Posada 2013

Hello fans of YAB! Recently, YAB has taken part in the celebration called Posada. YAB's job was to help people of the community see, taste, and learn how easy it is to have a healthy meal. During Posada, the YAB prepared foods such as black bean and corn, fruit salad, and rice pudding. All are known for their sugary and unhealthy ingredients but, the YAB put a spin on things unlike anything else. For example, the rice pudding did not have butter but, margarine. The YAB also switched the whip cream in fruit salad for Greek yoghurt. How delicious does that sound? Many community "critics" sampled the  food. All of the community rejoiced and celebrated Posada with smiles and laughs. In the end, Posada brought people closer and stomachs full of delicious and healthy food.

SWKey's Annual Posada

 Hello fans of YAB! Every year, SWKey throws an event called Posada. Posada is the celebrating of Jesus Christ. This year, YAB has been invited to create a healthy living booth that talks about healthy alternatives for christmas foods. We,the YAB, will sample rice pudding, corn, and tamales! In order to successfully teach the community about healthy eating, the YAB will put a spin on the recipes. For example, the rice pudding will be made with brown rice and lowfat milk. As we sample our foods, we will also discuss how to make the food and how switching to something more healthier benefits them. During the event we will talk about the many ways you can help yourself from losing that holiday break weight. Another event YAB wants to do is a Healthy Happy Hour to help kids be more healthy and active. (Sometime around February 19th) Too-daloo!
                                                                                 
                                                                                 -YAB

S.H.A.C

Recently, two of our YAB members were invited to attend the first SHAC meeting this year! SHAC stands for School Health Advisory Council Meeting. What SHAC does is help insure that students at EAPrep are getting the correct portions of food, keeping the food safe, and most importantly keeping it healthy. This year, the SHAC board members created a new and edited Wellness policy for both EAPrep campuses. Two of our YAB members were invited to show the projects we did and the statistics we made during community events. During the meeting there was lots of questions and suggestions towards editing the policy. One of our fellow members plans on creating a fruit/salad bar for our "picky eaters" at EAPrep. Another thing YAB wants to do is maybe a 5k. Students and the community can run/walk a 3 mile track. How fun!

YAB's back!

Yes, Y.A.B is back and better than ever! Last year, many events were made as well as a great impact on the community. Many things we incorporated included entertaining and spending time with the residents of R.B.J (Rebekah Baines Johnson Center), healthy living, and safe driving. WE even had some of our Y.A.B members go to Los Angeles! Twice! Thanks to NCLR( National Council of La Raza) ! This year, the Y.A.B plans on creating more fantastic events including a survey on students and people in the community during events like Southwest Key's annual Posada. Y.A.B even plans on using the money given towards them for more healthy living projects. Today the Y.A.B had a meeting. Many ideas came to mind including a health fest week at the Jain Lane campus. The Y.A.B even recruited some new yabbies! Say hello to Julissa! Recruiting yabbies have their eyes on people who are great examples of leaders and hopefully you can become one today! Become a yabbie today, tomorrow a leader!

RBJ Lives On!

Recently, the YAB and RBJ have been ever so close. It feels as though we're inseparable! The YAB helped kick off summer for RBJ residents by having a little get-together. We had many stations such as build-your- own parfait and trail mix,terrariums,paint-your-own birdhouses, and decorate hats. It was a great day and even better when Baile Folklorico came to dance for the residents. Plus, Ms.Choco Leandro came. If you don't know who Ms.Choco is-and you should because she's amazing- she just so happens to be working with NCLR! It got even better when Ms. Pam Parker from Born Again Bodies taught and did a little samba and meringue with the residents. Those residents know how to dance! After all that dancing and building of crafts the residents helped us pack up. We didn't want to say goodbye but, it wasn't like we were leaving for good. We'll be back and when we do, you better watch out because we will smother you with all our love and care. See you next time! Now. it's time for some Longhorn Steakhouse, yay!

Date: 7/1/13

Food Bank at Jain Lane

Wow these summer days are beating us but, us YAB are strong. Today our YAB set up tables and helped pass out flyers on healthy living, great-and free- activities like yoga, and safe driving. Many people came to our booth with different views on safe driving. One lady said that she had a nephew who loved texting so we went ahead and made sure she had plenty of warnings to help him control himself like our classic thumb bands. The thumb bands are used as a reminder for people texting while driving. After a long day of working, the work wasn't over, the YAB helped pass out food to the community. Nothing sums up our day like helping our people.

Date:6/17/13

Annual Globey Awards 2012-13

Every year, EAPrep hosts an annual award ceremony for students who went far and beyond to make a great game in our game design class or better known as Globaloria. This year one of our prestige students one a great prize and award for best game. Let's give a round of applause for Michael Alvarez. Michael is a very intelligent and talented student at our school and proves that you can never succeed to much until you try. He has been awarded for many things for example the Scholastic Art & Writing award. Congrats Michael and all other winners in the Globeys!

