Two middle-school girls, part of our Eco-Elite, Job Scout, and Mentoring Programs, each earned single-use cameras by caring for babies and young children while their parents study English in Evie's ESL class. (click on picture for a larger view)

Two of the proteges from the mentoring program help Sam paint one of the benches he made out of solid core doors donated by the nearby Haley Brothers Door Company (See: http://www.haleybros.com/) (click on picture for a larger view)

Evie Gray-Allen leads an "emotional" English as a Second Language (ESL) class for neighborhood parents. (click on picture for a larger view)

Self Portraits! --The proteges (our name for the children who are being mentored) can paint their own self portraits. We put a digital photo of them into Photoshop, click on Filter>Artistic>Cutout and print a color copy of the result. Then, using the already filtered copy that we just printed, we click on Filter again, then Stylize>Find Edges and project the image of those lines via LCD projector onto the board where the painting will be made. The protege traces the lines in pencil, then sits down with a few paints and, essentially, paints by numbers, filling the traced outline shapes with solid colors of various shades. 

It's "English with Evie!" Evie Gray-Allen, a certified ESL instructor, leads out in English classes for the parents of children who come to The Gardens for tutoring and for nutrition and safety instruction. Evie has help from several bilingual LLU students who have taught English overseas in the past. (click on picture for a larger view)

Global Health students from Loma Linda University visited "The Gardens," and went on with Dr. Graybill for a walking tour of the International Neighborhood a mile to the north. 

The young students ("proteges" we call them!) and their University student mentors munch on trail mix and other healthy snacks provided by the mentoring program.

If children are "off-track" or don't bring their homework, the Loma Linda University students who mentor them help them with reading or math using books and educational games purchased with grant money from the Pfizer pharmaceutical company.

Children from third grade through high school are offered homework assistance and "big-brother" "big-sister" support in the mentoring program. 

Mentoring and tutoring is underway again at "The Gardens" every Tuesday from 4:30 pm till 6 pm.