{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy","outOfStateSupporters":16.9,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":9337402,"letterContent":"This project helped make rigorous, college-preparatory reading more accessible to our students by providing individual copies of Malcolm Gladwell's *Outliers*. Having their own books meant students could take the text home, annotate directly on the page, revisit challenging passages, and arrive in class prepared to participate in deeper discussions. Rather than access to the text becoming a barrier, every student could engage with the same shared reading experience and begin developing the habits of close reading and critical thinking necessary for advanced English coursework.\r\n\r\n*Outliers* also provided an accessible entry point into the complex work of rhetorical analysis and argumentation. As students examined Gladwell's claims about success, opportunity, culture, and inequality, they learned to identify claims and evidence, analyze rhetorical choices, question an author's reasoning, and consider how structure and language influence an argument. These skills helped students move beyond simply understanding what an author says toward asking how an argument is constructed, whether the evidence supports it, and how they might develop more sophisticated arguments of their own.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, the project helped students see advanced academic reading and writing as something they could successfully engage in. Students entered our work with a common text, opportunities to connect Gladwell's ideas to their own experiences, and a stronger foundation for AP Language and future college-level coursework. Providing each student with a book was a relatively simple investment, but it created greater ownership, access, and confidence as students began seeing themselves as capable readers, writers, and critical thinkers.","fullyFundedDate":1747950072869,"projectUrl":"project/empowering-young-thinkers-through-outli/9337402/","projectTitle":"Empowering Young Thinkers Through \"Outliers\"","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":9085442,"letterContent":"This project transformed journalism from something my students practiced in the classroom into something they could use to serve and inform their entire school community. With the digital news display, students had an authentic platform for sharing school updates, community stories, current events, and other timely information with their peers. Knowing that hundreds of students would see their work gave our student journalists a real audience and a greater sense of responsibility for the accuracy, clarity, and relevance of what they produced.\r\n\r\nThe display also allowed me to teach news and media literacy in a much more authentic way. Students had to research information, evaluate the credibility of sources, determine what was newsworthy, verify details, write concise headlines and summaries, edit one another's work, and consider how information should be presented to an audience. Instead of simply completing an assignment about misinformation or credible sources, students had to apply those skills before publishing information for their school community. This created meaningful opportunities to teach critical thinking, writing, digital media, collaboration, and responsible journalism together.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, the project helped students understand that their voices could have a meaningful role in their school. They were not just consuming information—they were becoming responsible producers and curators of it. Students gained confidence as writers, journalists, and leaders while helping their peers stay connected to what was happening in their school and community. The digital display gave us a way to make news literacy visible and ongoing, while showing students that journalism can be a form of leadership and service to their community.","fullyFundedDate":1746732147696,"projectUrl":"project/breaking-news-empowering-student-voices/9085442/","projectTitle":"Breaking News: Empowering Student Voices with a Digital Display","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":8982985,"letterContent":"This project gave our student journalists the ability to document their school and East Los Angeles community through their own lenses. With access to a functioning DSLR camera and multiple lenses, students were able to move beyond taking simple snapshots and begin learning the foundations of photojournalism, including composition, lighting, framing, manual camera settings, and selecting images that communicate a story. The camera became an essential tool for covering school events, photographing community experiences, and creating stronger visual storytelling for our student publication.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, students learned that journalism is not only about writing someone else's story—it is also about deciding what deserves to be documented and remembered. Students used photography to capture the people, events, culture, and everyday moments that make their community unique. Because our students brought their own cultural knowledge and lived experiences to this work, they were able to recognize stories and perspectives that might otherwise be overlooked. Photography gave them another way to amplify those voices and represent East Los Angeles from the perspective of young people who actually live and learn there.