California - San Jose
SIATech at San Jose Job Corps Cente
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3485 East Hills Drive
San Jose, CA 95127
Tel: (408) 937-3218
Principal: StefanieBradshaw
stefanie.bradshaw@ siatech.org
Overview
The San Jose Job Corps Center is located in the heart of the Silicon Valley in the East Hills of San Jose. San Jose, which is located in Santa Clara County, is the third largest city in California and the 11th largest city in the nation. The city has been named the Safest Big City in America for three consecutive years according to FBI crime statistics. SIATech was established at the site in the fall of 1999. SIATech at San Jose has recently undergone an extensive transformation with all new streamlined office style furniture in its high tech, state of the art classrooms and the addition of new staff that allows students access to credentialed teachers in all academic subject areas. All classrooms offer students a one to one student to computer ratio which allow delivery of the SIATech academic program modeled at SIATech sites at all California Job Corps programs.
While enrolled at our vibrant center, SIATech students at San Jose Job Corps enjoy on-campus vocations and are welcome to enroll in vocations located at the Central County Occupational Center/Program (CCOC/P) with students from all Santa Clara County high schools.
Principal Profile
SIATech San Jose is honored to welcome Principal Stefanie Bradshaw. Ms. Bradshaw has more than 10 years of experience in education. She joined the SIATech organization in January 2008 as the Assistant Principal for SIATech Treasure Island in San Francisco. Prior to SIATech, Ms. Bradshaw served as an exceptional assistant principal in the Oakland Unified School District. SIATech staff members are thrilled and energized by her enthusiasm, passion and knowledge of effectively working with “at-promise” students, and Ms. Bradshaw looks forward to working with the students and staff at San Jose.
Success Stories
Students graduating from SIATech at San Jose Job Corps now work in challenging and fulfilling careers throughout the Bay Area and the state. Two graduates of our culinary program have opened restaurants in the area, one in San Jose and one in Carmel. Recent graduates have been recruited from our TCU program to work as ticketing agents for International Airlines. Other graduates have gone on to four year college programs around the state.
SIATech San Jose's Student Newspaper
SIATech Revolution Debuts
by Stefanie Bradshaw
The SIATech San Jose team has been very busy over the past couple of weeks working on a school newspaper. Our Social Studies teacher (Nate Malkemus) and Sr. Projects teacher (Yolanda Tapia) worked with our students to create our first edition of the SIATech Revolution student newspaper.
Not all students were excited about the idea of creating a school paper in the beginning. But, through class conversations about life on and off center, more students realized that they too had thoughts, views, and opinions that they wanted to share from the student perspective. This project allowed the students to discuss issues and concerns as a class and pick the topics that they felt were of importance and needed to be heard.
The students had an opportunity to work together to bring the paper to life. The students learned how to write for a publication by jotting down their ideas, writing their first drafts, having the drafts reviewed by peers and staff, and re-writing their drafts. The students also learned how to be socially responsible writers contributing their opinions without offending their audience. This meant a lot of editing and re-writing to make the paper ready for publication.
The best part is that the students were able to see their work published. To celebrate the occasion, the students and staff held a "SIATech Revolution Release Party" while some students took turns sharing their pieces with the class. The students also worked on a distribution strategy to determine where to place the papers on center for our readers.
Mr. Nate brought the idea to my attention last month and shared with me a great online printing company that we could send our newspaper drafts to. The company would take our final draft and print it on recycled paper to look just like a real newspaper. From there Mr. Nate introduced the idea to the students. Once the students created the first draft, I met with the Deputy Center Director and Center Director to review it and received approval to publish the paper and distribute on center. We received our first shipment of 200 newspapers in March at which time I shared the paper with the Center Director and Deputy Center Director. They were both very impressed.
We plan to have more editions of the SIATech Revolution Newspapers in the future. We also expect to have new contributing writers as the paper grows in popularity. We feel very confident that the newspaper will get better with each edition as the students build their comfort level with the writing process and editing their work and the work of their peers.
Read the SIATech Revolution.
