hello, welcome to "comunidad del valle." today, a local latina artist is on our show. plus, a way to help local veterans. this is your "comunidad del valle." >> nbc bay area presents "comunidad del valle" with dameon trujillo. >> we begin today with a local organization that is doing a great job at helping our students. it's called breakthrough silicon valley. with me here on "comunidad del valle" are melissa johns and jessica wenzel. both members of this great organization. thank you so much for being here today. >> thank you for having us. >> we have some pictures from your website, but tell us about your organization. >> so breakthrough silicon

valley has a dual mission. the first part is to launch motivated yet underserved youth from our community on the path to four-year universities, and the second part of that mission is to encourage and inspire young people, high school and college students, to consider careers in education. >> i mean, i saw the numbers on your website. look at that right there. what is it that is making your program successful at this point? what's working? >> i think that we demand a really high level of excellence out of our students, and in turn we feel that we need to provide that as well in everything we do. but it's also because it's a long-term commitment. we recruit students from their local public schools in sixth grade. we make a promise to them that we're going to be in their lives for six years until they enroll in four-year universities. and we do everything we can. jessica and the rest of our team do such an exceptional job making sure that we offer the services and support they need that maybe they would otherwise not have at their disposal because they come from a low-income background or because they might be the first in their

families to ever pursue four-year degrees in our country. >> jessica, talk about what you see there. talk about these kids as they come in, what they're like and what you see as they're leaving the program. >> we start with the students when they're in the sixth grade. at that point, the kids want to go to college. that's the first thing that's clear. over the years, there's obviously obstacles that come in the way. when they're in sixth grade, you have no idea what might be an obstacle later. i work primarily in the high school program. we ensure they're on the right track for college. a lot of times when you're a large school, it's hard to know if you should be taking the honors classes, ap classes, regular classes. we ensure all of our students are taking rigorous coursework to be the most competitive college applicants. >> are they not as motivated when they started program and do a complete turnaround? >> that's a great question. we're looking for academically motivated students when they come in. in the sixth grade, they're students that say, i want to fill out this 26-page recommendation, i'm getting test scores, getting grades, i'm writing a five-paragraph essay,

three pages of short answers because i want to go to college. >> if somebody is doodling during science class, this might not be the program. >> if they're doodling because they're bored. if they want extra challenge and want to be in a program that's really going to help them take their academic game to another level and to make sure that we're really going to push them to a level of excellence that might otherwise not be expected of them, then that doodler might be the right student. >> maybe sometimes we as parents say at their sophomore, junior, senior year in high school, it's time to start thinking about. college. >> it's too late. >> tell us about that. >> for students, there's a whole process in terms of what you need to be doing. oftentimes that process starts as early as the first year of high school. if you're in the in the right classes, if you're not doing the things necessary, you become off track. and to think about it junior, senior year, you're kind of at a place where it's, oh, i was supposed to do that? we start informing them as early

as seventh grade. this is what you're looking forward to in high school. when you get there, this is what you'll be doing. in their senior year, these are the steps you're making in order to make sure you're competitive. >> very good. >> we like to say the road to college begins in middle school. so that's why we're getting them to make sure that they have that strong academic foundation developed so they can get into college preparatory high schools and thrive there and really take the steps necessary to go to college. >> you kind of touched on this. who qualifies for this? what's the commitment they have to put in? >> we look for students that have demonstrated need in their lives, but they are motivated academically and show potential to be able to go to college. so the academic need, first of all, we're looking for students that might come from a family that qualified for free or reduced lunch at school or maybe their parents or grandparents haven't been to college, so they would be the first in their families to navigate this pretty complex, sometimes confusing, almost always confusing system to get to a four-year

university. also, our students might have risk factors in their lives, like living in a really high gang-impacted neighborhood in san jose or they might also come from a single-parent household where maybe the level of support isn't always there that they need after school and in the summers. we can be able to provide that support. >> and this is after school, every day for a certain amount of hours and summertime? >> students commit to three academic summers with us following sixth, seven, and eighth grade. that last summer before they go into high school. in middle school, they come to our program a minimum of two days a week. during the high school years, they come to monthly college readiness workshops, and they're also there any time. we check their grades and monitor their grades through our partnerships with the school districts. so we make sure that any time our students are starting to struggle in their grades a little bit that we're providing them the assistance they need to get back on track. so a lot of our high school students are in meeting weekly with their academic tutors so they can maintain their grades.