\r\n\r\nThe DSLR also provided students with hands-on experience using professional-grade equipment that many would not otherwise have had access to. Students developed technical and creative skills that could transfer to journalism, photography, media, communications, and the arts while producing work they could be proud to include in portfolios. Ultimately, this project allowed students to see themselves not only as consumers of media, but as photographers and visual storytellers capable of creating a lasting record of their own community.","fullyFundedDate":1737077952557,"projectUrl":"project/capturing-east-la-a-dslr-for-our-journa/8982985/","projectTitle":"Capturing East La: a Dslr for Our Journalism Class","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":8907358,"letterContent":"Providing students with copies of *The Book Thief* gave them equitable access to a challenging, engaging novel that became the foundation for meaningful reading, writing, and discussion in our English classroom. Having a classroom set meant that students could experience the novel together, return directly to the text during discussions, closely analyze important passages, and use evidence to develop their own interpretations. For students who did not always have access to books outside of school, having these texts available in the classroom removed an important barrier to participating fully in our literary community.\r\n\r\nThrough the novel, students strengthened essential English Language Arts skills while also exploring complex questions about humanity, courage, identity, injustice, and the power of words. Students examined character motivations, analyzed developing themes, considered historical context, and discussed how an author's choices shape a reader's understanding of people and events. These conversations gave students opportunities to move beyond basic comprehension and engage with literature as a way of understanding perspectives and experiences beyond their own.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, this project helped create a classroom in which rigorous literature was something students could access together. The books became more than materials for a single unit; they provided opportunities for students to annotate, question, discuss, disagree, make connections, and develop confidence in their own interpretations. Donor support helped ensure that access to a high-quality text was not determined by whether a student could purchase or obtain a book independently, allowing every student the opportunity to participate in the same rich literary experience.","fullyFundedDate":1730429126512,"projectUrl":"project/texts-for-teens/8907358/","projectTitle":"Texts for Teens","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":8369347,"letterContent":"This project helped take journalism out of the classroom and into the places where stories were actually happening. With access to an iPad and Apple Pencil, student journalists had a portable tool they could use to conduct interviews, monitor and capture audio, record video, take notes, and document events as they unfolded. Rather than being limited to completing journalism assignments from their desks, students could approach school events and community stories as reporters—gathering information firsthand and bringing it back to the newsroom to turn into broadcasts, podcasts, and other student-produced media.\r\n\r\nThe mobility of the iPad also gave students experience with one of the most important aspects of journalism: being prepared to report wherever a story takes them. Students practiced approaching and interviewing others, asking follow-up questions, capturing usable audio and footage, and making decisions in real time about what information would help them tell a complete and accurate story. These experiences strengthened not only students' technical and media-production skills, but also their communication, confidence, independence, and ability to engage with people beyond their immediate classroom.\r\n\r\nUltimately, this project helped make our journalism program more authentic and connected to the East Los Angeles community our students were documenting. Students were no longer simply writing about their community from inside a classroom; they had tools that allowed them to go out, listen to people, document experiences, and bring those voices back to a larger audience. The iPad became more than a piece of classroom technology—it became a portable reporting tool that helped students experience journalism as something they could actively do in their own community.","fullyFundedDate":1725417615986,"projectUrl":"project/ipads-for-in-the-field-journalism/8369347/","projectTitle":"IPads for In-the-Field Journalism","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":8160866,"letterContent":"This project gave our student journalists access to technology that allowed their ideas to become polished, professional publications and broadcasts. Before receiving this support, students were attempting to design our monthly student publication and produce our weekly broadcast using Chromebooks that could not support the editing and design software they needed. The addition of a Mac mini gave students a dedicated workspace where they could design layouts, edit multimedia, prepare stories for publication, and complete projects more efficiently.\r\n\r\nHaving access to more capable technology also changed the kinds of skills students could develop in journalism. Students gained hands-on experience with digital publishing, graphic design, video editing, media production, and the collaborative workflow required to meet real publication deadlines. Rather than simplifying projects around the limitations of our available technology, students could focus on improving the quality of their reporting and learning tools and processes that more closely reflected those used in professional media and communications.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, this technology helped students become active storytellers for their school and East Los Angeles community. Our journalism program sought to create space for students whose communities and perspectives have historically been underrepresented in traditional media. Giving students the technology to publish and broadcast their own reporting meant giving them greater agency over how their experiences, concerns, accomplishments, and community were represented. This project helped ensure that access to technology was not a barrier between our students and the stories they wanted to tell.","fullyFundedDate":1710958727627,"projectUrl":"project/technology-for-student-press/8160866/","projectTitle":"Technology for Student Press","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":7213127,"letterContent":"This project provided the practical tools that helped turn our journalism classroom into a functioning student newsroom. While items such as charging stations, microphones, power supplies, and a broadcast backdrop may seem simple, they made an enormous difference in students' ability to consistently produce multimedia journalism. Instead of merely discussing how podcasts, interviews, and broadcasts are created, students had the equipment they needed to plan, record, and produce their own work for an authentic school audience.