a match for one of 14,000 people with blood cancer whose only hope for living is finding a match. That’s all you would be required to do at the drive. If you’re a match, you will be contacted for further testing. If you aren’t, your tissue type will be added to the bone marrow registry.

It’s estimated that 1 in 40 will be called for further testing and 1 in 300 will be selected as the best possible match for a patient. The process of donation requires a time commitment spread across several weeks as well as a bit of recovery after the transplant. But it’s a unique donation in that your sacrifice will later seem small when considering that you directly saved another person who without you may spend the rest of their life, however long, waiting and hoping.

Here is a video of Lisa talking about her diagnosis. Dinah joins her about half way to talk about Lisa’s fight.

We also discovered the daughter of another Visions employee found out she was a match for a 5-year-old girl with Leukemia. Hilary Ingram, daughter of Julie Ingram, ended up saving the life of Stevye Ray, who was near death before the transplant but is now a healthy 10-year-old.

Here is a video of Hilary meeting the girl she saved while also talking about what giving meant to her.

Bone marrow donors are ideally between the ages of 18 and 44 and must be free of select health issues to be eligible. Be The Match will be available at our blood drive on May 8.

Visions Student Crowned Miss Central California’s Outstanding Teen

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Violet Joy Hansen, a Visions Student

Visions Student Crowned Miss Central California’s Outstanding Teen

University Prep student Violet was crowned the 2017 Miss Central California’s Outstanding Teen! This pageant is part of the Miss America Program and promotes community service. Violet now moves on to compete in the Miss California’s Outstanding Teen pageant.

As part of her outstanding teen title she volunteers for the Ronald McDonald House, serves as Vice President of their Teen Council, works their special events and devotes time to their summer camp. In her free time she focuses on her passions for musical theater, acting in local films, learning sign language, honing her Coloratura Soprano singing voice, volunteering at church and taking ballet.

She is also represented by NYLO talent agency and has appeared in commercials and movies, several of which won local film festival awards. Violet shows no evidence of slowing down. She recently sang the National Anthem in front of 12,000 people at a Republic FC game, performed in a musical with the Roseville Theatre Arts Academy and is planning to perform at Disneyland in the fall with her theater troupe. To add to her already impressive resume Violet was featured as one of Style Magazine’s 20 Under 20 Teens in their April 2017 Folsom/El Dorado Hills issue.

Violet’s enrollment in Visions’ University Prep Academy has allowed her the flexibility to pursue her passions while taking honors courses and preparing for university. Her future plans include receiving her sign language interpreter certificate, graduating from high school and attending a Los Angeles area university to major in musical theater.

Congratulations Violet!

Visions Student Writer Interviewed on Good Day Sacramento

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Jodi Graf and Shani on Good Day Sacramento

Visions Student Writer Interviewed on Good Day Sacramento

Visions student and writer, Shani was featured on Good Day Sacramento!

Watch the segment here!

Bethany Crouch spoke with them about our Find Your Voice writing class, Shani’s accomplishments and what we offer to our students as a school. Our students’ book, Voices of Thunder, is featured in the segment and is available for purchase on 916 Ink’s website.

Fun Facts
Shani and our South Sacramento writing class were featured on an episode of KVIE’s Rob on the Road. Rob interviewed local “heroes and helping hands” in Sacramento including 916 Ink’s founder Katie McCleary and Shani.

Shani also won third place in the Sacramento Poetry Center’s Teen Poetry Contest for her poem “Boys are Better in Books”. This poem, among other writings from our South Sacramento Find Your Voice class, are featured in Voices of Thunder. We encourage you to watch our students read their work on our YouTube channel.

What is the Find Your Voice Writing Class?
Our Find Your Voice writing class is a partnership between Visions In Education and 916 Ink. The program is designed to manifest a creative, but safe environment for teens in middle and high school to discover themselves as writers. Students have the opportunity to study and write fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction in the course. Each class culminates with the publication of a book.

