September 2025 Newsletter

Our Studio 4 LA - Hollywood students had the unique opportunity to collaborate with industry professionals on The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a state-of-the-art mobile studio for music and video production. Students had written two original songs in their core content classes beforehand, then brought them to life on the bus by recording and filming music videos. The first song reflected on stereotypes they have personally experienced, connecting their learning to the book "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater, while the second grew out of their financial literacy and consumer math class, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of youth employment. Both tracks were built on a beat created by a Studio 4 LA graduate, adding a special layer of connection to their community.

You can check out a behind the scenes peek of the music video that our Hollywood students shot on the first day of the Lennon Bus here or below.

In addition to our Hollywood site, Lennon Bus will also be making stops at our Mid-City and Culver City sites as part of a special California tour. This exciting opportunity is sponsored by 4 Learning and is designed to support interdisciplinary, project-based learning that connects core academic content with the recording arts.

Trimester 1 Updates From YouthBuild Inland Empire


Submitted by Adam Jones, Humanities Teacher at our San Bernardino Site

"YOU BE YBIE" is a callback to a former YouthBuild Inland Empire staff member who called the uniform hats and shirts "you be" as in YBIE. It includes students in Mental Toughness doing a hopscotch / twister hybrid that is always fun and helps students loosen up as a warm up activity. They go down and pieces of paper have images of a left foot, or right foot, left hand, or right hand, etc. and they always enjoy it. It's a nice quick thing to let people drop some inhibitions and just do kid stuff. 

The St. John's Community Health visit featured two different visits where they had sessions on hygiene with two different groups of students and ended with access to local health centers and a hygiene kit for each student. 

The last photo is a wall of student spotlights inspired by the ones we saw at Lennox where students highlighted their goals for the year and it just makes a nice visual way to help keep students motivated and welcomed every day as they come in. They completed these during Mental Toughness as well. 

Studio 4 LA Gives Back in Hollywood

Submitted by Jesus Trigo, STEM Teacher at our Hollywood Site

In this fireside chat, representatives from the YouthBuild movement will share the transformative experience that young people have within YouthBuild programs. With its foundation in love and positive youth development, the in-person combination of education and workforce development has evidence-based results for at-promise youth. YouthBuild Charter School of California's Founder/ CEO Phil Matero and Director of Partnership Development Frank Alvarez will be presenting with Dr Jesse Noonan, Executive Vice President of Program Success at YouthBuild Global, along with Michelle Fuentes-Miranda, Executive Director of Alliance for Community Empowerment and Ely Flores, YCSC Board Member and Program Director at the Liberty Hill Foundation will engage in a conversation about the YouthBuild model and its history of impact. 

Our young people have so much to teach us. In this workshop, we will explore ways to involve students in curriculum development, event planning, culture building, advocacy, outreach, and more. It will feature a discussion on Youth Policy Councils at YouthBuild Charter School of California and an open Q&A with several YCSC graduates, including Isabel Velasquez (South LA, Class of 2017), Alonso Erazo (Mid-City, Class of 2022), and Hazel Grant-Gonzalez (Canoga Park, Class of 2025), with YCSC Assistant Principal Dr. Celine Massuger and Communication & Outreach Director Emily dos Santos will serve as moderators.

My last submission leading into the summer focused on recruitment and partnership building. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to build some exciting new connections, including the one I’m featuring this month.

In August, I attended an event at the Laborers Training School where I met a representative from Flatiron Construction. After a brief conversation, he asked me to follow up the next day, as he believed we could help each other. A few days later, I visited Flatiron’s operations site in Lynwood for their 105 Freeway expansion project and was introduced to Modern Times, Inc., a group that supports with finding and screening local workers.

Over the next two weeks, we stayed in close contact and scheduled tours for Compton YouthBuild and South LA YouthBuild. I connected the Modern Times and Flatiron's 105 Freeway expansion team with both programs, and they are now coordinating guest speakers and worksite visits with the goal of placing graduates from YouthBuild and the program's adult MC3 programs.

Looking ahead, I’m hopeful this will grow into a long-term partnership that can expand to other local programs. Modern Times is already serving as the JC for two LA Metro projects in the San Fernando Valley, and Flatiron Construction has upcoming projects in the Antelope Valley and Inland Empire.

I’ll keep you updated as this work develops. In the meantime, please reach out if you have partnership ideas and would like my support.

Frank Alvarez, Director of Partnership Develop, 213-474-5030, falvarez@youthbuildcharter.org