December 21, 2025 • 35 mins
Segment 1: If you are looking for support from men and women who have a passion for helping children, (many with a long history of child advocacy), from all walks of life, listen up!
.
The biker men and women of Diligentz are on a mission to help children in need. Amber Banda interviews Manny "Big Monkey" Acosta, Sargeant at Arms, and Terry "Luna," Lady of Diligentz auxiliary member. Learn about their mission and how they are intergrated not only in the biker community with the El Paso Motorcycle Coalition but community organizations as well.
.
Big Monkey and Luna also talk about their personal reasons for joining, what you can do if you would like their assistance for the children in your life, and how you can become a member.
.
For more information find them on Instagram @diligentz_1001 and Facebook @diligentz
Email to protectallchildreninc@gmail.com
_______________________________________________________________________________
Segment 2: Young Women's Preparatory Network
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Amber Banda interviews Jill Brewster, Development Manager for the Young Women's Preparatory Network (YWPN) in El Paso, TX!
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The YWPN is a statewide non-profit that supports 12 schools, including 2 here in El Paso; The Young Women's Leadership Academy in the Ysleta School District, and the Young Women's STEAM Academy in the El Paso Independent School District.
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Both schools are FREE college prepatory public schools for young ladies age 6-12. Students enjoy one-of-a-kind experiences with focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics and you do not have to be in the YISD or EPISD to attend!
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Listen to learn about all of their programs, including the variety of extra-curricular activities from theatre to golf to swim and more, how they have a 100% college acceptance rate, how much students have earned in grants, and so much more! If you are concerned with transportation they have got you covered!
.
Schedule a tour now or apply online at yisd.net/ywla or episd.org
NEW EPISODES EVERY SUNDAY AT 8AM! Follow Amber Banda, 96.3 KHEY Country, Power 102.1 or Sunny 99.9 on Instagram and/or Facebook for pictures of our guests and leave a comment. Be a part of the good going on in our community!
.
The biker men and women of Diligentz are on a mission to help children in need. Amber Banda interviews Manny "Big Monkey" Acosta, Sargeant at Arms, and Terry "Luna," Lady of Diligentz auxiliary member. Learn about their mission and how they are intergrated not only in the biker community with the El Paso Motorcycle Coalition but community organizations as well.
.
Big Monkey and Luna also talk about their personal reasons for joining, what you can do if you would like their assistance for the children in your life, and how you can become a member.
.
For more information find them on Instagram @diligentz_1001 and Facebook @diligentz
Email to protectallchildreninc@gmail.com
_______________________________________________________________________________
Segment 2: Young Women's Preparatory Network
.
Amber Banda interviews Jill Brewster, Development Manager for the Young Women's Preparatory Network (YWPN) in El Paso, TX!
.
The YWPN is a statewide non-profit that supports 12 schools, including 2 here in El Paso; The Young Women's Leadership Academy in the Ysleta School District, and the Young Women's STEAM Academy in the El Paso Independent School District.
.
Both schools are FREE college prepatory public schools for young ladies age 6-12. Students enjoy one-of-a-kind experiences with focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics and you do not have to be in the YISD or EPISD to attend!
.
Listen to learn about all of their programs, including the variety of extra-curricular activities from theatre to golf to swim and more, how they have a 100% college acceptance rate, how much students have earned in grants, and so much more! If you are concerned with transportation they have got you covered!
.
Schedule a tour now or apply online at yisd.net/ywla or episd.org
NEW EPISODES EVERY SUNDAY AT 8AM! Follow Amber Banda, 96.3 KHEY Country, Power 102.1 or Sunny 99.9 on Instagram and/or Facebook for pictures of our guests and leave a comment. Be a part of the good going on in our community!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to ol Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host, Amberbanda,
and today we got more bikers in the station. I'm
not talking about cyclists motor cycles. We have Manny Big
Monkey Acosta, Sergeant at Arms for Diligence. Manny, thank you
for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And we also have Luna. Luna. Do you want to
see your name because you said it differently when you
introduced yourself. I know you as Luna.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, you know me as Luna. Everybody outside of the
bike or bike community knows me as Terry Teresa Martinez.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
There you go. We had Luna here from the Ladies
of Diligence Auxiliary. Luna. Thank you if you're talking with us today.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Thank you for having us. I'm really excited to be
here of course.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So Diligence is a fairly new motorcyclist or biker organization.
And I say both because people think bikers and we're
so used to the community because many of my listeners
know that I'm a biker as well. But we're not
talking about bicycles. We are talking about you both read
Harley's right, we do all right, perfect. So we're going
to be talking about Diligence, which is a nonprofit five
oh one C three organization. Luna, I'm going to defer
(01:26):
to you first. Can you tell us a little bit
about the Ladies of Diligence auxiliary and how they support
the Men of Diligence absolutely well.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Currently the Ladies of Diligence there's four members currently and
what we do is as an auxiliary, we support the
men part of Diligence as far as community events, making
sure we stay organized, partnering with local organizations, trying to
make those connections so that we can start to accomplish
(01:57):
our mission, which is helping children in ournity.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Right, and we'll get into that a little bit more,
but like you said, it's basically you're like a community liaison.
You do the outreach. You reach out to the other
child advocacy agencies here and I'll pass so not just
you know, other bikers, but you know the child Crisis Center,
and we'll get into that in a little bit, Big Monkey,
I want to ask you, as sergeant at arms, what
is your role in Diligence.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, simply, my role is I'm kind of like the enforcer.
You can say, I'm just the sergeant in arms for
our president, where I'm the sergeant arms for the whole chapter,
which includes also the ladies of diligence. My role is
strictly to protect the ladies, yes, and to protect also
the members my my Also, my role is that I
(02:45):
enforce a lot of the rules on the members, including
our president and vice president. So it's I guess I'm
part of the big chain of command where it's the
president and vice president then me the sergeant arms. But
with us is that we have six members and six
are on the board, but we have two sergeant in arms.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
One of them yes, yeah, so different, big.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Difference because one of our sergeant in arms is strictly
with the president all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Smart actually yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So but my role is that I'm in charge of
the whole of the whole chapter.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, and before we continue, I'm going to ask each
of you individually, Big Monkey'll start with you, diligence. What
is this group of motorcyclists, What do they do for
the community. Why was this organization created?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, this organization was created extrectly because we were a
bunch of friends that have the same mindset as far
as what we wanted to do in the community. We're
all bikers, as if you could tell, yeah, And what
we wanted to do is that we just we wanted
to help all different kinds of children, not just children
(03:59):
that have been used or have been neglected or anything
like that, but we also want to help children that
are sick in the sense of being have autism, down syndrome,
anything like that. We don't want to limit ourselves to
just once one I guess category, right, right of kids
that we can help. We want to help any as
(04:21):
many kids as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We can, right, definitely. And so the appeal there is
you all, you know, love motorcycles. And what he means
by obviously for those that are listening, they're wearing something
called cut So that's like what people call the biker vest.
