Thanks to everyone who attended the 2009 Santa Clara County Children's Summit!

Wyndham Hotel San Jose - February 3, 2009

More than 300 people attending the Second Annual Children’s Summit on February 3, 2009 to learn more about what is most important in making community-level change for children and youth.  After gleaming gems of wisdom from Anthony Trujillo and our youth panel, participants made a commitment to change.  Of those who made a commitment, 90% have reported they have completed or are on their way to completing their commitment.

Bold Ideas from the 2009 Children's Summit

Mercury News Op-Ed: A strategy to better protect Silicon Valley children

by Leonard Edwards and Dr. Fernando Mendoza - Februray 2, 2009

View Images from the 2009 Children's Summit

The Bold Steps for Children Award

Our 2009 Honoree - The Applied Materials Education Initiative

Watch the Video

The Applied Materials Education Initiative demonstrates the valuable role business can play in supporting the improvement of education for students most in need.  Closing the achievement gap and bringing equality to education are the primary education goals of Applied Materials.

Applied Materials’ philanthropy provides evidence that the education community can benefit greatly from targeted corporate grants and, perhaps even more, from having business as a trusted and influential partner with a shared vision of equity for all students. Even though corporate support is a small percentage of public education’s budget, it can have a big impact when properly leveraged.

In 2002, Applied Materials took the bold step of adopting a strategic approach to its education grantmaking that committed the company and its foundation to investing in two high-need communities in San Jose – the downtown area and the Alum Rock neighborhood on the east side.  Based on solid data verified by commissioned research, Applied dedicated itself to helping increase the number of students in the selected neighborhoods who graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college. The Education Initiative engages partners and makes long-term investments at critical leverage points along the education pathway.  These leverage points are closely aligned with the four indicators for success in school advocated by the Children’s Agenda.

The company’s investments are focused on teacher development, parental involvement, reading comprehension, and system reform. After six years in partnership with a variety of organizations and guided by a highly-credible educational expert, the Applied Materials Education Initiative is yielding impressive and measurable results including an increase in the number of children ready to start school, performing on grade level in early elementary school, staying on academic track during the critical middle school years, and graduating from high school with the credits and determination to succeed in college.

The Applied Materials Education Initiative supports school districts, individual schools – including charter schools -- and non-profit organizations, all dedicated to providing every child with a high quality education. The academic gains achieved to date are a credit to the hard work and perseverance of the students themselves, as well as the ceaseless efforts of their parents, educators, and community partners.  

Applied Materials has focused its philanthropy, marshaled its resources, and is standing behind two communities – enabling more of their children to have a bright future in an increasingly knowledge-based economy.

Partners supported through the Applied Materials Education Initiative include:

ACE Public Schools Network, Breakthrough Silicon Valley, Bring Me A Book Foundation, College Summit, Downtown College Prep, East Side Union High School District, Escuela Popular, Estrella Family Services, Gardner Professional Development School, Grant Academy, Horace Mann School, KIPP Heartwood Academy, Latino College Preparatory Academy, Leadership Public School San Jose, MACSA Academia Calmecac, National Hispanic University, New Teacher Center, Overfelt High School, ,PACT, Partners in School Innovation, Partnership for School Readiness, Reading Partners, San Jose Unified School District, Summer Search, Teach for America

Keynote Speaker: Mr. Anthony J. Trujillo Anthony J. Trujillo has spent 50 years in education as a teacher and administrator, twenty-two years as a superintendent. As superintendent at the Tamalpais High School District, state test scores rose from the 90th to the 98th percentile. While at the Sweetwater Union High School District near San Diego, test scores went up for five years in a row. He came out of retirement to be superintendent of the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas.  While there, he took Ysleta from the lowest performing to the highest performing urban district in Texas.  Mr. Trujillo has drawn national attention for his successful work with high school dropouts and has recently published a book, "Saving the Dropouts". He has received several awards and recognitions including the Personal Achievement Award by the Children's Defense Fund and the Champions of Equity Award by the Equity Center of Texas.

Our Youth Panel:

Left to Right: Alyce Rivas, Joseph Isidro, Ronald Meyers, Diego Gomez and Jessica Wenzel

We asked these young people the question, "What is Most Important?"

Read the Youth Panel Bios

Santa Clara County Children's Summit Co-Chairs - The Honorable Leonard Edwards, former Presiding Judge Santa Clara County Juvenile Dependency Court and Dr. Fernando Mendoza, Chief, Division of General Pediatrics Stanford University School of Medicine.

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