\r\n\r\nThese resources helped students take greater ownership of our school's media and develop skills that extended well beyond the journalism classroom. Students practiced interviewing, public speaking, scriptwriting, collaboration, technology, and problem-solving as they worked together to tell the stories of their school community. The microphones allowed student voices to be heard clearly, the backdrop helped create a more professional broadcast environment, and the charging equipment allowed us to keep classroom technology organized and ready for students to use.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, these supplies helped us establish routines and systems that made student journalism sustainable rather than a one-time classroom project. Students were able to experience what it meant to work as part of a real media team—meeting deadlines, assuming different production roles, solving technical problems, and creating work intended to inform their peers. Donor support gave our students access to tools that helped them see their ideas and voices as worthy of being shared with a larger community.","fullyFundedDate":1679078174305,"projectUrl":"project/basic-supplies-for-journalism/7213127/","projectTitle":"Basic Supplies for Journalism","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":7125689,"letterContent":"The materials funded through this project helped transform our journalism program from an idea into an authentic student newsroom. With access to cameras, microphones, recording equipment, lighting, and other production tools, students were able to move beyond simply learning about journalism and begin practicing it. They learned how to interview members of their community, report on issues that mattered to their peers, record and produce multimedia stories, and communicate information for a real audience. For many students, this was their first opportunity to work with media-production equipment and see themselves not just as students completing an assignment, but as journalists, storytellers, and creators.\r\n\r\nThe impact extended far beyond learning how to operate a camera or microphone. Journalism gave students a platform to document their school and community, ask meaningful questions, and recognize that their perspectives deserved to be heard. Students developed confidence as speakers and writers while strengthening skills in collaboration, critical thinking, research, interviewing, and digital media. The equipment provided through DonorsChoose allowed us to create learning experiences that would not otherwise have been accessible to many of our students.\r\n\r\nMost importantly, these resources helped establish the foundation for a sustainable student media program. What began with a request to \"Fund Future Journalists\" became an opportunity for students to take ownership of how the stories of their school and community were told. The generosity of our donors did not simply provide equipment; it gave students the tools to find their voices, amplify the voices of others, and experience the power of journalism as a way to inform, connect, and contribute to their community.","fullyFundedDate":1675798510967,"projectUrl":"project/fund-future-journalists/7125689/","projectTitle":"Fund Future Journalists","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"},{"teacherId":5389171,"projectId":9375225,"letterContent":"Thanks to the generous support of donors, my students gained access to professional media tools that transformed what they were able to create and how they saw themselves as storytellers. With cameras, microphones, lighting, and video equipment, students were able to move beyond learning about media production and actually create professional-quality interviews, photography, broadcasts, oral histories, and multimedia stories. Students learned how choices involving framing, lighting, sound, composition, interviewing, and editing affect the way a story is communicated to an audience.\r\n\r\nThese materials also expanded what I was able to accomplish in my teaching. I could design authentic, project-based learning experiences that combined writing, research, journalism, visual literacy, and digital media production. Students wrote scripts and interview questions, conducted interviews, recorded and edited multimedia, and made purposeful decisions about whose voices and perspectives should be included in their work. Instead of teaching these skills only through examples or simulations, I was able to give students hands-on experience with the same types of tools and processes used in media, journalism, photography, and other creative fields.","fullyFundedDate":1748987560644,"projectUrl":"project/framing-justice-empowering-young-creato/9375225/","projectTitle":"Framing Justice: Empowering Young Creators in East LA","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Urbina","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5389171_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1531159047116","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/5389171"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_99354","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":326,"numTeachers":20,"percentFrplEligible":90,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":1,"percentWhite":1,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":96,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":0,"gradesServed":"9 - 12","studentTeacherRatio":"16.3:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":true,"metroType":"SUBURBAN","ncesMetroType":"SUBURB_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":83.1,"schoolId":99354,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/california/los-angeles-unified-school-district/torres-renaissance/99354"}