You know what the patches and when you see the
costumes at Spirit for Bikers, it always comes with the cut, right,
So yes, they very much do look like bikers. And again,
(04:42):
this is an organization as you as you stated that
helps children of all sorts. It's not just you know,
the other organization that I've mentioned on ere where it's
helping kids that go to court or they're helping kids
have been abuse neglected. That's awesome. It's also going to
include kids that have been bullied, that have cancer, that
have autism, different disability right.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And also we also like to help kids that are
and I call them halfway homes, but there's also homes
for like the Shelter for Better Women. Yeah, we like
to help those kids out too, because we won't want
to see them to be able to forget the situation
that they're and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You just have a passion for helping kids, which is
something that I've been a part of the Al Passive
Motorcycle Coalition myself for going on six years. When it
comes to kids and elderly and veterans, yeah, bikers are
all over it. So Luna, I want to ask you,
in your words, what is diligence and why was it created.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So to Big Monkey's point, we all came together to
create a group of like minded individuals, someone with passion
and vision who all show care and compassion to do
our due diligence to protect all children.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
When the name Come came from, I was wondering, okay.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, to do our due diligence, to ensure that we
empower and help any kid, any child crying for help,
you know. And one of the biggest things that Big
Monkey mentioned were was the kids with disabilities. They tend
to be more vulnerable to bullying and neglect and abuse.
A lot of people don't know that they can be victims,
(06:15):
you know, because they don't.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Know how to croyas your targets.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Absolutely, and those children, we also want to make sure
that they have our support in the community, not to
mention just Al Paso, but the surrounding areas as well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, definitely. And so you know, there's the male component
of diligence, there's a female component of diligence, the females
being the auxiliary and the males being more you know,
doing more biker ish stuff so to speak, you know,
to put it into those terms, let me ask you
big monkey. From the male point of view, how does
the male like your role factor into helping the kids? Like,
(06:51):
what does And then Luna, just to put into Context'm
gonna ask you, what does the female energy bring to
this organization? So what does the male energy bring so
to speak?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, it's pretty simple because all kids, they like to
see bikes rolling around all the time, especially when they're
roaming up their engines. Yeah, it's just seeing the kids
a smile. That's what brings a lot of joy to
my heart. To be honest with you, what going back
of what Luna was saying is that the ladies of diligence,
(07:21):
they're the backbone of the men's side of diligence. They're
mainly the ones that tell us what to do. To
be honest with you, Yeah, they tell us, Okay, you
guys need to go here, you guys need to show
face here. Yeah, that's their big backbone for dyning.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So it's just like one big honey do list or that.
And I think what's beautiful is that, you know, people
have this conception of bikers, especially big, bad looking bikers,
which you can use to your advantage. Just the whole point, right,
because you want to look scary to the wrong people.
But then when you come up rolling on these bikes
and you get off and you get to the level
of the child and you're talking to them in terms
the understand, and they realize that, hey, this guy's or
girl is here to protect me. Like that removes that stereotype.
(07:58):
And then they realize, well.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It does in a sense, but not really because they
if they look like if they look at a person
like me, they're gonna say, Okay, he's just here to
just protect me. But of course, once like you said,
once I talk to them and stuff that they feel
more comfortable with me being there with them.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Make Teddy bear to them, he is.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
Right, watch out, do not mistake his kindness, make absolutely
And Luna, let me ask you what you know being
a female, being a part of the auxiliary, what kind
of energy and what benefit does diligence get from that?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So the benefit that the women bring I mentioned the
word compassion before. As a woman with kids we can relate,
not that the men can't, because the men bring definitely
a strong sense of strength to the kids. But for
us women, we want to make sure that we show
the compassion our hearts, how we can can embrace a
(08:57):
child and just let them know they're not alone. And
you didn't bring it down to a personal level. Just
some of us women amber, you know, because you've been
in the community, community and in the biker world and
helping children yourself. Some of us have been through things
in our past, in our childhood, and we understand and
(09:19):
we can relate to what they've been through. So bring
in those personal experiences. I think personally, that's what gives
me the power and the strength to want to be
there for these kids.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I think basically a lot of you became the person
you needed when you were younger.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Absolutely exactly. People like us didn't exist when we were kids,
so there was no one to talk.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To, right And you know, one of the founding members
Tools is in here as well, and I remember him
saying that, you know a lot of times people would
tell him I wish there was an organization like this
when I was younger. And the whole point of this
show and you being here is so that not so
many people are saying that, so more people we do
know about these organizations and get help for themselves and
(10:02):
for their families. And again, if you're just tuning in.
I have Manny Big Monkey Acosta, Sergeant at Arms for
Diligence as well as Luna part of the Ladies of
Diligence Auxiliary. Now, if people wanted to become a member,
let's go for that first. How can they do that?
What are the prerequisites?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So if they want to join, they want to become
a member, first of all, they can either reach us
via our email, which you'll provide on your say it
on your I mean Let's Protect All Children, Inc. At
gmail dot com okay, or any of our social media outlets. Also,
we are out there in the community by coalition events
or community events. They can approach one of our members,
(10:41):
our president or our vice president ewok. They can definitely
speak to the process of how to become a member.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay. And do you need a motorcycle to be a member? Yes? Okay?
Do you have I mean, I know some groups they
have like supporters. Is that an option in your organization?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yes, and that is something that we're working through as
a group. It's collective to get supporters under our wing
as well.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay. And since you are going to be working closely,
hopefully closely with many child organizations like a child crisis
center the CSF. Are you going to be background checked?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Yeses okay, yes, we have to be and that is
definitely a requirement to be part of diligence.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay, excellent. Yeah, and you know, of course, many of
these organizations, it's very they require that right to work
with their kids. Yes. So, Manny, let me ask you
on a more personal level, why did you want to
become a member of this type of organization.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, to be honest with you, it's just what Luna
was saying is that these kids are our future. I
put myself in their shoes, not just seeing these kids
go through these stuff, but if I put my daughter
into that situation. Yeah, I would never want to see
my daughter be put into those situations like that. It
(11:55):
kills me to see, you know, on social media when
when these there's offenders that are that I've gone through,
that I've been doing this and just to see what
those kids are going through, it's just it's it's heartbreaking,
you know, It's just something. I mean, you're you're a mom.
You wouldn't want something that that happened to you two,
(12:18):
you know, and I don't I don't see I don't
it's just I don't have words to it. It's really
really emotional to see or just to read about what
a child is going through, whether he's abused, or whether
he or she is abused, whether he or she is
being bullied, whether he or she is going through situations
(12:40):
like like the children in the hospital. You know this
time of year, they're not going to be able to
go to to their to their homes to enjoy Christmas.
It really gets to my heart when when I read
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Well, and then a lot of people like myself included,
there's a lot of anger around the purp, right, angry
you do something of them, some of the judge, but
then they forget that. Okay, well you're over there being
busy angry at the purp. There's a child over here
that still needs the attention and they're still going through that. Again, Yeah,
we can get angry, but then you have to be
able to show that control to go with the child
(13:14):
and hear what they need and help them in that capacity.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And the reason why we started all this is because
we want to make a difference. Yeah, I mean we're
small right now, but we want to make a difference.
We really want to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And for those that want to join, and they're may
be worried about the commitment, the time commitment, They have families,
they have jobs. What can you tell them.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I can only tell them that you're going to have
to work at it. I mean, if they want to join,
they have to have the same mindset that we have,
the same commitment, the same passion, the same dedication that
we have to be to join Diligence. Right, It's just
not okay, you want to do you okay, come on, yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It's not like putting on the patch and going for rides. Yes,
that's fun and we do do that, but it's it's
being committed to our mission, our vision and the message
that we're conveying is to be there for those kids
and to show face in the community that Diligence we're
out there.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So yeah, and I want to you know right now
that you have the platform, since you are new and
you are seeking organizations to work with Luna, can you
not sally yourself but yeah, you know, let the let
these organizations know, like, this is what we have to offer,
this is how we can help you.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, definitely, we're relatively new like you said, and we
are currently in the process of setting up contacts.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But I just want to say make clear diligence is
relatively new. I know these people, they've been doing child
advocacy for a long time, just before, yes, five to
six years.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, we've been out there tools even longer. You know,
he had this passion, our president for over what ten
fifteen years something like that. Yeah, so all of us
have been doing this for a while. But our group,
our chapter is fairly new, what two months.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, that's an organization.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, So we're trying to get out there. We're putting
our name out there and we're making contacts.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
What kind of organizations would you like to contact?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Do we want any child advocacy organization. We are not
opposed to working with other bike organizations within the coalition.