Date: 6/3/13

If you want to check out Michael's game click the link below.

Drive Bad = Be Sad

Home Sweet Home- Coming back from L.A

Estefanie and I,Anjelica, due to our great attitude and leadership in the Y.A.B just came back from L.A for a Youth Summit. The Y.A.B is a great group of kids that are determined to make a difference. My partner,Estefanie, and I traveled to L.A to participate in the Youth Summit and display our projects to other schools. While we were in L.A we did many things like sight-seeing, youth leadership training games, and making new friends. During our training we focused on communicating,sharing the workload,and the skills a leader needs. We learned these topics by playing interactive games with each other and socializing. Believe me when I say this, the kids at the Summit are the leaders of tomorrow. One thing I learned and would like to share with my fellow peers and students is that no one can tell you if it's wrong or right, it's a matter of opinion. In L.A we also presented our projects like Safe Driving, Healthy Living, and the RBJ Center. Thanks to our hard effort and trip to L.A the Y.A.B feels we made a great impact on the community by awaring them of many things like auto safety and healthy living. We also, feel we made a great impact on the community because we hope that people start caring for the elderly and their own body. Before I say goodbye for now, I would love (not like) to thank NCLR on behalf of the Y.A.B for granting us this great opportunity.

Estefanie & Anjelica Head To Cali!

Recently two of our members have been chosen to go to L.A to present to other schools about Healthy Living and other topics. Thanks to NCLR and  our fantastic leader, Ms.Silva we will show off our skills and progress to other kids. Congrats yabbies, Estefanie and Anjelica! They will leave sunday and spend three days in L.A sight seeing,teaching of healthy living, and learning of topics that others face. We already miss you! Good luck and have fun!

(left) Estefanie F. (right) Anjelica Z.

Dr.Seuss' Green Eggs and Turkey

On March 2, 2013 we the Y.A.B, EAPrep's cheerleaders, and the community came together and celebrated Dr. Seuss and his birthday. Our drama club did different plays including Green Eggs and Ham, Oh The Thinks You Can Think, and Happy Birthday Dr.Seuss! Orchestra played a couple songs. The cheerleaders danced for the audience. Booths were a hit. Some booths included reading,making Seuss hats, creating mud balls, martial arts, game designing, and many more. Oh, and by the way the Y.A.B had a great  number of people at our booth. The booth was called Green Eggs and Turkey and had little egg facts in green eggs and samples of turkey were passed out. "Turkey is way better than ham!" the Y.A.B heard from families and little kids munching on turkey and drinking sweet lemonade. Overall the event was a huge success! Happy Birthday Dr.Seuss and the Y.A.B can't wait till next year. The Dr.Seuss might be an annual thing so if you missed it this time then you'll have plenty of chances to see silly faces and create hats and mud balls!

Healthy Living & Safe Driving Games

Steven Ugalde (YAB Vice President) 

Arlette Flores (YAB President) 

I am not completely finished yet, but what happens in the game is that the player must find the hidden objects, which are healthy and unhealthy foods. When you click on an object nutrition facts should come up, that's the part I am not done with yet. Sometimes when people go to restaurants they don't really know what they are putting in their bodies, that is what I am trying to inform the player.

Jennifer Goinzalez (YAB Member) 

Fun with RBJ

Recently we have gone to RBJ yet again and let me just say, it was a hit! Our school cheerleaders and student council joined us and we helped the residents with origami, coloring, and dancing. They might be old but, they still had moves. We danced to the Cupid Shuffle and chatted amongst one another. Talking about life and how exciting the event is. The residents were filled with giddy and were so excited they even got mad when we were a bit late. In conclusion, the event at RBJ was fantastic and the Y.A.B hope to have another event coming soon!

Join YAB at RBJ!

Hey guys! The Y.A.B (Youth Advisory Board) are planning another trip to  RBJ(Rebekah Baines Johnson Center for the Elderly and Disabled) and are looking for some volunteers! Who's up for a little fun with the elderly. If you come you get to help the residents make origami and other crafts. The residents love to see new young faces, so please if you can come! Enjoy some fun and laughs. We can only have so many people so the first 20 people can come but, if you don't come this time you will automatically be put in our next trip. Comment fast before it's too late! Permission Slips go out on Thursday February 21,2013.

Diversity Leadership Conference

We had such a great time at St. Stephens! We met with people just like us and got the chance to express ourselves. We played games,ate delicious food, and did different workshops. Some of the members cried because we had opened up to people about our life. All the while our supervisor was great when it came to listening to us chatter and brag about our new friends. We planned what we were going to bring to school. We,the Y.A.B, plan to start a mentorship for kids at our school and help them deal with things like school work and home. By creating this mentorship we will be the secret diaries for the kids and we hope to expand to our other campus at Jain Lane.

