SOY tries to enrich the lives of our youth by taking them outside of their community on special trips to museums, cultural events and conferences.
Each year SOY takes students on different trips to museums, cultural events, lectures at universities, fun excursions and even trips to the beach during the summer. Some of the places they have visited are the Getty museum, LACMA, the Museum of Tolerance, the Santa Ana Zoo, SOKA University, UCI, Frida Kahlo Theatre, and the OC Fair.
One trip to the Getty Museum we had a group of 12 students participating. It was very satisfying to see the students so excited to be at the Getty. For all of them it was their first time at the museum. Ricky, now a UC Berekely student and an Estancia High School student at the time, couldn’t believe that he would have the opportunity to see one of his favorite paintings in person. He said: “Being in front of this Van Gogh painting is the best part of the trip!”
For the Museum of Tolerance we had another group of 11 students participate. Again, none of the students had ever been to the museum. It was a great educational and emotional trip. The students were touched and became emotional when they heard, first hand, how a holocaust survivor described what she and her family had to endure.
Many senior female students were able to attend a conference held at the Griffith Observatory in May called: “Inspiring the Future Astronauts, Engineers, Physicists, & Mathematicians”. It was nice to see a volunteer take our girls to this conference, encouraging women to go into the sciences, since it was geared towards students that are interested in majoring in these fields.