We all support each other in the motorcycle community. That
is our goal is I know that any any other
biker in any other organization, they know what we're doing,
They're going to step up and they're going to help
just like we would for them. So putting that out there,
(15:35):
any child advocacy organization, any foster care, women shelters.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
About individuals say hey, you know, because I used to
have a lot of people and I still do reach
out to me on a personal level. My child's being bullied.
My child just got diagnosed with this. I know a
thea that has a child with this.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Can they reach out to as an individual as well?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yes, they don't have to necessarily be in a part
of an organization. They can reach out to us via
email or our social media. Okay, I think Big Monkey
was going to provide.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Some Yeah, our social media is right now. We have
a fan page on Facebook which is Diligence with ze
yes with u Z, and then our Instagram is Diligence
also with a Z Underscore one zero.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Zero one And of course that information will be available
on parunto two point one Sunday, ninety nine point nine
and ninety six point three k Country, Instagram and Facebook.
If you're listening live on the radio, this will also
be a podcast on the free iHeart app. Look for
the Alpasso Public Forum. There will be a description in
the podcast link. You can listen to that at any time.
And again Protect All Children, Inc. At gmail dot com.
(16:44):
That information will be there as well. Now, before we
have a couple more minutes, I'm going to ask you
to you one more question, big monkey. Is there anything
else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
No, well, just basically, if anybody wants to reach out,
please do Please do not be silent. Do not let
these kids be silent as well. Children. If if there's
children listening, please reach out, reach out to any of us.
We are willing and we want to help. We want
(17:14):
to help.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They really do care. When I was young, I remember
finding it hard. Well, the people that are supposed to
let me don't even care. Why would they care?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
There are people that exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
There are a lot of people out there that care.
They may not think so, but we're out there. Uh
there's a you know, maybe a school counselor that can
get a hold of us, anyone that you trust. Yea,
we are people that you can trust.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Also to the agencies if they're listening as well. I mean,
reach out. We want to help. We're here to help.
Read We're not We're not here for a pattern, a background,
anything like that. We want to help.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Just like horses and music are therapy, bikes are also
therapy exactly, So just think of it as a form
of therapy for the kids. As the adults and Luna,
is there anything else you would like to tell the
listening audience.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
You know, just that I am very honored and privileged
to be a part of such an amazing organization. My
brothers and my sisters of diligence. I mean, without them,
I couldn't do what I do honestly, and Amber to
you as well.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Thank you so much, Under for having us here. We
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes, Luna, big Monkey and even tools off the mic,
thank you all for being here.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Welcome to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host,
Amber Banda, and today we have back Jill Brewster. She
is the development manager in the al Paso, Texas area
for the Young Women's Preparatory Network. Jill, thank you for
talking with us today.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Thank you, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Of course, welcome back. So we are going to be
talking about the Young Women's Preparatory Network. It is a
state wide nonprofit that supports twelve schools total nationwide, two
specifically here in El Paso, Texas. And I want to
tell the listeners there is a little bit of a
selfish component to this. My daughter is I'm so excited
going to be going to one of the schools. So first, Jill,
(19:11):
before we talk about the two schools that are included,
what is the Young Women's Preparatory Network and what is
your role as development manager in the El Paso area
for it?
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (19:22):
So, the Young Women's Preparatory Network is a nonprofit. It's
a statewide nonprofit that is based in Dallas and established
in two thousand and two, so we've been around for
a while. We have public school partnerships with twelve different
schools across the state, and we are so lucky because
we do have two right here in El Paso. So
(19:42):
the Network partners with public school districts and they work
with a school that is typically a six through twelfth
grade single gender school and helps that school with partnerships
with corporations other community partners and also provide some extra
funding to help that school meet all of its goals.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So I just the questions popped into my head. Single gendered.
I usually think of all female schools, but there are
a couple all male schools.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
Is it all female for the Young Women's Preparatory Network? Yes,
you right, right, yes, And I know that there are
some single gender schools that serve males too.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Throughout the state.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I believe in in Dallas, the President Obama has his
own school there.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
For that's another free public school for boys.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Here in El Paso, we have one, but it's of
course a private right, So yeah, I mean I think
that boys definitely would thrive in the same type of
environment that single gender, but in our case, we are
just supporting girls only.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Schools of course.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Random question. Okay, So we have the two schools here
in El Paso. It's the Young Women's Leadership Academy for
the Isleta District and the Young Women's Steam Academy for
the El Paso Independent School District. Before we get in
to that, as development manager for the Young Women's Preparatory
Network is what is your role?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (21:06):
So first off, I do have a background in education.
So I was a teacher for fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What grade and what subject?
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Okay? Well all early elementary pretty much.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Oh my god, that's the hardest.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Yes, I have taught everything from early childhood, special ed
for students that were three and four years old. I
taught kindergarten for many years, loved it, first grade, second grade,
and third grade.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You definitely have that like school teacher vibe like patient
and calm and.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Buddy, but thank you, yes, thank you.
Speaker 7 (21:38):
So so that was my background and that's actually how
I got into what I'm doing now. So I as
a teacher, as a public school teacher, oftentimes needed things
for my classroom, needed equipment, needed things for the school.
And I started learning about writing grants that way and
being able to bring in money to the school through grants,
which then led me to doing some grant contracting and
(21:59):
moving in to a full development manager role, which is
what I do now. So pretty much my position here
in Olpaso is to work with both schools. I work
very closely with administrators and the staff, and lucky for me,
also with the students because they are what makes my
jobs the best. That's the best part of my job.
They are amazing and very inspirational every day for me.
(22:19):
But pretty much I work with community partners. I help
with recruitment efforts to let the community know that we
do have these two free public schools here in El Paso,
and also you know, working on grants for the schools.
We've received some amazing grant funding from local places like
(22:40):
Alpaso Electric.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
And Freeport Macmaran and others as well.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
So we do look for local funding as well as
statewide and national funding to help with things like STEM
for example, robotics. Both schools have amazing robotics programs. They're competitive,
the students are very passionate about it, and we have
amazing and teachers that also serve as coaches that work
with those students. Robotics equipment is so expensive, yeah, and
(23:07):
even equipment and things to fix broken equipment or to
get ready for competitions.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
I mean, it just is very pricey.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
And so that's something that I work with all the
teachers and administrators.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Like what do you need? What are the school needs?
Speaker 7 (23:20):
And how can I help you find those connections, whether
it's through donated products or grants or whatever whatever it
takes to get the students what they need.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Very well said, and I have had personal experience not
only with Jill Brewster here, but with a lot of
the staff at one of the schools, and I have
to say that you're you know, you communicate yourself very
well in your passion for the students. That is very
apparent across the board with all the staff. And I'm
not I saw, I'm not endorsed by them. Okay, people,
just you know I have experience with it and I
speak my truth. So let's go. Let's go ahead and
(23:52):
talk about the schools individually that are a part of
the Young Women's Preparatory Network that are supported by IT.
