Monterey county high school students: write a short story, win some dough

Central Coast Writers will award $750 in prizes for best short stories coming from Monterey County high school juniors and seniors. Grand prize is $300.

Maciek Lewandowski

Use this photograph as your writing prompt. What feelings come to your mind when you see it? What sort of images and charater do you picture in a place like this? What sort of plot may unfold? Let your imagination take flight and craft a short story (1,500 words of less).

Deadline to submit your entry is Feb. 28, 2017. For complete rules and an electronic submission form, visit the Central Coast Writers website here. 

Become a California government fellow, become involved in public service

Applications for the 2017-18 California Senate, Assembly, Executive and Judicial Fellowship programs are available.

The programs provide college graduates with an opportunity to become full-time staff members in Sacramento for 11 months beginning in October 2017. Fellowships are jointly operated by the three branches of state government and the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS).

Fellows are paid a stipend of $2,627 per month plus health, vision, and dental benefits. They also earn six units of graduate credit from CSUS for the academic portion of the program.

"Being a Fellow provides individuals with an excellent opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge about how California’s state government operates,” Senator Bill Monning said in a release announcing the fellowships. “Whether your career goals are in the public or private sector, the Fellowship programs provide a valuable view into the democratic process.”

Anyone who will be at least 20 years of age and a graduate of a four-year college or university by September 1, 2017 is eligible to apply. There is no preferred major. Individuals with advanced degrees and those in mid-career are encouraged to apply.

Interested individuals can obtain additional information and applications on the CSUS Center for California Studies website here, by e-mailing calstudies@csus.edu; or by calling the Center’s office at (916) 278-6906. Brochures and applications may also be requested by calling Senator Monning’s Monterey District Office at: (831) 425-0401; San Luis Obispo Office at (805) 549-3784; Santa Clara County number at (408) 847-6101; or Santa Cruz District Office at (831) 425-1503.

Deadline for submitting applications is February 13. Fellows will be selected in the spring after an initial screening of applications and a subsequent panel interview of the finalists.

Research opportunity for Monterey County scholars on dual language programs

Here's an intriguing opportunity for a education enthusiasts in Monterey County, and it comes via the Migration Policy Institute in Washington D.C.

The MPI is soliciting papers about projects that show effective dual language instruction programs. It'd love to work on something like this if I had time, but alas! I'm going to leave it to the experts. We have several well known dual-language schools in Monterey County -- the Dual Language Academy of the Monterery Peninsula, Boronda Meadows, Lincoln Elementary come to mind.

So maybe an intrepid educator/scholar decides to take on a project to evaluate their effectiveness? And share their results with MPI and yours truly?

Here's the call for papers. Have at it!

The National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is launching an interdisciplinary research initiative to examine policies and practices that effectively promote academic success and healthy socioemotional development in multilingual and superdiverse contexts for young Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The initiative is focusing on superdiversity within early childhood education and care programs, which is an increasingly common phenomenon, but one without a clear definition or a sufficient research base.

In order to build the research base on early childhood education and care in superdiverse contexts, MPI is soliciting papers by scholars working in child development, education, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, public policy, migration, and other relevant fields. Complete details on the call for papers, including submission guidelines, can be found here.

Papers supported through this initiative will address:

a superdiverse demographic setting in the United States, in which multiple languages and cultures are represented among children and families; programs that serve young children (including any range of ages from birth through age 8) in any home-, center-, or school-based setting, or the policies that guide such programs; and DLLs, defined as young children who speak a language other than English at home. Papers that have immediate local policy and program design implications or include collaboration with local educational agencies or community-based providers are particularly encouraged. Papers should provide original analysis of an issue drawing on qualitative or quantitative methodology.

Paper proposals should be submitted by February 10, 2017; final drafts of selected papers will be due in October 2017, presented at a private research symposium hosted by MPI in November 2017, and subsequently widely disseminated as MPI publications.

More detailed questions related to this call for papers can be directed to Maki Park at mpark@migrationpolicy.org.