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Corre la Voz isn’t just an after-school program
Corre La Voz is a creative learning and community space that we make and re-make each day and week because that’s how kids show up: remaking the world. CLV serves primarily Latina/o 4th and 5th graders at Bay View Elementary and is led by UCSC undergraduate mentors. In all of our spaces, from academic mentoring to dinámica games, movie-making, and Council, we work to build strong selves with open minds and hearts in a strong bilingual learning community.
We ask, as a starting point, how would education for bilingual learners and diverse communities be, if it were done right? What would our aims be? How would each of us be stepping up with our knowledge and willingness to learn to do justice for each new generation?
The Corre la Voz program for middle grade youth and mentors is an innovative way to build personal and community power for well-being and academic success, by bringing together undergraduates and kids to work together creatively and in a caring, intentional way.
We work on developing multimodal literacies by placing language at the center of our attention—being mindful to honor and develop bilingualism, as well as to explore how our selves and relationships are mediated by the words we choose.
Mentors are UCSC students who may be interested in careers related to education, counseling, working with kids, families, or community development. Practice working in teams with language, cultural curriculum, materials, technology and making plans, as well as careful data curation, is a great all-around way to do experiential learning for professional and further academic work.
But the reason mentors show up, even when their schedules are tough, is for the kids. Everyone in the community benefits from being together, working on challenging and exciting projects, and appreciating each other.
The CLV internship: joining the mentor cohort
It is really fun and rewarding to work with great people, and working with these kids is an enormous privilege.
Applying to work with CLV is also a big commitment. We’re working in a school setting with people who depend on us to show up for them.
CLV is a professional and academic training internship, which upper-division students take for credit. Enrollment is through permission code, please email instructor. Some relevant background and preparation is necessary to enter the program, but we work to build cohorts of diverse talents. The most important characteristic of a CLV student is their ability to participate verbally and proactively.
Community relationships and professional skills take time to develop, and everyone’s outcomes are better when mentors are able to stay in the program at least two quarters. Students may take 151B (3 units) repeatedly for credit.
CLV Course Sequence
Oakes 151A/B Community Literacies
Oakes 151A/B Community Literacies Seminar & Field Study in Curriculum Design, Observation, & Team Teaching are taken concurrently by new mentors in Corre la Voz, for a total of 5 units. Enrollment: Permission Code, please email instructor. 151B (field study) 151B (field study) satisfies the PR-S requirement, and may be repeated for credit with a grade of B or higher in both A and B.
“When I was a part of CLV, I felt like I was a part of something…because of CLV, I was able to feel like I was part of a culture there.”
Bridging the Digital Divide
Jose behind the controls. Community TV field trip, 2012
Sending a saludo from the studios of KZSC, 2019
Interviewing a mentor
Editing
Resources & Partnerships
Corre la Voz has been developing and serving learning communities since 2009, as the result of funding from UC Links, and a partnership between UC Santa Cruz and different schools in the Santa Cruz City School District.
In Fall, 2009, we launched a pilot program at Mission Hill Middle School, and later ran programs at both Mission Hill and Branciforte. Since 2012, we have been at Bay View Elementary, and have worked with a series of outstanding, warm, and friendly teacher partners and liaisons.
CLV was in many ways co-created by Teacher Kathy Chaput, a brilliant educator-artist and partner through thick and thin for five years.
CLV is also indebted to Teacher Partners Julia Koch and Barbara Novelli, and to Site Coordinator Israel Vega and Librarian April Porterfield, Donna Geffken and Belinda Marquez of ASES.
Since 2013, CLV’s campus home has been Oakes College, with strong partnerships in Education and Latin American and Latino/a Studies. As of 2020, look forward to more exciting projects with Branciforte Middle School.
CLV Faculty
Leslie López
Leslie is PI on the UC Links grant, director of the Corre la Voz Program, and instructor of Oakes 151A/B, Community Literacies.
Read more about Dr. López
Cynthia Lewis
Cynthia is Co-PI on the UC Links grant for Corre la Voz, and Co-PI/ Co-Director on the NewGen Learning Project at UCSC. Dr. Lewis is Chair of the Education Department.
Read more about Dr. Lewis.