Here and I'll pass. So we got the first one.
Let's talk first about the Young Women's Steam Academy STAM.
And for those of you that might not remember, can
you remind us all Jill what STEAM stands for sure?
Speaker 7 (24:10):
It's science, Technology, engineering, art and math.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Perfect. So the Young Women's Steam Academy and EPISD. Where
is it located and what can you tell us about
that school?
Speaker 7 (24:18):
So that school is located in Central Alpaso. It's on Arizona,
it is. It was established in twenty seventeen, so they've
only had three graduating classes so far. This year will
be their fourth year, six through twelfth grade. They have
the STEAM focus, so people are very familiar with the
term STEM right, but they also include a very vibrant
(24:41):
arts program which includes folklorico, visual arts music. They are
have a very large seventy five plus student all female
percussion drumline that performs all over They were just in
the Thanksgiving parade they've performed at the symbol. Yeah, you
will see them everyone, and they'll always be in their
school colors, which are like a bright pink and then
(25:04):
a black or gray.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
But so that's so.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
It's a college prep school. They have about four hundred
and fifty students and they are both schools that I
work with are both magnet schools, meaning anybody in our
entire community, you don't even have to be in that
school district, can apply to go to that school. The
application process is very simple. It's not shouldn't be intimidating
at all. It's just one of the steps to make
(25:29):
sure that that any student that wants to come would
be successful there. So they look at a couple small things.
They do look at attendance. They look at how students
have done on the Star test, though that will probably
be changing because in the state of Texas, I believe
they're doing away with the Star test.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So yeah, they always change it three years.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Yeah, so I'm not sure what will what that component
will be. And then of course they look a little
bit about discipline, but mostly they are looking for students
that are Both schools are looking for students that are
really interested in learning and doing their best. And also
both schools are college prep, so there is the focus
of you're going to be taking rigorous academics even starting
(26:11):
in middle school. We're preparing you to be successful in college.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So then let's actually talk about both because I guess
there's not much difference between the two other than location, right,
So yeah, it's the Young Women's Leadership Academy, which is
the SLI independent School district. That's kind of like where
I live, Like everyone knows where I live, like kind
of like by Lo, Moland and Endell. Correctxactly. And in
case you're just tuning in, I have here Jill Brewster,
(26:35):
development manager for the El Paso area of the Young
Women's Preparatory Network, which is a statewide nonprofit. It supports
twelve schools nationwide, two here in Al Paso, the ones
we're talking about, the Young Women's Leadership Academy and the
Young Women's Steam Academy. So yeah, let's put them all
together because I think the only difference, like you know,
it's the location. So yeah, again, it's a college preparatory school.
(26:56):
And with that being said, what is the difference between
that and a school that is not Magnet school? Is correct,
is the correct term?
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Yes, yes, So so both schools are magnet schools. Like
I said, anyone can apply from even outside.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Of those schools districts.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
In fact, both schools serve students coming from Horizon City
to Cannetillo. There there's we have students coming in everywhere.
Being magnet schools. We do work with the families on transportation,
so sometimes parents are bringing their students to the schools,
but there are some other transportation options that we have
where as long as you can get your student to a.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
School in the district.
Speaker 7 (27:33):
Yes, for example in EPISD, if you can get your
student to Cornado High School, if that's then there's a
bus that will take them directly.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
And we even have a bus that goes on.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
To Fort Bliss as well, because we both schools serve
military students.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
If that was a big part of the orientation when
I went is they they said all the different locations
that they pick up, drop off and you know all
if you have any issues, you can if that's one
of your concerns, right, they can probably take care of
it for you.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Yeah, they're very data with that.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
I think the big thing is, like I was saying,
it's college prep. And so the expectation is that we
are going to prepare students to be successful to and
through college. That is the prep starting in sixth grade,
which I know sounds really young, but it works, it
really does, and getting students ready for rigorous academics so
that when they do go to college, they're not struggling.
(28:22):
In fact, we joke that they called the Young Women's
Leadership Academy some of our graduates that are in college now,
they call it the post graduation glow Up. And they
go to college and they're like, this isn't as hard
as oh my god.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it's grain harder than the actual fright right, like.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Exactly exactly, So they are very well prepared. We want
them to succeed to We have both schools BOST one
hundred percent high school graduation rate, and also can say
that every single graduate upon graduation has been accepted to
at least one four year college. Every single graduate now
and most of them all end up going into college.
(28:58):
And in fact that the Young Women's Leadership Academy last year,
their seniors, every single one is in a four year
college or a college program. Maybe not necessarily four year,
some might be at like EPCC right now. But they're
all college bound. They're all working in that direction.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
They know.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
At the Young Women's Team Academy last year, we also
had a few students that, though they were accepted to
different universities, decided to do the military route instead, which
is also very commendable. But yeah, the college prep piece
is really making sure that they're doing pre AP courses
in middle school and then AP courses in high school.
They can also get those AP Advanced Placement credits in
(29:33):
high school, which then can help them go into college
with a few credits.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Save money their MOLT for exact parents. And I want
to give a little example because people think, oh my god,
they're already prepping my sixth grade for college. Part of
the prep is being independent and making sure that the
parents aren't doing everything for them. So like my daughter,
she chose to go to WILIY and I didn't force it.
Honors might sound like I'm just very happy she chose it,
but they have to write a letter of why they
(29:58):
want to enter. It took all of me to not
help a RCT. She has to go get the recommendation
letters from her teachers. So even if your child does
you know, decides that they don't want to go to college,
which I know is the end goal. You know, don't don't,
don't get mad at me, Joe, but no, no, you know,
even if that's not the end goal, they teach them
so many important life lessons like doing things on their own,
(30:19):
time management, speaking that if they decide to do something
else in college, they are going to learn really great things.
They're you know at these schools. So yeah, forgive me
for interrupting.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
No, no, no, that is it's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
And I do think both schools have a big emphasis
on leadership and confidence and really creating like the overall
goal in my mind is really like it's twofold, so one,
it's creating strong, independent, well educated women that will better
our community, right better their own lives, and then in
(30:53):
turn that creates a stronger community for all of us.
And I do think that it's important to know that
some of ustudents will be the first in their families
to graduate from high school and many will be the
first to attend college in their families.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And you know, in this school, again, the orientation is
fresh off of my head. They were talking about, you know,
a lot of leadership roles, especially in school presidents whatever
are from male, but here all the leadership roles are females,
so they see it firsthand.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Example, Yeah, exactly, And I can also talk I know
where you're talking, kind of from the mom perspective. My
daughter attends the Young Women's Team Academy. So we moved
here and she started there in seventh grade, and I
really have seen a huge change in her, going from
a very shy, quiet person that wouldn't be the first
to raise their hand or contribute in class to really
(31:43):
like being the vice president of modeling un and other
leadership roles that I couldn't have imagined honestly when when
we moved here in seventh grade. And so it's awesome,
it is. I'm so proud, and I really see how
it works.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And then they have a ton of clubs. They have
you know, ban or, they have orchestra, they have golf,
they have theater, they have swimming, they have track, they
have so many of those things. And again, yeah, just
the if you want to tell us a little bit
about maybe some of the benefits of being in a
single gender school.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Sure, of course. So it's funny.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
I was thinking about this earlier when we were looking
for like the right school for her when we moved
to El Paso, I was really looking for small class sizes,
which both schools have, because when you have a child
that is shy, that isn't likely to contribute in class,
it's better to be in a smaller class size for them,
and and just like really dedicated teachers.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
That's really what we wanted. And so I think that.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
The single gender piece didn't really mean that much to
me when we were deciding on what school, But then
I started looking into more about that and what the
benefits were, and you really do see it because the
students are of course there's tons of search about it,
but the students are much more likely to contribute in class,
especially in those stem classes the science, technology, engineering, and math,
(33:09):
and yeah.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
It's all females.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
So they are looking up like the younger students, the
middle school students, looking at high school students as role models, right,
and that's what they see, and they're seeing, oh, they're
going to UTEP and studying engineering and doing this. So
it really is a nice way to see what the
future holds and be able to have like really good
female role models right in front of them.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And what I love too. What really one of the
biggest selling points for me was that my fifth grade
are going into sixth grade. Everyone's new in sixth grade
because that's where they start, right, so they're all making
friends and they have like the summer camps where they
can go and meet new people, and it is. It
is a really great school. If you want more information,
you can find them on Facebook and Instagram, the Young
Women's Leadership Academy, the Young Women's Steam Academy, and the
(33:54):
Young Women's Preparatory Network. Are there websites that they can
go to, so I'm assuming they might be on the socials.