>> very good. well, it's breakthrough silicon valley. they are breaking through, especially with some of our young children. there's the web address for more information. log on and find out more about this great program. thank you so much for what you're doing. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> up next here on "comunidad del valle," a local latina artist. stay with us.

she's an artist and resident at the palo alto art center. this is christina velasquez. welcome to the show. you provided with us -- the kids are not going to know what this is. this is an old vhs tape. those of us who are our age, know what they are. but i guess an ipod. this was netflix back then. you make this beautiful show out of recycled vhs tapes. >> that's correct. >> tell us about that. >> fur our youngsters, this is a vhs, a video. what i've done is i've pulled them apart. actually, i have people who help

me with this. i don't pull them apart. what we really do is we remove the film inside. this is what's inside. this here is what this is. this piece here. i actually have knitted it with the use of two needles here. >> oh, those are your needles? >> yeah. for those of you who knit, you know what this is. also those who crochet. >> obviously i don't knit. >> that's part of the process of the piece. it has become an elongated, oversized shawl. it's now an oversized piece of the palo alto arts center that people can look and experience as an installation. >> how long did it take you to do something like this? >> it takes a very longti time. i'm a little faster now. at the art center, we invited people to collaborate. you can see from this part on, people added. so they were able to come to the art center and knit with me. i worked on other pieces and

they worked on this piece. as you can see, there's a difference in the grip and also the knit. >> and how many of these did you have to use, do you think? >> well, we have used not very many, actually. the art center collected close to 4,000. >> wow. >> yes, yeah. so these are all repurposed, all recycled, all retransformed into an oversized shawl. >> and what movie is it? >> i have no idea what that one is. >> tell us about your residency and how that's going. >> it has been a fabulous experien experience. >> we have some pictures from your website as well. >> excellent. thank you. yes, it's been a blessing to be in residence. this is something i've been wanting for a very long time. i get to be in the glass gallery and i knit. people can walk by, and they'll see mevite them over to either help me knit or engage in

conversation about how they use their obsolete matter or maybe to talk about womens issues. that's going in this direction. women's issues, women who wear the black shawl. also, a repurposed matter that no one wants. essentially two different ideas being juxtaposed and being knitted together. >> and obviously you're catering to an older generation. are the kids kind of falling for it? >> they wonder -- first, they wonder, of course, what this is. they get very into it because obviously the material is very shiny and very prickly and the sound. they do want to collaborate. >> talk about your work, if you will, over at the mexican heritage plaza. >> absolutely. i'm a visual artist and also a teaching artist. i sometimes teach the summer camps. i teach classes during the year. i try to instill creativity and focus and discipline in the students because it is very, very important. people generally think that artists are lazy and crazy and

don't do anything. that's not true. >> do you have to maybe think a little differently, though, if you want to be creative like this? or is it just something that -- an extra hair in your head that lets you be a little more creative than the rest of us? >> i was born an artist. i'm going to say you have to have it in your veins, in your blood. but when i teach students, and this piece specifically is asking people to think about your unwanted matter and to transform it into something else. i'm not saying that everybody should become an artist. i don't need many more people to compete against. but the reality is that you can make all the things with it. for instance, your videotape. this is something that if you're in the going to watch it anymore, where is it going to go? to the landfill. let's stop right there. what goes in the landfill is actually the film. this is the reason why i chose to transform the film. the cassette, once you pull it apart, the actual black matter, this plastic can be recycled. >> my daughter went to that

