Marco Luna is our May Volunteer Spotlight!

Mr. Marco's favorite Heart House moment (so far): “I taught a group of boys the magic trick where you pretend to take your thumb off. All of them had the most shocked face I have ever seen!”

You can usually find Mr. Marco in the 2nd and 3rd grade classroom at Heart House South. If you don’t see him around, look under the pile of children to the side and there he’ll be! The kids there have taken to him in such a way, that we hope he stays with us well after his college years.

Not much older than the children are, Mr. Marco was quite a surprise as volunteer. He came to Heart House in December of 2008 through the school program American Youth Works. As a student, Marco had the opportunity to commit his service learning project hours to a non-profit organization. He luckily chose us.

At first notice, he seems a cool cat, reserved and non-drama like. But he blossoms into smiles and laughter when he’s with the kids, teaching them silly magic tricks, letting them jump around him (and on him sometimes) and helping them with homework. He sincerely enjoys being with the children and it’s apparent the children love him too. When asked if he might consider teaching as a career, he smiles and says “Oh, yeah, this might be something I’ll want to keep on doing.” We are very lucky to have him with us almost five days a week through, at least, the summer- although he has hinted about staying on past his service learning obligation. Our fingers are crossed!

It is obvious the children very much look forward to him coming in and benefit from his affirming attention. His encouraging, playful nature lies at the core of what Heart House looks for in fruitful mentorship. His work with the children, with out a doubt, will encourage good choices that will bring beneficial change to our society. Many cheers, to you, Mr. Marco. We know you’ll remain a positive force for children around you, always.

More about Mr. Marco:

• What are some of your hobbies? I've been a DJ for almost five years and enjoy teaching others who are interested about it or giving lessons.
• What is your favorite food? Burgers (fast food)
• What is your favorite color? Black
• If you had a favorite superhero power what would it be and why? I would be super fast so I could trick people, and no need for a car.
• What made you volunteer with Heart House? I wanted to work with kids and I jumped at the opportunity of helping them here.
• What keeps you coming back to Heart House? The kids, the stories they tell me, the things they do, the fact they look up to me in some way.

Five Minds for the Future

At Heart House, one of our core beliefs is that children are "smart" in different ways. We honor the multiple intelligences of our Heart House children and design our program accordingly.
We base this belief on the work of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, first published in his book, Frames of Mind. For a great summary of the theory of multiple intelligences, you might enjoy our blog posting, The Many Kinds of Smart. (http://hhaustin.blogspot.com/2008/03/many-kinds-of-smart.html)

Our book recommendation >> The staff at Heart House has been reading Gardner's newest book, Five Minds for the Future, which outlines the specific cognitive abilities that will be sought and cultivated by leaders in the years ahead. One of the reasons for our excitement is that we passionately believe we are supporting the cultivation and development of each of these indentified mindsets needed for the future in our Heart House children. For example:

• The Disciplinary Mind, the mastery of major schools of thought, including science, mathematics, and history, and of at least one professional craft. Our job at Heart House is to RECONNECT children with the joy of learning. Heart House aligns its "disguised learning" with AISD's emphasis on a solid education in the fundamentals of these core subjects. Additionally, 100% of our curriculum aligns with TEKS.
  
• The Synthesizing Mind, the ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others. Heart House integrates multiple disciplines into our monthly themes, allowing students to see how ideas are connected. Teaching in such a contextual manner promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and knowledge retention.
  
• The Creating Mind: the capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions and phenomena. As part of Heart House's dedication to producing critical thinkers, we see creativity as the highest level of critical thinking, when expressed by synthesizing information gathered from the monthly theme to create a new idea, product, or point of view.
  
• The Respectful Mind: awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings and human groups. Cultivating emotional and interpersonal intelligence among children, staff members, volunteers, and the greater community is modeled and rewarded at Heart House.
  
• The Ethical Mind: fulfillment of one's responsibilities as a worker and as a citizen. We rigorously ask our students what they need to do for their work to be excellent in quality and ethical in conduct, and then how they might follow through with those responsibilities.