Speaker 7 (34:00):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, both schools have Facebook, they both have Instagram,
and then the school websites well as well. And they've
been offering as you know, they've been offering tours and
information sessions. That is ongoing. So if anyone ever wants
to come out, even as a community member, even if
you don't have a student that's in fifth through eleventh
grade looking to try one of these schools, we're happy
(34:21):
to show community members around. Just even though both schools
were established in twenty sixteen and seventeen, here we still
find that people don't know about us. Yeah, and so
I'm always willing to give a student. We bring the
students out student led tour and show off the amazing
things that we're doing.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Amazing. So, Jill, I want to say thank you again
for coming. Is there anything else that you would like
to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
No, I mean just please, if you're interested, reach out
to us. We would be happy to provide more information.
They are amazing schools and we're so happy that you're
going to be joining our family.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Thank you so much, Kay, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
You've been listening to our Passo Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeart Radio l Passo. If you,
your organization or event would like to be featured on
an upcoming program, please email to epforum at iHeartMedia dot
com or call us at nine one five three five
one five four zero zero. Tune in again next week
(35:15):
for another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding
program was recorded at the studios of iheartradiol Passo
Welcome to ol Paso Public Forum, a weekly half hour
public affairs presentation of iHeartRadio El Paso for over twenty years,
featuring local news and interviews of interest to our listeners
in West Texas and southern New Mexico. All views and
opinions expressed on this program are those of the host
and guest, and not necessarily those of iHeartRadio Management and
now El Paso Public Forum.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome back to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host, Amberbanda,
and today we got more bikers in the station. I'm
not talking about cyclists motor cycles. We have Manny Big
Monkey Acosta, Sergeant at Arms for Diligence. Manny, thank you
for talking with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And we also have Luna. Luna. Do you want to
see your name because you said it differently when you
introduced yourself. I know you as Luna.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, you know me as Luna. Everybody outside of the
bike or bike community knows me as Terry Teresa Martinez.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
There you go. We had Luna here from the Ladies
of Diligence Auxiliary. Luna. Thank you if you're talking with us today.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Thank you for having us. I'm really excited to be
here of course.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So Diligence is a fairly new motorcyclist or biker organization.
And I say both because people think bikers and we're
so used to the community because many of my listeners
know that I'm a biker as well. But we're not
talking about bicycles. We are talking about you both read
Harley's right, we do all right, perfect. So we're going
to be talking about Diligence, which is a nonprofit five
oh one C three organization. Luna, I'm going to defer
(01:26):
to you first. Can you tell us a little bit
about the Ladies of Diligence auxiliary and how they support
the Men of Diligence absolutely well.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Currently the Ladies of Diligence there's four members currently and
what we do is as an auxiliary, we support the
men part of Diligence as far as community events, making
sure we stay organized, partnering with local organizations, trying to
make those connections so that we can start to accomplish
(01:57):
our mission, which is helping children in ournity.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Right, and we'll get into that a little bit more,
but like you said, it's basically you're like a community liaison.
You do the outreach. You reach out to the other
child advocacy agencies here and I'll pass so not just
you know, other bikers, but you know the child Crisis Center,
and we'll get into that in a little bit, Big Monkey,
I want to ask you, as sergeant at arms, what
is your role in Diligence.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Well, simply, my role is I'm kind of like the enforcer.
You can say, I'm just the sergeant in arms for
our president, where I'm the sergeant arms for the whole chapter,
which includes also the ladies of diligence. My role is
strictly to protect the ladies, yes, and to protect also
the members my my Also, my role is that I
(02:45):
enforce a lot of the rules on the members, including
our president and vice president. So it's I guess I'm
part of the big chain of command where it's the
president and vice president then me the sergeant arms. But
with us is that we have six members and six
are on the board, but we have two sergeant in arms.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
One of them yes, yeah, so different, big.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Difference because one of our sergeant in arms is strictly
with the president all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Smart actually yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So but my role is that I'm in charge of
the whole of the whole chapter.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Okay, and before we continue, I'm going to ask each
of you individually, Big Monkey'll start with you, diligence. What
is this group of motorcyclists, What do they do for
the community. Why was this organization created?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, this organization was created extrectly because we were a
bunch of friends that have the same mindset as far
as what we wanted to do in the community. We're
all bikers, as if you could tell, yeah, And what
we wanted to do is that we just we wanted
to help all different kinds of children, not just children
(03:59):
that have been used or have been neglected or anything
like that, but we also want to help children that
are sick in the sense of being have autism, down syndrome,
anything like that. We don't want to limit ourselves to
just once one I guess category, right, right of kids
that we can help. We want to help any as
(04:21):
many kids as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We can, right, definitely. And so the appeal there is
you all, you know, love motorcycles. And what he means
by obviously for those that are listening, they're wearing something
called cut So that's like what people call the biker vest.
You know what the patches and when you see the
costumes at Spirit for Bikers, it always comes with the cut, right,
So yes, they very much do look like bikers. And again,
(04:42):
this is an organization as you as you stated that
helps children of all sorts. It's not just you know,
the other organization that I've mentioned on ere where it's
helping kids that go to court or they're helping kids
have been abuse neglected. That's awesome. It's also going to
include kids that have been bullied, that have cancer, that
have autism, different disability right.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And also we also like to help kids that are
and I call them halfway homes, but there's also homes
for like the Shelter for Better Women. Yeah, we like
to help those kids out too, because we won't want
to see them to be able to forget the situation
that they're and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You just have a passion for helping kids, which is
something that I've been a part of the Al Passive
Motorcycle Coalition myself for going on six years. When it
comes to kids and elderly and veterans, yeah, bikers are
all over it. So Luna, I want to ask you,
in your words, what is diligence and why was it created.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So to Big Monkey's point, we all came together to
create a group of like minded individuals, someone with passion
and vision who all show care and compassion to do
our due diligence to protect all children.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
When the name Come came from, I was wondering, okay.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, to do our due diligence, to ensure that we
empower and help any kid, any child crying for help,
you know. And one of the biggest things that Big
Monkey mentioned were was the kids with disabilities. They tend
to be more vulnerable to bullying and neglect and abuse.