summer camp. did you teach her how to make earrings out of recycled b bottles? >> yes, i did. we made jewelry with plastic bottles. i told my students, think about how you can make -- how you can monetize your own artwork. it's not bad at all. so just move away from the whole notion of cookies and bake sales. that's a whole other conversation we need to have. but you can make art. you can make wearable art, which is what we did in that class. trash fashion art for social change. >> that's wonderful. well, she does have a website. it's pretty fascinating. there it is on your screen. she's the artist in residence at the palo alto art center. log on and find out more. thank you very much. up next here on "comunidad del valle," helping our veterans. stay with us.

♪ ♪ i ♪ know i can't deny... ♪ that i got a new feeling ♪ deep inside... ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. the veterans supportive services is always there to help our local veterans. with me here on "comunidad del valle" are founding member of

veteran supportive services and a veteran of our military. gulf war veteran. what was that like, and talk about how the agency helped you get through the post of that. >> well, you know, their agency is amazing because they just don't help a veteran evolve or just receive benefits. they also go beyond that. the amazing thing about an organization like this is that tito and them have not just the control of helping but they really go above and beyond as far as lifestyle. especially someone like me that experienced desert storm and everyone around that situation. it's also about the families affected, when you deal with vssa, which is amazing. >> tito, what a better person to run this organization than someone who's been there, someone who's done it.

talk about that, if you will. >> when we started vssa, we didn't think there was more choices for veterans to go. there wasn't any agencies who had been there, been to war, been a service-connected veteran. those of us who have been there kind of don't want to talk to someone who hasn't been there. we didn't think that was available for them. we become very interactive, look at the family as a whole. the family is suffering. much more so than the veterans. they're watching this veteran who used to be really great before he went to war, and now he's going through all these experiences. >> and there are a lot of veterans who come back, and they've earned services, disability services, but they don't either seek those services or they don't know that they're offered. but they're there. >> there's many of them.

they love us. especially those of us who came from vietnam, who were blamed for the war, and we have nothing to do with the government. we still love this country, but that's what happened. we try to bring them back in the system because they deserve it. they're still carrying the experiences they had during the war. >> and so it's helped you tremendously, i would imagine. >> absolutely. if i look at, you know, coming back into the mainstream of becoming a civilian again and dealing with the issues with ptsd and other issues coming back with different ailments, my situation was more spinal, bone related, nerve damage cancer. literally at one point having to possibly give up on my whole future and career. it does affect us. and to have an organization like vssa and everyone that's

involved in the organization to help us get to a point where we can live life again. you're never 100% again. you will never be. at least we as veterans know we could actually lean on an organization to help us start a whole new life. >> what's that like, tito, to know you've helped people like rico here, another veteran? >> it's a great feeling. >> sure. >> vssa, we're a totally volunteer organization. none of us get paid. the thing that we get paid for is knowing that you will be okay. he can take care of himself. he's independent. he can live life. so that's what our reward is. >> and we have our service members coming back constantly from the battle zones. that means agencies like yours are going to remain busy. >> busy throughout the lifetime because, as you know, service-connected disability doesn't get better. it gets worse during your

lifetime process. there are studies over and over again that say as we get older, something will trigger what we experienced in the war and it comes back to haunt us. that's why there's a continuing need for services. >> and is that a reoccurring thought process for you, that you go through? >> absolutely. there's anxiety. like, when i deal with -- i deal with customers daily in my business that we own. you can't show your, you know, anxiety at times. you can't show certain things you're experiencing, which was a direct cause of either being at war or being in the military and being treated a certain way. so there's many different aspects that affect us. so, yeah, absolutely. for the rest of my life, i'll be affected. but, you know, they're making a difference so that people like me can continue to evolve and

make change and also pay it forward. >> and get help early. vssa, veterans supportive services agency. there's the web address for more information. any final thoughts before we let you go? >> final thoughts. we are here to help, and we don't do it for money. we do it because we think it's the right thing to do for our veterans. >> veterans helping veterans. thank you so much for the work you're doing. and up next here on "comunidad del valle," the office of the mexican consulate. stay with us.