Find out more about our program by clicking here.

Hudson and Sophia: Student Spotlights

Sophia helps her program leader and volunteers set up activities with a smile. Whether it is returning items that belong to her class, or explaining (very nicely, of course) to some of her fellow Heart Housers why they should behave, Sophia is always willing to help. (Nominated by Ms. Jenny)

Hudson is always helping others and doing what is expected of him without being asked. He has great manners and really stands out among his peers. Hudson is a superstar! (Nominated by Mr. Paul)

SourcePulse: Donor Spotlight

Dr. Prabhakar Malireddy is founder and President of SourcePulse, a company of 30+ headquartered in Austin that provides a full range of services including management consulting, solutions delivery and managed services to fulfill its mission to improve the operational performance of its clients. On behalf of SourcePulse, Dr. Malireddy reached out to Heart House after discovering our website. The company was looking to make a meaningful financial investment in the community and did its due diligence by visiting Heart House and exploring our program and its benefits to children and working families.

When asked why he and SourcePulse chose Heart House, Dr. Malireddy said, “We believe strongly in equal chances for all children to succeed despite their economic inequalities. We know it’s difficult for some families to provide after-school care for their children as they need to work long hours to make both ends meet. Heart House is striving to keep kids safe after school hours and also to keep them on academic track so that they can grow up into responsible citizens.”

Dr. Malireddy values education and takes pride in the fact that he and his siblings, despite a modest upbringing in India, have all achieved extremely high levels of educational attainment. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and is part of several strategic projects at MIT as part of his post doctoral research. Prior to founding SourcePulse, Dr. Malireddy was the Director of Engineering at CommerceOne and made leading contributions at other software companies prior to that.

SourcePulse is an IBM business partner and provides services to many State of Texas Agencies, such as the Texas Health & Human Services Commission and the Texas Education Agency. The company provides its valuable services in a manner such that its clients may remain flexible to meet changing business needs and easily reconfigure their technology in the future.

Dr. Malireddy is truly a visionary business leader; therefore, Heart House is honored to receive such a generous donation from him and SourcePulse, which will fund program activities at both Heart House sites for two months and allow us to continue to support working families.

Body Power Means Brain Power

According to the most recent Fitnessgram, an annual study of the fitness of Texas children, students who are physically fit are more likely to pass state tests and attend school regularly. The Fitnessgram, which was created by The Cooper Institute in 1982, measured the fitness levels of over 2.4 million Texas students during the 2007-2008 school year. In addition to the link between physical health and academic success, last year’s Fitnessgram also indicated that students who are fit may also be less likely to exhibit behavior issues in school.

Additionally, having a positive attitude toward fitness is especially important for certain populations. Citing recent statistics, the Austin-American Statesman reports, “Research has shown that children who are Hispanic or African American, or who come from low-income families tend to have higher levels of physical inactivity and obesity, putting them at higher risk of developing such health problems as diabetes and heart, joint and bone diseases. Low-income students in Austin tend to be less fit than students from wealthier families. And Austin s Hispanic students tend to be less fit than students of other races, according to state data. State figures also show that the scores of low-income, African American and Hispanic students lag behind those of students overall on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.”

At Heart House, we support health and fitness through our partnerships with Meals on Wheels and More, the Capital Area Food Bank, Active Life, Shoes for Austin and many others. While these collaborations support fitness in a variety of ways, there is one underlying theme that connects them all: supporting positive attitudes toward fitness. Whether students are trying new, healthy foods during their daily snack at Heart House or learning a fun game to play outdoors, Heart House works to develop excitement and curiosity around physical health. Heart House students even get regular outdoor free time to play football, jump rope, hula hoop and participate in many more active games with our great volunteers.

Although some populations may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of inactivity, becoming physically fit can help all students become more successful in school and in life and that’s what Heart House is all about!

SOURCES: Bloom, Molly (2009, March 10) Fit Student, Fit Mind? The Austin-American Statesman. www.statesman.com. Cooper Institute, The (2009) Fitnessgram Program Overview. Retrieved March 10, 2009 from www.fitnessgram.net.