By Sal Pizarro
September 27, 2008
It was inspiring to spend Friday morning with the 42 young men and women who will be working over the next year at elementary schools and doing other projects in Silicon Valley with City Year, which had its opening day ceremonies in San Jose's St. James Park.
The morning included a little "physical training" — or "PT" in City Year speak — for the new recruits and the audience, which included City Year board members Lisa Jensen, Carl Guardino and Vangie Maynard, as well as San Jose City Councilman Forrest Williams and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.
Reed told the City Year corps members — who range in age from 18 to 24 — that they'll be essential role models for the young students they work with, often in low-income neighborhoods that have seen rising gang violence.
"You will provide them hope that there's another way to live their lives than what they have been doing," Reed said before the corps members left to spend the day working at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Jose's Mayfair neighborhood.