A lot of people don't know that they can be victims,
(06:15):
you know, because they don't.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Know how to croyas your targets.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Absolutely, and those children, we also want to make sure
that they have our support in the community, not to
mention just Al Paso, but the surrounding areas as well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, definitely. And so you know, there's the male component
of diligence, there's a female component of diligence, the females
being the auxiliary and the males being more you know,
doing more biker ish stuff so to speak, you know,
to put it into those terms, let me ask you
big monkey. From the male point of view, how does
the male like your role factor into helping the kids? Like,
(06:51):
what does And then Luna, just to put into Context'm
gonna ask you, what does the female energy bring to
this organization? So what does the male energy bring so
to speak?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, it's pretty simple because all kids, they like to
see bikes rolling around all the time, especially when they're
roaming up their engines. Yeah, it's just seeing the kids
a smile. That's what brings a lot of joy to
my heart. To be honest with you, what going back
of what Luna was saying is that the ladies of diligence,
(07:21):
they're the backbone of the men's side of diligence. They're
mainly the ones that tell us what to do. To
be honest with you, Yeah, they tell us, Okay, you
guys need to go here, you guys need to show
face here. Yeah, that's their big backbone for dyning.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So it's just like one big honey do list or that.
And I think what's beautiful is that, you know, people
have this conception of bikers, especially big, bad looking bikers,
which you can use to your advantage. Just the whole point, right,
because you want to look scary to the wrong people.
But then when you come up rolling on these bikes
and you get off and you get to the level
of the child and you're talking to them in terms
the understand, and they realize that, hey, this guy's or
girl is here to protect me. Like that removes that stereotype.
(07:58):
And then they realize, well.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It does in a sense, but not really because they
if they look like if they look at a person
like me, they're gonna say, Okay, he's just here to
just protect me. But of course, once like you said,
once I talk to them and stuff that they feel
more comfortable with me being there with them.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Make Teddy bear to them, he is.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
Right, watch out, do not mistake his kindness, make absolutely
And Luna, let me ask you what you know being
a female, being a part of the auxiliary, what kind
of energy and what benefit does diligence get from that?
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So the benefit that the women bring I mentioned the
word compassion before. As a woman with kids we can relate,
not that the men can't, because the men bring definitely
a strong sense of strength to the kids. But for
us women, we want to make sure that we show
the compassion our hearts, how we can can embrace a
(08:57):
child and just let them know they're not alone. And
you didn't bring it down to a personal level. Just
some of us women amber, you know, because you've been
in the community, community and in the biker world and
helping children yourself. Some of us have been through things
in our past, in our childhood, and we understand and
(09:19):
we can relate to what they've been through. So bring
in those personal experiences. I think personally, that's what gives
me the power and the strength to want to be
there for these kids.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I think basically a lot of you became the person
you needed when you were younger.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Absolutely exactly. People like us didn't exist when we were kids,
so there was no one to talk.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To, right And you know, one of the founding members
Tools is in here as well, and I remember him
saying that, you know a lot of times people would
tell him I wish there was an organization like this
when I was younger. And the whole point of this
show and you being here is so that not so
many people are saying that, so more people we do
know about these organizations and get help for themselves and
(10:02):
for their families. And again, if you're just tuning in.
I have Manny Big Monkey Acosta, Sergeant at Arms for
Diligence as well as Luna part of the Ladies of
Diligence Auxiliary. Now, if people wanted to become a member,
let's go for that first. How can they do that?
What are the prerequisites?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
So if they want to join, they want to become
a member, first of all, they can either reach us
via our email, which you'll provide on your say it
on your I mean Let's Protect All Children, Inc. At
gmail dot com okay, or any of our social media outlets. Also,
we are out there in the community by coalition events
or community events. They can approach one of our members,
(10:41):
our president or our vice president ewok. They can definitely
speak to the process of how to become a member.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay. And do you need a motorcycle to be a member? Yes? Okay?
Do you have I mean, I know some groups they
have like supporters. Is that an option in your organization?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yes, and that is something that we're working through as
a group. It's collective to get supporters under our wing
as well.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay. And since you are going to be working closely,
hopefully closely with many child organizations like a child crisis
center the CSF. Are you going to be background checked?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Yeses okay, yes, we have to be and that is
definitely a requirement to be part of diligence.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay, excellent. Yeah, and you know, of course, many of
these organizations, it's very they require that right to work
with their kids. Yes. So, Manny, let me ask you
on a more personal level, why did you want to
become a member of this type of organization.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, to be honest with you, it's just what Luna
was saying is that these kids are our future. I
put myself in their shoes, not just seeing these kids
go through these stuff, but if I put my daughter
into that situation. Yeah, I would never want to see
my daughter be put into those situations like that. It
(11:55):
kills me to see, you know, on social media when
when these there's offenders that are that I've gone through,
that I've been doing this and just to see what
those kids are going through, it's just it's it's heartbreaking,
you know, It's just something. I mean, you're you're a mom.
You wouldn't want something that that happened to you two,
(12:18):
you know, and I don't I don't see I don't
it's just I don't have words to it. It's really
really emotional to see or just to read about what
a child is going through, whether he's abused, or whether
he or she is abused, whether he or she is
being bullied, whether he or she is going through situations
(12:40):
like like the children in the hospital. You know this
time of year, they're not going to be able to
go to to their to their homes to enjoy Christmas.
It really gets to my heart when when I read
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Well, and then a lot of people like myself included,
there's a lot of anger around the purp, right, angry
you do something of them, some of the judge, but
then they forget that. Okay, well you're over there being
busy angry at the purp. There's a child over here
that still needs the attention and they're still going through that. Again, Yeah,
we can get angry, but then you have to be
able to show that control to go with the child
(13:14):
and hear what they need and help them in that capacity.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And the reason why we started all this is because
we want to make a difference. Yeah, I mean we're
small right now, but we want to make a difference.
We really want to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
And for those that want to join, and they're may
be worried about the commitment, the time commitment, They have families,
they have jobs. What can you tell them.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I can only tell them that you're going to have
to work at it. I mean, if they want to join,
they have to have the same mindset that we have,
the same commitment, the same passion, the same dedication that
we have to be to join Diligence. Right, It's just
not okay, you want to do you okay, come on, yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
It's not like putting on the patch and going for rides. Yes,
that's fun and we do do that, but it's it's
being committed to our mission, our vision and the message
that we're conveying is to be there for those kids
and to show face in the community that Diligence we're
out there.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So yeah, and I want to you know right now
that you have the platform, since you are new and
you are seeking organizations to work with Luna, can you
not sally yourself but yeah, you know, let the let
these organizations know, like, this is what we have to offer,
this is how we can help you.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, definitely, we're relatively new like you said, and we
are currently in the process of setting up contacts.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
But I just want to say make clear diligence is
relatively new. I know these people, they've been doing child
advocacy for a long time, just before, yes, five to
six years.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, we've been out there tools even longer. You know,
he had this passion, our president for over what ten
fifteen years something like that. Yeah, so all of us
have been doing this for a while. But our group,
our chapter is fairly new, what two months.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, that's an organization.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, So we're trying to get out there. We're putting
our name out there and we're making contacts.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
What kind of organizations would you like to contact?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Do we want any child advocacy organization. We are not
opposed to working with other bike organizations within the coalition.
We all support each other in the motorcycle community. That
is our goal is I know that any any other
biker in any other organization, they know what we're doing,
They're going to step up and they're going to help
just like we would for them. So putting that out there,
(15:35):
any child advocacy organization, any foster care, women shelters.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
About individuals say hey, you know, because I used to
have a lot of people and I still do reach
out to me on a personal level. My child's being bullied.