he is the deputy consul general of the office of the mexican consulate in san jose. he is the deputy consul general. my guest once again here on "comunidad del valle." you just announced this past week this new program to make sure that the mexican i.d.s, if you will, if there's a better explanation for it us, give it

to us please, but those mexican i.d.s are secure and people are protected. >> yeah, thank you very much for this invitation. we are really happy that we are issuing a new high-security consulate i.d. since october 16th this year. this new process has been launched by minister of foreign affairs in a joint effort with ministry of finance and public credit of mexico to create a new certificate of consulate i.d. which enhances. that's the most important. i just brought us the new and the former that you can see. it's a huge difference. >> so this is the old one. and this is the new one. >> with a chip.

the chip, you know -- first of all, the chip, you have all the information from the person wearing this i.d. this is important because you know exactly all the information we have. if you have the -- you can read it. >> the card reader. >> exactly, the card reader. you can know exactly the people who is wearing these. and it's different because you know here, for example, the background design. >> this one you can get at story and king, probably. >> no, no, no. we have a really secure measure. for example, the background design is a really high design now. >> but your office is in the silicon valley. it was time to add a chip to it. >> yes, exactly. and it's important because, you

know, maybe people think you can get this document in another place. we know exactly when these kind of documents are issued in another place. >> for those of us who are born in this country, live in this country, why is this important for people like me? >> people know that -- can be sure that everything is in high security. we issue this document with a really, really high security measures. we need to prove that the person who is showing up to the consulate is the right person who brings their birth certificate. so with this new process, we have different measures and different points that we have to check out.

so everyone who sees this is sure that everything is really, really secure. >> got it. so if somebody still has this old one right here, do they need to go into the consulate office and exchange it? >> the people will keep this until this is not valid. it's not necessary to change it. we have the database. we have both. so the time it's expired, you can renew. but it's not necessary to renew. obviously, if you want to get a new one, you can do it. but it's not necessary. it's valid until the expiration on here. >> i guess at the same time, you're protecting the mexican nationals with that new i.d. because now it's more advanced and it protects their identity a little better probably. >> yeah, and there are different

changes coming. for example, the av-60 initiative, for a driver's license, they're going to need this document. for example, dmv will be sure of this really secure docdocument. >> well, new and innovative measures at the mexican consulate. is it only the san jose office? >> every consulate around the united states and in canada. >> all right. any final thoughts you want to share? >> yes, this is just for people who live in the united states or canada. so that's why just in those -- 50 consulates in the united states and four in canada. >> all right. and you started printing them on the 15th of october? >> yes. let me tell you this.

we were the first around the united states. >> of course. you're silicon valley. you better be the first. all right. the mexican consul general coming out with new high-end, state of the art security i.d.s for the mexican nationals living here in the states. thank you so much for what you're doing. >> thank you. >> and now here's what's happening in your comunidad.

and celebrating a special day. felicidades. and here is our address for next week. also pick up a copy of our newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies across the bay area. you can follow me on twit l. my handle is @newsdamian. we thank you for sharing a part of your sunday with us. you can now watch us in spanish on telemundo every saturday at 5:30 p.m. you get double the pay for your money. you get one show in english and one show in spanish. thank you again. we'll see you next week.

in the summer of 2016, for the first time ever, the spirit of the olympic games comes to life in one of the world's most dazzling cities. the 2016 olympic games from rio, on nbc. just about a four-hour drive from vancouver in the heart of the southern interior i b.c., the tune of kelowna in the middle of wine country and for the first time in an event that's now in its fourth decade it's come to the prospera place here. second event in the grand prix series and the two-time u.s. champ ashley wagner back for another run at the olympics. it starts here. but chasing another young russian. 16-yeaol