BBQ Block Party Success!

The recent BBQ Block Party was a great success. While the Y.A.B brought awareness to adults we served many types of healthy foods including granola and yogurt,trail mix, dried mango,kabobs,and veggie straws. Everyone in the community was happy and shocked by our findings during our food hunts. Music, face painting, and dancing kept the party going. Everyone had a job including the student council and cheerleaders.  We hope to have more events like this later on this year. You stay healthy,World!

New Year, New You!

We're back! The Y.A.B are back from their break and ready to spring into action! The Y.A.B have planned on Friday, January 25 at Southwest Key to have a BBQ Block Party.There the Y.A.B will educate people about healthy living in many creative ways. We have thought of secret taste testing,flyers,skits, and slideshows of our findings at our past food hunts. You won't know what's coming! Better put it on the calender!We also, plan to create future events about safe driving and trips to our friends at RBJ. We miss those faces and big cheery smiles. Can't wait!

Till next time,
                    Y.A.B

(P.S)
BBQ Block Party
Where: Southwest Key
When: Friday, January 25th
Time: 5-7pm

EAPrep Block Party BBQ

When: Friday, January 25th 

Time: 5:00-7:00 pm

Where: Southwest Key

What's going on? : During this time the Y.A.B will present our findings from both food hunts. (check previous blogs  Food Hunt 1 and Food Hunt 2)

Come and enjoy some good food! The Y.A.B will even tell you the story behind our food hunts and our findings.

Holiday Fun at RBJ

On December 17, 2012 the YAB along with other EAPrep students and staff visited the RBJ Center and had fun! We recruited many students and staff, including the school choir.

At this get together, the YAB helped residents make pine cone bird feeders, ornaments, and decorate cookies. It brought smiles and tears to our eyes when the residents started to sing a long with the choir. After our party we talked with the RBJ Volunteer Coordinator regarding future events that we will be involved in! Many ideas popped into our heads like D.E.A.R time(drop everything and read), arts and crafts, re-organizing the library, fixing up the garden, and we even thought of planning a dance for Valentine's Day as one of our events at RBJ.

We want to give love, care and smiles to all of the residents. With the help of our CASA grant and EAPrep students, we are able to create great memories for residents.  

The YAB cannot wait to see the residents faces again. The faces of the happy residents will be forever remembered in the YAB minds. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Food Scavenger Hunt part 2

Recently the YAB have visited three grocery stores, H.E.B at Hancock, Central Market, and In.gredients. Before visiting the other two stores we decided to check out In.gredients. In.gredients is very modern and carries organic products  In.gredients is also a reuse-recycle store where they advise customers to bring there own bottles, jars and boxes so they can just reuse them when they come back especially because they let you buy in bulk. This is also a way to avoid using plastic bags. The people who worked for In.gredients told us many secrets behind there success in growing plants. For example, the plant plots in the front have water coming up from the bottom because of droughts drying up the water.After our previous food hunt and visiting In.gredients, we noticed that the H.E.B on Springdale located near East Austin was "mistreated" compared to the H.E.B on Hancock.

What caught the Y.A.B by surprise was the fact that the H.E.B on Hancock supported healthy living and was only 10 miles away from the H.E.B on Springdale. All of us were disgusted and confused to see that both of these stores carried completely different porducts but were only 10 minutes away from each other.

Central Market was in great shape and shared many things in common with the H.E.B on Hancock. How could such a thing happen? We are all humans and deserve to be treated all the same. Why is this going on and has someone done something about it? Will anyone be a hero? The answer is yes, the YAB will continue to investigate and fight back and try our very best to end this unfair event, or at least get a reason as to why there is an injustice.

Presentation at Jain Lane Campus

On Friday, we visited two health classes at our Jain Lane campus (4th-6th grades). We talked to 4th and 5th graders about what we do as the YAB and Tiger Ambassadors.

The YAB talked to the kids as if we were having a normal conversation. In order for them to get to know us a bit, we talked about our time at EAPrep and what our experience has bene like. After that, we talked about our safe driving projects!

Even though the kids haven't got there license yet, we helped them be aware of the dangers of distracred driving and brought up things that they might see their parents do while driving! We also showed them a brochure that was created. It has information on and tips about safe driving. Overall the kids were angels and behaved as college prep kids should behave!

After our presentation the YAB helped out at the Southwest Key Food Bank till 6:30pm. Over 400 people from the community came out, some of the people who attend food bank are residents from RBJ! 

The YAB really thinks that we have made a great impact in the child's lives and we plan on contininuing this next semester! More presentations and events are sure to happen and we will be working hard.