Volunteers Needed for The Teddy Bear Workshop on June 24th!

Join The Matt Garcia Foundation on Monday, June 24 at 5pm in making teddy bears to bring comfort to children in hospitals across Solano County.

4 Tips to Improve Leadership Skills | Brian Tracy

Leaders never stop growing and developing. They have the capacity to keep themselves from falling into a comfort zone. They are lifelong students. All leadership qualities can be learned. The hard part is identifying the qualities that you must learn to succeed as an effective leader.

Our Teddy Bear Workshop Needs Volunteers on Monday, June 24th!

Join The Matt Garcia Foundation on Monday, June 24 at 5pm in making teddy bears to bring comfort to children in hospitals across Solano County.

Final Matt Garcia Academy Grads Earn Diplomas

Matt Garcia Career and College Academy graduates, from left to right, Cheyanna Kraly, Ethin Mac Donald and Disney Moreno, flip their tassels to celebrate graduating at the Fairfield Community Center, Thursday, June 6, 2019. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

FAIRFIELD — Seven graduates bid goodbye Wednesday afternoon to the Matt Garcia Career & College Academy.

They also represented the last class that can call themselves graduates of the school named after late Fairfield City Councilman Matt Garcia.

It has been serving sixth through 12th grades and is becoming a school of choice for middle schoolers. The high school portion will be closed.

Zachary Wasilchin attended Matt Garcia all four years.

“It’s more of a family,” he said of the school, adding that he didn’t think he would have thrived in a traditional high school.

A five-year member of the Fairfield Fire Department’s Explorer Post, he plans to take an emergency medical technician course, attend the fire academy and work for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or the U.S. Forest Service.

Wasilchin is so serious about his career, he was going out for a meal after the ceremony then on to a business meeting at the Fire Department.

History and art teacher Michelle Hays worked with some of the graduates since middle school. She also emphasized the family atmosphere at the academy, noting that the students pushed each other to study and graduate.

“It was very much a team effort,” she said.

While the graduates were in elementary school when Garcia was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity, they all knew who he is and strive to follow Garcia’s Keep the Dream alive message.

Raymond Courtemanche, Garcia’s stepfather, was a frequent visitor to the campus, Hays said.

“It’s an ending and beginning,” principal Dennis Foster told the graduates and their guests.

The Matt Garcia Career & College Academy was the perfect place for “misfit students and staff,” he said.

“Today is a milestone in your long journey of life,” Foster said. “It shouldn’t be a pinnacle.”

Student speaker Ethin Mac Donald mentioned he was apprehensive about the school closing, noting the need will remain.

He encouraged his fellow graduates to make a commitment to keep learning.

Mac Donald thanked staff and family for all their support, especially in the beginning.

“We can take it from here,” he said.

Article Source: https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/solano-news/fairfield/final-matt-garcia-academy-grads-earn-diplomas/?fbclid=IwAR2OMk-pbSaZ1gsEyO62HZ39d4lwwRr054Oi1F7pPe0R4bmmiVKHDanBZuI

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Anger, Compassion, and What It Means To Be Strong | Russell Kolts

While anger can feel powerful in our bodies, many of us use angry behavior to avoid dealing with things that make us uncomfortable. Compassion gives us a way to be strong that helps us courageously face the things that scare us—about the world, and about ourselves—and help make them better.

Russell is a licensed clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Eastern Washington University, where he has taught for the past 16 years and has received numerous honors including twice being named the associated student body’s Faculty of the Year. Dr. Kolts has authored and coauthored numerous books and scholarly articles, including The Compassionate Mind Guide to Managing Your Anger, An Open-Hearted Life: Transformative Lessons for Compassionate Living from a Clinical Psychologist and a Buddhist Nun (with Thubten Chodron), and the forthcoming Buddhist Psychology and CBT: A Practitioner’s Guide (with Dennis Tirch and Laura Silberstein). Dr. Kolts has pioneered the application of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to the treatment of problematic anger and regularly conducts training and workshops on CFT.

DIY - The Compassion Game | Brain Games

Dr. Sri Sarma explains a calming exercise to help stretch your compassion muscles.