GIVE ADOPTS JFK MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL IN NORCO

The official partnership will encourage the exchange of ideas between the nonprofit
and the students, in an effort to promote sustainability.

NORCO, Calif. – The Green Institute for Village Empowerment has adopted its first school campus, John F. Kennedy Middle College High School, in an attempt to help spread the message of sustainability to today’s youth.

The adoption was formalized at a special assembly Thursday involving several Corona-Norco Unified School District officials, more than 600 students and GIVE founder, Ali Sahabi. This is the first school adoption for both GIVE and the JFK campus.

“This is a wonderful adoption and very applicable to JFK,” said Corona-Norco School Board President Cathy Sciortino. “It reflects the philosophies of John F. Kennedy, to ‘Dream of things that never were,’ and I believe that GIVE embodies that idea.”

Under the terms of the adoption, GIVE will educate JFK students about sustainability, and the students will spread the message through presentations they will make to elementary schools, said JFK Principal Don Ward.

“This adoption is meant to be a people-people thing,” Ward said. “It’s all about the positive exchange of ideas and collaboration.”

GIVE is a nonprofit organization established in 2006 to promote the concept of sustainability, a term used to define balance in the way people live, how their choices impact the environment and others in their community. Sahabi explained the concept at the assembly.

“We all make decisions every day that affect our future,” Sahabi told the students. “As we make these decisions, we need to be aware of how our actions impact the people around us, and our environment, our natural resources, animals and plants.”

Many students in the audience Thursday wore T-shirts they received as volunteers at GIVE’s Green Valley Earth Festival held in April at Dos Lagos in Corona. Several stood up and applauded when Sahabi finished speaking.

More than 300 JFK students have signed up as members of GIVE, and the campus is the first high school to establish a student chapter of GIVE, Ward said.

In addition to its educational outreach, GIVE is also the sponsor of the Green Valley Initiative, (GVI), an unprecedented regional economic development plan to promote green technologies, renewable energy, alternative transportation and sustainable lifestyles to the Inland Empire. Launched in 2007, GVI began with 100 stakeholders from the region, and now boasts the involvement of more than 500 people representing government, education, business, transportation, utilities, environmental groups and the community-at-large. For information on GIVE visit www.giveforthefuture.org. For information on GVI, visit www.greenvalleynow.org

John F. Kennedy Middle College High School is located on the Riverside Community College campus in Norco and is based on the Middle College Concept, first implemented at New York City’s La Guardia Community College Campus in 1971. Middle College High Schools provide students with an opportunity to successfully pursue and obtain a high school diploma while taking college level courses on a college campus. For information, visit www.cnusd.k12.ca.us/jfk/