Students Celebrate Becoming Published Authors

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Row of books published by Visions Students

Students Celebrate Becoming Published Authors

Four of our Find Your Voice classes celebrated the release of their books last week. Students in our South Sacramento, Carmichael and Vacaville classes are now published authors.

The Find Your Voice writing class is a partnership between Visions In Education and 916 Ink. This program is designed to manifest a creative, but safe environment for teens to discover themselves as writers. Students have the opportunity to study and write fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction in the course. Each class culminates with the publication of a book in partnership with 916 Ink.

Each class participates in a book reading and reception to celebrate their work. Visit our Facebook page to see photos of the events. We also have videos of the South Sacramento book release party available on our YouTube channel.

Fun fact: Students from the South Sacramento high school class were filmed for KVIE’s Rob on the Road! They’ll be featured on an episode scheduled to air on March 20.

The latest books from our student authors will be available for purchase soon on 916 Ink’s website.

Words Reign–Carmichael middle school class
Wildfire Words–Carmichael high school class
Prisms of Prose– Vacaville middle school class
Voices of Thunder-South Sacramento high school class

Congratulations to all of our student authors!

2016 “Why I Love Visions” Video Contest Winners

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Banner announcing the 2016 Visions Video Contest

"Why I Love Visions" Video Contest Winners

We’re excited to announce the winners of our video contest. Thank you to everyone that voted on YouTube and supported our talented finalists. We received an unprecedented 39 entries and 8,984 views on YouTube.

To celebrate the great work of our winners and finalists we have a special message from our Executive Director Jody Graf.

K-8 Winners:
– Grand Prize- Annamiel O. Grade 7
– Second Place- Nicholas E. Grade
– Third Place- Lauren M. Grade 8

9-12 Winners:
– Grand Prize- Ryan F. Grade 9
– Second Place- Lucy W. Grade 1
– Third Place- Diane R. Grade 11

Online Learning System Streamlines Independent Study Curriculum

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Woman working at a computer with coffee

Online Learning System Streamlines Independent Study Curriculum

We’re proud to use an online learning management system that helps meet the diverse needs of our Independent Study and University Prep students. Our mission is to prepare each student to succeed in a rapidly changing world so we make sure to leverage technology in our curriculum.

This system has allowed us to provide students with a mobile curriculum, meet our instructional goals, compare measures of student performance and establish accountability. We offer our high school students a wide array of classes and this learning management system makes them all uniform ensuring that students are focused on the content.

The system also allows teachers to foster a stronger relationship with their students. Instead of spending their meetings managing what assignments were done and not done they can discuss how to stay motivated, develop soft skills and build trust.

Read the full success story here.

2016 Spelling Bee

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Drawing of Cartoon Bee

2016 Visions Spelling Bee

On December 9, 78 Visions’ students in grades 2 through 12 participated in our annual spelling bee. These super spellers went through extensive rounds culminating in the final spell off.

19 students participated in the semifinalist round and 8th grader Ruhma U. was crowned the winner. She correctly spelled “predominant” and won round 22. Next she’ll move on to the written California Central Valley Spelling Bee and hopefully make it through to the oral competition.

4th grader Elissia R. took second place and 5th grader William S. came in third. Congratulations to all of our participants and finalists!

To view more photos from the spelling bee please visit our Facebook page here.

 

Three Visions Students Win the Quick Quack Car Wash Writing Contest

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Drawing of a trophy on a post-it note

Three Visions Students Win the Quick Quack Car Wash Writing Contest

We’re excited to announce that three of our students won in their grade level! The contest asked students to write the biography of Quackals, their duck mascot. Each winner in their grade won $100 and their teacher and parent/guardian receive free car washes for a year.

