News 
Sawubona, Hola, Bonjour, Hallo, Ola, Hello....
Home is sweet, but the moments of the Football for Hope Festival 2010 has left a lasting flavor. Starfinder's very own Mustapha Alpha (18) and Nury Ortiz (16) joined up with six other high school students from four other cities to represent Team USA. Team USA was one of 32 delegations comprised of youth from disadvantaged communities from across the globe that spent 15 days in Johannesburg, South Africa for a festival celebrating education, culture and soccer.
Starfinder has received a two-year grant from the Barra Foundation to work with 60 urban middle school aged girls. This program will focus on breaking down the barriers that limit urban girls from participating in athletics.
3/7/10: Starfinder Upgrades
Have you noticed anything different at Starfinder lately? Over the past month Starfinder has slowly but surely been making improvements to the interior of our facility. Some are more visible than others. For example, it's amazing what a coat of paint can do. Our upgrades began with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on January 18, 2010. Our staff and Senior Leaders teamed up with a group of seven volunteers from Vanguard to brighten up the building with a new color palette (borrowed from our logo). Big thanks to professional painters George Hibbs and Joe McParland who provided professional guidance and made sure the white paint didn't get mixed in with the gray paint! With forty eager workers all in motion at once, we really benefitted from George and Joe's calm stage direction.
Another recent improvement is a little less obvious to the casual observer , but will potentially have a bigger impact. We have finally completed our student computer lab. Thanks to generous equipment donations from Pepper Hamilton law firm and STV Group, Inc., significantly discounted software from TechSoup.org, and expert tech support from Deb Elias and Colin Haley (not to mention a lot of sweat equity from the staff!), we now have fourteen computer systems up and running. Starfinder students will learn how to use standard office software, web research techniques, and multi-media technologies. The Senior Leaders have already been creating a blog and, thanks to the acquisition of 20 Flip Cameras, will soon be expressing themselves through video as well.
We wish all the facility changes were positive ones. Unfortunately the massive snows this winter created some new challenges. Most dramatically, snow "avalanches" from the main roof collapsed the covering over our walkway and took all the lighting with it! We are busy collecting repair quotes and hope to get lighting and shelter restored soon. (Thank you for your patience as we address this latest snag!)