The right ambiance and environment can help a student want to do homework — but it can also give space for relaxation and fun. That is what Corazón Healdsburg’s new teen center is trying to do. The center, located inside of the Healdsburg Community Center, was created in order for high school students in the area to have a place where they can do homework, study or socialize.
Diego Gonzalez, Corazón’s programs coordinator said the teen center was created as a complementary program to Corazón’s FirstGen College Counseling program, which was created for first-generation students going to college for the first time.
“Students have to maintain a 3.0 average or above. They have to be involved with the organization, they have to complete a certain number of hours of community service, etc. What the teen center is supposed to do is capture students that are either quite there yet, or that don’t imagine themselves going to a four-year university or college or don’t have plans anyway,” Gonzalez said.
“Part of the mission is to either help them academically to achieve the GPA necessary to attend a four-year college or for students that don’t imagine themselves going to college at all, introduce them to other things such as vocational schools. That’s kind of the goal right to be able to flourish, and to lead a good life,” he said.
The center has Chromebooks available, internet access and is planning on working with Sonoma State University to create an internship program for tutors. It also has a dedicated space for eating and the center plans to partner with local businesses to provide meals. There is also a TV and an Xbox station are also in the center for students to use.
“We want to create a space where we can have unstructured structure. We don’t want to give the appearance of structure and obviously want the students to be constructive and productive. But we also want the space to feel like it’s their space, right? So a big component is students coming in and telling us what they want. Tell us what they need if they want to put a poster up, if they want a certain video game or if they want to play music. Kind of so they can have the opportunity to create the space on their own. We’re not experts on the children, the students are already experts on themselves, right? So we really want to get students in there to kind of help create the dynamic of the space,” Gonzalez said.
Marcy Flores, associate director of academic development, said the team in charge of the center is great and everyone is excited to partake.
“It’s not a place for students to see it as an extension of school, we’re not gonna tell them to do their homework as soon as they get there. It’s really an open door policy for them to just come in. And if they feel like they need to do work, they can do work. If they want to sit and just play Xbox for a little bit. It’s really going to be led by them,” Flores said.
The teen center has already started a few partnerships such as a collaboration with nonprofit AVFilm. Tess McHaffie, education and engagement manager for AVFilm, said Gonzalez reached out and connected in January.
“We were working on creating an after school program anyway. This gave more access to our local community where AVFilm is based,” she said, “This class is based on documentary filmmaking and goes through from the beginning of film theory and concept through pre production, we give them the equipment to take home, and then they film and bring the footage back.”
The program is every Tuesday until the end of the semester.
“Then we sit down and edit with them and then at the end, we’re doing a big screening where their family and friends can come watch it on a big screen. Media arts and media literacy is not very accessible around here. A lot of schools don’t have those programs, and we firmly believe that we can use film as a tool to connect the community and educate and help everybody see everybody and to unite. So by offering that to students, it can open up a whole new world,” she said.
Liz Valls, 18, said her parents told her about the teen center and the film program after they received an email about it.
“I’ve always kind of been interested in entertainment media. I saw this as a perfect option to kind of just build my skills,” Valls said. For her documentary project, Valls would like to showcase how different people cope with mental health.
“A lot of people handle bad days differently. And I kind of just wanted to show the range is so different, I was gonna interview different people and kind of just show what they do,” she said.
Amelia Webb, 16, heard about the program from her brother.
“I thought that film is an interesting subject. I thought it’d be cool. I thought it was super fun. I really liked the teacher,” Webb said, adding that she plans to keep attending.
Corazón Healdsburg’s teen center is open during spring break, through March 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Regularly, the center is open from 3:30 to 6 p.m. on Monday, and from 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
