Manny and Roxanne have passions for cultural awareness and dance. In their senior year at Skyline, they created a play and choreographed numerous dances to dispel myths of Cinco de Mayo. They directed and performed their work for more than 500 fellow students and won the School Contribution Award in 2011.

From Oakland High School, Justin Li had the vision and ingenuity to lead the an after-school club at Franklin Elementary School in Oakland where students participated in innovative and engaging projects ranging from using solar power to making ice cream. Through his hard work and dedication, dozens of students have been inspired and Justin received the Innovation Award for 2009.

After some trials and tribulations trying to discover a passion and cause, Roy Williams from Gateway High School revived his love for the Boys & Girls Club. With great appreciation for his experiences at the B&G Club, he overcame his obstacles and independently marketed and sold raffle tickets to raise money for other young people to camp at Treasure Island with B&G Club. Roy is one of the winners for the 2011 Resilience Awards. 

Shira, Nijhani, Javier & Alison from Gateway High School all have one strong passion in common: empowering middle school students. They collaborated with community members to create a two-day retreat where participants engaged in a ropes course, boxing class and numerous other leadership development activities. Students, school leaders, and all of us at FLI are excited to help support the legacy of this retreat for next year and the years to come. Together they are the winners of the Legacy Award 2011.

Since the award ceremony, this group has continued their enthusiasm for their project and they have met over the summer and the new school year for their 2012 retreat.

Moises from ACLC, created an organization called Helping Waters with the goal of addressing water access issues during natural disasters.  He sells stainless steel water bottles with Helping Waters’ catchy logo to raise funds to help the victims of Japan’s recent natural disaster. With his great passion for water accessibility and helping others, Moises won the Lomika Douglas Environmental Stewardship Award 2011 and has already envisioned how Helping Waters will continue to grow beyond the school year.

Jimmy Zhang made phone calls, sent emails and ran into wall after wall in trying to realize his dream of integrating biking into the everyday lives of the students around him. This Thurgood Marshal High School student held multiple breakfasts at his school to reward those students who biked to school. He proved that with grit and determination, anything is possible. He was the Resilience Award Winner in 2009.

With the passions of beauty and helping children in hospitals, Ingrid and Maria from ARISE, wrote letters and made numerous calls to provide manicures to young patients in local hospitals. Despite setbacks or obstacles that Ingrid and Maria faced, they successfully provided manicures for mothers of their school and raised money for the Children’s Hospital in Oakland. In 2011 they were winners of the Resilience Award.

These two rock stars have a passion for music and helping those in our local community who are living in poverty. In collaboration with their own band members and a band of teachers, they put on a benefit music show to raise money for efforts to end poverty.

Cynthia Gutierrez from Skyline High School worked together with Angelica Estrada to create an art gallery for students at their school to express their passions. Both Cynthia and Angelica wanted to create more culture at their school and were awarded the School Contribution Award for 2010.

Eliza is a student at Alameda Community Learning Center who organized a benefit fashion show. She raised $1350 through ticket sales, raffle and a silent auction to donate to The Princess Project. She was inspired to help young women and she was the winner of the Collaboration Award for 2010.

This Berkeley High School student partnered with Beads for Life to save countless lives and change the futures of young women in Uganda. Cara’s project raised over $8,000 and she was the winner of the Philanthropy Award in 2009.

Many of this year’s projects were innovative, and Lorena, Diana & Thalia from ARISE are the creators of a new tutoring program at ASCEND middle school. An application and basic skills quiz was required for all high school tutors in their program. They worked with teachers to identify which students needed help and met once a week for 8 weeks. This is just the beginning for these 2011 Innovation Award winners as they aim to continue this program next year.

On February 23, 2011, Dylan Moore from ACLC held a forum for Measure A, the parcel tax designed to help school funding in Alameda.  Dylan won the Collaborator Award in 2011 for calling together school board officials and more than 40 people from all sides of the issue.  Dylan wants to create a legacy of open-communication and well-supported schools.