When San Diego high schools closed in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teenagers in our community became isolated from their classmates, school activities and support systems.
Students like Gabriel, a senior at San Diego High School, faced even greater struggles. After moving in with his aunt in March 2020, Gabriel was grateful for a roof over his head. However, distance learning was difficult without a space of his own to join in a virtual class, take a test or study. Because of the pandemic, Gabriel’s academics and well-being were even more at risk.
But Gabriel, who had never achieved higher than a 2.1 GPA, now has a 3.75 GPA. The difference: spending every day at The David’s Harp Foundation distance learning hub.
Last year, as we were dealing with the pandemic, we received a generous grant from Cox Communications of more than $60,000 for a distance learning hub at our East Village location in downtown San Diego to bring internet connectivity to at-risk and homeless students. In addition to the Cox grant, Moniker Warehouse donated its event venue, enabling us to develop an educational space based on what our students told us they needed, not what we thought they needed.
Distance learning was new for us too. Our nonprofit was born in 2006 in a converted garage in Southeast San Diego, where neighborhood youth lacking support and motivation traded good grades for studio time to create music. Today, we are a diverse group of artists and educational support staff hosting a range of academic and art programs for hundreds of San Diego teens, including foster youth and those in the juvenile justice system.
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