Congratulations to our winners:

–Evelyn H., 7th grade- “The Quack Behind the Clean”
–Sophia K., 8th grade- “Quackals: The Story of his Life”
–Emma M., 10th grade- “Quick Quack Car Wash”

“I appreciate that we have students who demonstrated the get-up-and-go to not only write those wonderful stories – they also showed a willingness to put themselves out there, and take a chance, by entering into the competition,” said Executive Director Jody Graf. “It makes all of us at Visions proud to see this kind of initiative. I commend our teachers and parents who are encouraging our students to participate in these kind of endeavors, it is a fantastic way for our students to experience real life applications by applying their English language arts writing skills.”

Quick Quack Car Wash awarded Sophia with an extra $100 since she was runner up to the grand prize winner. We’re so proud of our students that participated in this contest. Congratulations again to all the Visions students that made it to the finals, Audrey L., William H., and Emma S. You can read the winning stories here.

Visions Student Calls on Community to Help Him Collect 10,000 Food Items for Annual Food Drive

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Visions Student Calls on Community to Help Him Collect 10,000 Food Items for Annual Food Drive

The Visions student who inspired us last holiday season to consider the needs of those around us is hosting another food drive and calling on Visions staff and families to help him reach his ambitious goal.

Last year, Cameron Dax had a goal of collecting 1,500 food items, and through the help of Visions In Education, local companies, and community members, he raised an incredible 6,800 items. Visions went above and beyond by collecting over 4,100 cans and food items, the total of which was split between Cameron’s food drive and the San Juan Unified School District’s food closet.

This year, Cameron, who is now in 7th grade, is aiming even higher with a goal of raising 10,000 cans and non-perishable food items such as pasta, rice, beans, macaroni & cheese, dried soups, pudding, cereal, and any dry good that can be turned into a meal.

“I want to make sure that people in need have food,” Cameron said. “I do [the food drive] because I like to help others and it makes me feel good inside.”

About the Food Drive

Visions is among nearly a dozen local businesses that has heard Cameron’s story and wants to help him give back to the community. Now through Dec. 15, we have a bin to collect food items in both lobbies accompanied with a sign that reminds us of Cameron’s goal.

If you’d rather give money, Cameron also set up a GoFundMe account to collect money he’ll use to purchase food items through a discount partnership he created with Grocery Outlet.

This is the seventh food drive headed up by Cameron, who started his first food drive at a mere 7 years old. His annual venture started as a community service project at his then-school Mission Avenue Open Elementary School. When his original idea of passing out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to homeless people was decided against by his parents, he decided instead to go around his neighborhood with a wagon to collect cans.

After succeeded in collecting 106 cans during his first holiday food drive, Cameron decided the following year he’d like to make this an annual event. And now the 12-year-old is in talks with his parents about starting a nonprofit so he’s able to aim even higher by reaching out to bigger corporations.

Cameron’s efforts are also apparently contagious as two of his friends are now running their own food drive.

“It makes me feel good that I’m making other people do good things,” said Cameron.

Get Involved

As an incentive to get businesses and the community to give big this holiday season, Cameron will award the highest collecting business or person a painting he created that he tells us is a rendition of a Van Gough. He also painted and sold 3 paintings to be added to his Grocery Outlet fund and has been commissioned to paint two more.

With multiple talents and a big heart, Cameron hopes you will help him reach his goal this year.

Visions will collect food items through Dec. 15.Cameron’s collected goods will be donated to the San Juan Unified food closet and the Carmichael Food Bank. You may drop off cans and non-perishable food items in the bins at either lobbies or give through his GoFundMe at gofundme.com/feedingmyneighbors.

Staples Features Visions in Case Study

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Staples Business Advantage Logo

Staples Features Visions in Case Study

In early 2014, Visions embarked on a project with Staples Business Advantage. The goal was to simplify and speed up our online curriculum ordering system to save time and money. Staples helped us revamp our online purchasing hub to streamline the process for orders and payments.

This new technology has helped simplify the ordering process for families and Visions staff. In the past, orders took 10 days on average to process. With the new system they only take four. To celebrate this successful project Staples Business Advantage developed a case study summarizing the challenge, solution, and benefits of this new system. Please read the full version here.