Robotics Program at San Jose SIATech
Robotics Teams Shatter Stereotypes
Season Off to a Winning Start
The SIATech Robotics program is in its fifth year and continues to make waves in the Robotics world and beyond. Spectators are surprised to learn that our students were previously struggling students who did not experience success in 
the traditional high school classroom. At the past two tournaments, SIATech teams have walked away with the Gracious Professionalism Award, a Judges Award, and a Regional Finalist award.
View Team 1834's student-created video!
Why the SIATech Robotics program so significant: (1) Approximately 42% of the participating students are English language learners or bilingual. (2) Mentors are instrumental in the technical leadership as well as being a caring adult in the lives of these students. (3) Despite teams comprised on 99% previous dropouts, more than 90% of SIATech Robotics participants graduate from high school. And 40% of past team members have gone on to college. (4) Public-private partnership: The exceptional transformation of the students is a result of the collaborative hard work of SIATech, mentors from the classroom and community, and partners at Job Corps.
The engineers and teachers that mentor the students in the SIATech Robotics programs always knew these students were smart and capable. Thanks to their participation in SIATech Robotics, the students now know it, too.
About the 2009-2010 Season
The San Jose and San Francisco (Treasure Island) teams traveled to the Silicon Valley Regional on March 19-20 to compete with more than 50 teams, some of which were from the top schools in the country. Both teams had an exciting and enriching tournament. And, the San Jose Team 1834 won the Judges Award!
Each team learned a great deal at this competition. For example, the ranking system is different this year and teams are awarded extra points called “coopertition” points during the qualifying matches. This system of “coopertition” was devised to promote cooperation between the opposing teams and not just between the alliance mates. Based on a complicated logarithm, teams earn points for helping opponents in the other alliance score points if the score starts to become too lopsided. This was not an easy lesson to learn. SIATech Area 1 Director of Education Laurie Pianka wrote, “For our competitive group of students who like to score points and enjoy a strong defense which they interpret as their opponents having zero points, there was a learning curve before we all got it. (This was hard for the mentors too!)”
Each year, everything is new: a new Robotics game and often for an open entry / open exit program like SIATech, new student participants. SIATech Treasure Island Principal Khristel Johnson commented, “The Treasure Island Pirates managed to hold 12th place at the end of the first day of competition and concluded in 27th place out of 50 other competitors. What makes our ranking most impressive is the fact that we entered our third competition like every year, with all new students and a new lead mentor. To assemble and competitively engage with these unique challenges makes our students winners in the true sense of the FIRST mission. We are thankful for the opportunity and appreciative that our students will carry this empowering experience with them long after FIRST season has ended.”
The San Jose Team 1834 was awarded the Judges’ Award at the Silicon Valley Regional. They were the only team of the 50 teams present who received it. The description of the award is as follows: “During the course of the competition, the judging panel may encounter a team whose unique efforts, performance, or dynamics merit recognition.” Then, at the Regional competition held at UC Davis, Team 1834 made it all the way to the finals. After a fun and fierce two days of competition, Team 1834 earned two awards: Regional Finalists and the Gracious Professionalism award. The Gracious Professionalism Award (sponsored by Johnson & Johnson) celebrates outstanding sportsmanship and continuous gracious professionalism in the heat of competition, both on and off the playing field. At FIRST Robotics, sportsmanship means playing fairly, playing with humility, helping others, and not allowing results to compromise or drive your efforts. According to FIRST, “It is a high standard, and one that we are proud to report is one of the distinguishing features of the FIRST's robotic competitions.” Congratulations to SIATech San Jose!
In the span of a few weeks, the Robotics program at SIATech impacts the lives of young men and women who just a year or two ago were out of school, out of work, and out of hope. FIRST Robotics inspires these students to become lifelong learners and look toward the future with hope, determination, and anticipation of being contributing members of their families and their communities. Thank you FIRST for this remarkable program that reinvigorates our students inspires our school and our community and forever changes lives!
Read about the SIATech Robotics program in the Job Corps San Francisco Region’s Annual Report.
Visit the SIATech Robotics website.
