The Opp Blog

This past Tuesday Amigos de los Niños held their Annual Awards Luncheon, celebrating 30 years of benefitting many physically, mentally, and emotionally challenged children of Southern California.  For the second year in a row, we have been honored by Amigos, receiving a $7,000 grant this year for the purchase and licensing of software we use in assessment and intervention with our students.  We are so tremendously thankful for their generosity and support.

This year’s luncheon speaker was 2002 World Series winning Anaheim Angels (of Los Angeles!) manager, Mike Scioscia.  Mike told the crowd stories of his childhood, and also about life playing under Tommy Lasorda.  As funny and entertaining as he was, even he admitted it was a “tough act to follow all the award recipients.”

Of the 22 organizations that received grants, only six were selected to tell a little more about what they do.  Amigos de los Ninos specifically asked to have Michelle Ukleja represent Opportunity Schools.  She was the last speaker to take the stage before Mike spoke.  Michelle told the audience how the program gave her the skills and confidence she needed to be successful in school and to go on and earn her B.A. degree from CSULB in Early Child Development.  Following her passion, she is currently employed at Bethany Preschool in Long Beach.

Again, we are so thankful to Amigos de los Niños and to all of our donors who make our vision a reality!  Words can never express our gratefulness, and we could not reach the students we serve without your faithful support!

Be sure to check out the results and pictures from our 2010 Opportunity Schools Golf Tournament here.

Always a great time… you will not want to miss next year.

In our continuing interview series our Executive Director, Louise Ukleja, recently sat down with astro-physicist Hugh Ross to discuss Asperger’s Syndrome and how he has coped with his diagnosis, and what advice he has for others.  We have 5 short interviews posted on our Opportunity Schools Channe, and we encourage you to view them all.  Here is one in the series about Hugh’s advice for adults with Asperger’s.

Attention golfers and supporters of Opportunity Schools – registration is now available for our 7th Annual Opportunity Schools Golf Tournament at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach.  The date is Monday, October 25th – and the time to register is now.

Please visit our 2010 Golf Tournament page for brochure, information and access to online and mail-in registration.  We sincerely hope you can make it.  If you can’t play in the tournament then you can still support Opportunity Schools with any auction items or general donations you can make.  Thanks for helping us serve our mission of helping students with learning challenges reach their hidden potential!

We have posted information on Opportunity Schools’ 2010 Teacher Training Institute entitled, The Receptive Classroom on our website. The training will be held from June 21st – 25th.  We are very excited to have Ron Leaf from Autism Partnership as our kickoff Keynote Speaker.  Please visit our site, and view the brochures for more information.  Or you can give Janice a call at 714-761-5062.

Hope to see you there.

Our Director of Education & Satellite Support Services, Joanne Foland, recently sat down with Ron Leaf, co-founder and director of Autism Partnership, to discuss autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.  Videos are below… and you can also view them and others anytime on our YouTube Channel.