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Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tina McGovern 415-749-3600 ext. 19, outreach@gatewayhigh.org
826 Valencia publishes guidebook by Gateway students
June 30th, 2008
Press Contact
Eugenie Howard-Johnston
(415) 642-5905
eugenie@826valencia.org
826 Valencia announces its sixth annual Young Authors� Book Project
Seeing Through the Fog: A Gateway to San Francisco
by students from Gateway High School
with a forward by Mayor Gavin Newsom
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 2008, San Francisco, CA�Seventy-two seniors at Gateway High School have collaborated to produce Seeing Through the Fog: A Gateway to San Francisco, an eclectic collection of stories and essays on San Francisco.
This 497-page paperback travel guide is meant for locals, tourists, and armchair travelers alike. A regular city-guide? Certainly not. As the editors write in their introduction, this book is not about the Transamerica Pyramid or the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead it is about �the smell of a burrito shop in the Mission. It�s about running away from the bison in Golden Gate Park. It�s about the local characters, slang, a couple ghosts, and some secret places.�
Gateway High teachers Erin Willard, Molly Orner, and Gisele Ramilo welcomed eighty-two volunteers from 826 Valencia into their classrooms to work with their students this past winter. Eight weeks and sixteen drafts later, Seeing Through the Fog was ready to go through the final editing process by a self-selected student editorial board.
In their introduction the editors write: �in just a few months we have gone from being average high school students to being published authors and editors. It feels amazing.�
Their teachers share their sense of accomplishment. �In the end,� says Erin Willard, �I know that my students are better thinkers and writers because of this project and that means a lot to me, and it means a lot to [my students].�
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom provided the foreword to the book. �This collection will remind you what it was like your first time here. And if you�re brand new to San Francisco, it will let you experience the city alongside writers who bring both the experience of natives and the enthusiasm of youth.�
Over 300 people, including the young authors and their families and friends, attended the book release party on June 10, 2008 in the elegant North Light Court at City Hall. Alfredo Pedroza from The Mayor�s Office of Neighborhood Services presented 826 Valencia and Gateway High School with an official proclamation declaring the day as �Seeing Through The Fog Day.�
826 is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Their services are structured around the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
Gateway High School is a model college preparatory charter school committed to academic excellence through personalized, student-centered learning. Gateway combines a rigorous academic program with an approach where the individual talents and strengths of its students are identified and supported. Gateway seeks and supports students who have ambition, who are committed to working hard, and who are eager to share responsibility for their own learning. Working with teachers committed to our mission, Gateway students will acquire the skills, habits, and knowledge necessary for academic and personal success in college and in adult life.
Gateway's values of personal integrity, responsibility, and respect for others should inspire students to contribute to their communities however they can. By attending a school which fully embraces the diversity of the Bay Area, Gateway students will appreciate what they have in common with those who are different and value what they learn from one another.
Seeing Through the Fog is currently available for $18.00 at 826 Valencia Street in the Mission District, and online at www.826valencia.org. It is also available through Amazon.com. Look for it in stores throughout San Francisco coming soon!
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