My child just got diagnosed with this. I know a
thea that has a child with this.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Can they reach out to as an individual as well?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yes, they don't have to necessarily be in a part
of an organization. They can reach out to us via
email or our social media. Okay, I think Big Monkey
was going to provide.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Some Yeah, our social media is right now. We have
a fan page on Facebook which is Diligence with ze
yes with u Z, and then our Instagram is Diligence
also with a Z Underscore one zero.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Zero one And of course that information will be available
on parunto two point one Sunday, ninety nine point nine
and ninety six point three k Country, Instagram and Facebook.
If you're listening live on the radio, this will also
be a podcast on the free iHeart app. Look for
the Alpasso Public Forum. There will be a description in
the podcast link. You can listen to that at any time.
And again Protect All Children, Inc. At gmail dot com.
(16:44):
That information will be there as well. Now, before we
have a couple more minutes, I'm going to ask you
to you one more question, big monkey. Is there anything
else that you would like to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
No, well, just basically, if anybody wants to reach out,
please do Please do not be silent. Do not let
these kids be silent as well. Children. If if there's
children listening, please reach out, reach out to any of us.
We are willing and we want to help. We want
(17:14):
to help.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They really do care. When I was young, I remember
finding it hard. Well, the people that are supposed to
let me don't even care. Why would they care?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
There are people that exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
There are a lot of people out there that care.
They may not think so, but we're out there. Uh
there's a you know, maybe a school counselor that can
get a hold of us, anyone that you trust. Yea,
we are people that you can trust.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Also to the agencies if they're listening as well. I mean,
reach out. We want to help. We're here to help.
Read We're not We're not here for a pattern, a background,
anything like that. We want to help.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Just like horses and music are therapy, bikes are also
therapy exactly, So just think of it as a form
of therapy for the kids. As the adults and Luna,
is there anything else you would like to tell the
listening audience.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
You know, just that I am very honored and privileged
to be a part of such an amazing organization. My
brothers and my sisters of diligence. I mean, without them,
I couldn't do what I do honestly, and Amber to
you as well.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Thank you so much, Under for having us here. We
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Yes, Luna, big Monkey and even tools off the mic,
thank you all for being here.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Welcome to the al Paso Public Forum. I'm your host,
Amber Banda, and today we have back Jill Brewster. She
is the development manager in the al Paso, Texas area
for the Young Women's Preparatory Network. Jill, thank you for
talking with us today.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Thank you, good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Of course, welcome back. So we are going to be
talking about the Young Women's Preparatory Network. It is a
state wide nonprofit that supports twelve schools total nationwide, two
specifically here in El Paso, Texas. And I want to
tell the listeners there is a little bit of a
selfish component to this. My daughter is I'm so excited
going to be going to one of the schools. So first, Jill,
(19:11):
before we talk about the two schools that are included,
what is the Young Women's Preparatory Network and what is
your role as development manager in the El Paso area
for it?
Speaker 6 (19:22):
Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (19:22):
So, the Young Women's Preparatory Network is a nonprofit. It's
a statewide nonprofit that is based in Dallas and established
in two thousand and two, so we've been around for
a while. We have public school partnerships with twelve different
schools across the state, and we are so lucky because
we do have two right here in El Paso. So
(19:42):
the Network partners with public school districts and they work
with a school that is typically a six through twelfth
grade single gender school and helps that school with partnerships
with corporations other community partners and also provide some extra
funding to help that school meet all of its goals.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So I just the questions popped into my head. Single gendered.
I usually think of all female schools, but there are
a couple all male schools.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
Is it all female for the Young Women's Preparatory Network? Yes,
you right, right, yes, And I know that there are
some single gender schools that serve males too.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Throughout the state.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I believe in in Dallas, the President Obama has his
own school there.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
For that's another free public school for boys.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Here in El Paso, we have one, but it's of
course a private right, So yeah, I mean I think
that boys definitely would thrive in the same type of
environment that single gender, but in our case, we are
just supporting girls only.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Schools of course.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Random question. Okay, So we have the two schools here
in El Paso. It's the Young Women's Leadership Academy for
the Isleta District and the Young Women's Steam Academy for
the El Paso Independent School District. Before we get in
to that, as development manager for the Young Women's Preparatory
Network is what is your role?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Sure?
Speaker 7 (21:06):
So first off, I do have a background in education.
So I was a teacher for fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What grade and what subject?
Speaker 6 (21:12):
Okay? Well all early elementary pretty much.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Oh my god, that's the hardest.
Speaker 7 (21:20):
Yes, I have taught everything from early childhood, special ed
for students that were three and four years old. I
taught kindergarten for many years, loved it, first grade, second grade,
and third grade.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You definitely have that like school teacher vibe like patient
and calm and.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
Buddy, but thank you, yes, thank you.
Speaker 7 (21:38):
So so that was my background and that's actually how
I got into what I'm doing now. So I as
a teacher, as a public school teacher, oftentimes needed things
for my classroom, needed equipment, needed things for the school.
And I started learning about writing grants that way and
being able to bring in money to the school through grants,
which then led me to doing some grant contracting and
(21:59):
moving in to a full development manager role, which is
what I do now. So pretty much my position here
in Olpaso is to work with both schools. I work
very closely with administrators and the staff, and lucky for me,
also with the students because they are what makes my
jobs the best. That's the best part of my job.
They are amazing and very inspirational every day for me.
(22:19):
But pretty much I work with community partners. I help
with recruitment efforts to let the community know that we
do have these two free public schools here in El Paso,
and also you know, working on grants for the schools.
We've received some amazing grant funding from local places like
(22:40):
Alpaso Electric.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
And Freeport Macmaran and others as well.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
So we do look for local funding as well as
statewide and national funding to help with things like STEM
for example, robotics. Both schools have amazing robotics programs. They're competitive,
the students are very passionate about it, and we have
amazing and teachers that also serve as coaches that work
with those students. Robotics equipment is so expensive, yeah, and
(23:07):
even equipment and things to fix broken equipment or to
get ready for competitions.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
I mean, it just is very pricey.
Speaker 7 (23:14):
And so that's something that I work with all the
teachers and administrators.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Like what do you need? What are the school needs?
Speaker 7 (23:20):
And how can I help you find those connections, whether
it's through donated products or grants or whatever whatever it
takes to get the students what they need.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Very well said, and I have had personal experience not
only with Jill Brewster here, but with a lot of
the staff at one of the schools, and I have
to say that you're you know, you communicate yourself very
well in your passion for the students. That is very
apparent across the board with all the staff. And I'm
not I saw, I'm not endorsed by them. Okay, people,
just you know I have experience with it and I
speak my truth. So let's go. Let's go ahead and
(23:52):
talk about the schools individually that are a part of
the Young Women's Preparatory Network that are supported by IT.
Here and I'll pass. So we got the first one.
Let's talk first about the Young Women's Steam Academy STAM.
And for those of you that might not remember, can
you remind us all Jill what STEAM stands for sure?
Speaker 7 (24:10):
It's science, Technology, engineering, art and math.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Perfect. So the Young Women's Steam Academy and EPISD. Where
is it located and what can you tell us about
that school?
