Boeing
donation aids student arts program
By
Kristen Wooley
Daily Forty Niner
College
of the Arts students at Cal State Long Beach
will continue to teach an array of artistic
disciplines to Long Beach K-12 students
despite recent budget cuts.
To
support the ArtsBridge outreach program
Boeing presented the college with $15,000
recently.
"The
purpose of ArtsBridge is to help bridge
the gap in art education in public schools
due to cutbacks," said Rosalinda O'Brien,
director of ArtsBridge.
The
project consists of 16 sessions in a K-12
classroom and is in coordination with the
students' curriculum. A CSULB art student,
ranging from artists who paint to artists
that dance and perform, act as a student
teacher, by helping the children, for example,
get through an assigned reading by acting
the book out like a play, O'Brien said.
"Students
apply for a scholarship that is generally
$1,000 a semester," O'Brien said. The
scholarship, as well as the practice and
experience, are incentives for college art
majors to sign up, O'Brien said. "This
is year four for ArtsBridge and there are
approximately 15 scholarships to be awarded
this year," O'Brien said.
Teachers
request the project participants from several
schools in the Long Beach Unified School
District, but the focus generally tends
to be on economically challenged schools,
O'Brien said.
He
went on to say the student teachers get
to practice and apply their art through
hands-on activities, as they give back to
the community.
Boeing
has been really gracious, O'Brien said,
and they think it helps the students' overall
academic achievement.
"Boeing
is a local company and is good friends with
CSULB," Donald J. Para, dean of the
College of the Arts, said "They help
in many ways and after we sent a proposal
to them they looked it over and gave us
the money."
"Due
to budget cuts, not much money is going
to art instruction. We have an enduring
partnership with CSULB that not only supports
education, but also the arts," said
Steve Chesser, Boeing senior manager for
community relations.
Chesser
also said that he sees keeping art instruction
in public schools and supporting the university
is a double benefit.
At
the end of each year there is always a cumulating
evening to see the results of the art work,
Para said. Boeing has watched some of the
art projects being taught, he said.
According
to Chesser, Boeing has made recent donations
to CSULB totaling about $100,000.
"The
Carpenter Center received $10,000; the College
of Engineering received $30,500, $9,000
went to the natural science and math department,
the College of Business received $19,000,
and the psychology department within the
College of Liberal Arts received $16,500,
to name a few," Chesser said.
"They
help in many ways and after we sent a proposal
to them they looked it over and gave us
the money."
-- Donald J. Para, dean of the College of
the Arts
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