News and Editorials

SANDY NGO- 2006 MLK WRITING WINNER STEPS UP TO REAL LEADERSHIP!

Last year Sandy Ngo was surprised to win the 17th Annual SVCCJ MLK Grand Prize for her poem. Sandy is used to working hard at school - and anything she undertakes - but isn't used to this kind of recognition.

When Sandy first read her poem with passion at the awards ceremony, everyone was moved and impressed. Her face and voice appeared on NBC News that night. She was invited to open both the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting and the San Jose City Council meeting. Sandy found herself invited to a host of other speaking engagements all year.

City Councilmember, Nora Campos, selected Sandy to be the student representative for her district to the City, a very great honor indeed.

Sandy's poem had been about how she was saddened by the loss of easy relations and community in her neighborhood over her lifetime. She expressed her wish to bring back those warmer relations and sense of safety for the younger kids living all around her. So when she was faced with the opportunity to actually DO something about this, she did!

Sandy used her position with the City to start a mentoring service for the younger kids in her neighborhood. She organized a group of her peers to give them a friendly helping hand with tutoring and more.

She shared this story on NBC's "Bay Area Vista" in an interview about the MLK Contest with Janice Edwards. Then she joined Vice Mayor Dave Cortese on stage at the 2007 MLK Contest Awards to inspire the new student winners.

For her part, Sandy discovered a whole world opening up to her and a lot of her own talents. She got to meet Dr. King's speechwriter and friend, Clarence B. Jones of Stanford University. She got to work with elected officials, media personalities - she was even the winner of the 2007 Martin Luther King Association scholarships!

If you hear her speak about this she'll tell you it was all the result of her participation in SVCCJ's Martin Luther King Student Art, Writing and Multi-media Contest. We'd like to think so, because that's actually what the contest is designed to do: inspire and empower the next generation of student leaders for a diverse community. And it actually does so every single year.

We're also very clear that Sandy, as with all the talented students who participate, is an example of what strengths reside within all of us when we're willing to open our minds and our hearts to Dr. King's timeless message.

Congratulations Sandy Ngo!