Speaker 7 (24:18):
So that school is located in Central Alpaso. It's on Arizona,
it is. It was established in twenty seventeen, so they've
only had three graduating classes so far. This year will
be their fourth year, six through twelfth grade. They have
the STEAM focus, so people are very familiar with the
term STEM right, but they also include a very vibrant
(24:41):
arts program which includes folklorico, visual arts music. They are
have a very large seventy five plus student all female
percussion drumline that performs all over They were just in
the Thanksgiving parade they've performed at the symbol. Yeah, you
will see them everyone, and they'll always be in their
school colors, which are like a bright pink and then
(25:04):
a black or gray.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
But so that's so.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
It's a college prep school. They have about four hundred
and fifty students and they are both schools that I
work with are both magnet schools, meaning anybody in our
entire community, you don't even have to be in that
school district, can apply to go to that school. The
application process is very simple. It's not shouldn't be intimidating
at all. It's just one of the steps to make
(25:29):
sure that that any student that wants to come would
be successful there. So they look at a couple small things.
They do look at attendance. They look at how students
have done on the Star test, though that will probably
be changing because in the state of Texas, I believe
they're doing away with the Star test.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So yeah, they always change it three years.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
Yeah, so I'm not sure what will what that component
will be. And then of course they look a little
bit about discipline, but mostly they are looking for students
that are Both schools are looking for students that are
really interested in learning and doing their best. And also
both schools are college prep, so there is the focus
of you're going to be taking rigorous academics even starting
(26:11):
in middle school. We're preparing you to be successful in college.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So then let's actually talk about both because I guess
there's not much difference between the two other than location, right,
So yeah, it's the Young Women's Leadership Academy, which is
the SLI independent School district. That's kind of like where
I live, Like everyone knows where I live, like kind
of like by Lo, Moland and Endell. Correctxactly. And in
case you're just tuning in, I have here Jill Brewster,
(26:35):
development manager for the El Paso area of the Young
Women's Preparatory Network, which is a statewide nonprofit. It supports
twelve schools nationwide, two here in Al Paso, the ones
we're talking about, the Young Women's Leadership Academy and the
Young Women's Steam Academy. So yeah, let's put them all
together because I think the only difference, like you know,
it's the location. So yeah, again, it's a college preparatory school.
(26:56):
And with that being said, what is the difference between
that and a school that is not Magnet school? Is correct,
is the correct term?
Speaker 7 (27:03):
Yes, yes, So so both schools are magnet schools. Like
I said, anyone can apply from even outside.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Of those schools districts.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
In fact, both schools serve students coming from Horizon City
to Cannetillo. There there's we have students coming in everywhere.
Being magnet schools. We do work with the families on transportation,
so sometimes parents are bringing their students to the schools,
but there are some other transportation options that we have
where as long as you can get your student to a.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
School in the district.
Speaker 7 (27:33):
Yes, for example in EPISD, if you can get your
student to Cornado High School, if that's then there's a
bus that will take them directly.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
And we even have a bus that goes on.
Speaker 7 (27:43):
To Fort Bliss as well, because we both schools serve
military students.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
If that was a big part of the orientation when
I went is they they said all the different locations
that they pick up, drop off and you know all
if you have any issues, you can if that's one
of your concerns, right, they can probably take care of
it for you.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Yeah, they're very data with that.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
I think the big thing is, like I was saying,
it's college prep. And so the expectation is that we
are going to prepare students to be successful to and
through college. That is the prep starting in sixth grade,
which I know sounds really young, but it works, it
really does, and getting students ready for rigorous academics so
that when they do go to college, they're not struggling.
(28:22):
In fact, we joke that they called the Young Women's
Leadership Academy some of our graduates that are in college now,
they call it the post graduation glow Up. And they
go to college and they're like, this isn't as hard
as oh my god.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it's grain harder than the actual fright right, like.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Exactly exactly, So they are very well prepared. We want
them to succeed to We have both schools BOST one
hundred percent high school graduation rate, and also can say
that every single graduate upon graduation has been accepted to
at least one four year college. Every single graduate now
and most of them all end up going into college.
(28:58):
And in fact that the Young Women's Leadership Academy last year,
their seniors, every single one is in a four year
college or a college program. Maybe not necessarily four year,
some might be at like EPCC right now. But they're
all college bound. They're all working in that direction.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
They know.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
At the Young Women's Team Academy last year, we also
had a few students that, though they were accepted to
different universities, decided to do the military route instead, which
is also very commendable. But yeah, the college prep piece
is really making sure that they're doing pre AP courses
in middle school and then AP courses in high school.
They can also get those AP Advanced Placement credits in
(29:33):
high school, which then can help them go into college
with a few credits.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Save money their MOLT for exact parents. And I want
to give a little example because people think, oh my god,
they're already prepping my sixth grade for college. Part of
the prep is being independent and making sure that the
parents aren't doing everything for them. So like my daughter,
she chose to go to WILIY and I didn't force it.
Honors might sound like I'm just very happy she chose it,
but they have to write a letter of why they
(29:58):
want to enter. It took all of me to not
help a RCT. She has to go get the recommendation
letters from her teachers. So even if your child does
you know, decides that they don't want to go to college,
which I know is the end goal. You know, don't don't,
don't get mad at me, Joe, but no, no, you know,
even if that's not the end goal, they teach them
so many important life lessons like doing things on their own,
(30:19):
time management, speaking that if they decide to do something
else in college, they are going to learn really great things.
They're you know at these schools. So yeah, forgive me
for interrupting.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
No, no, no, that is it's wonderful.
Speaker 7 (30:30):
And I do think both schools have a big emphasis
on leadership and confidence and really creating like the overall
goal in my mind is really like it's twofold, so one,
it's creating strong, independent, well educated women that will better
our community, right better their own lives, and then in
(30:53):
turn that creates a stronger community for all of us.
And I do think that it's important to know that
some of ustudents will be the first in their families
to graduate from high school and many will be the
first to attend college in their families.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And you know, in this school, again, the orientation is
fresh off of my head. They were talking about, you know,
a lot of leadership roles, especially in school presidents whatever
are from male, but here all the leadership roles are females,
so they see it firsthand.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Example, Yeah, exactly, And I can also talk I know
where you're talking, kind of from the mom perspective. My
daughter attends the Young Women's Team Academy. So we moved
here and she started there in seventh grade, and I
really have seen a huge change in her, going from
a very shy, quiet person that wouldn't be the first
to raise their hand or contribute in class to really
(31:43):
like being the vice president of modeling un and other
leadership roles that I couldn't have imagined honestly when when
we moved here in seventh grade. And so it's awesome,
it is. I'm so proud, and I really see how
it works.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And then they have a ton of clubs. They have
you know, ban or, they have orchestra, they have golf,
they have theater, they have swimming, they have track, they
have so many of those things. And again, yeah, just
the if you want to tell us a little bit
about maybe some of the benefits of being in a
single gender school.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Sure, of course. So it's funny.
Speaker 7 (32:18):
I was thinking about this earlier when we were looking
for like the right school for her when we moved
to El Paso, I was really looking for small class sizes,
which both schools have, because when you have a child
that is shy, that isn't likely to contribute in class,
it's better to be in a smaller class size for them,
and and just like really dedicated teachers.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
That's really what we wanted. And so I think that.
Speaker 7 (32:45):
The single gender piece didn't really mean that much to
me when we were deciding on what school, But then
I started looking into more about that and what the
benefits were, and you really do see it because the
students are of course there's tons of search about it,
but the students are much more likely to contribute in class,
especially in those stem classes the science, technology, engineering, and math,
(33:09):
and yeah.
Speaker 6 (33:10):
It's all females.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
So they are looking up like the younger students, the
middle school students, looking at high school students as role models, right,
and that's what they see, and they're seeing, oh, they're
going to UTEP and studying engineering and doing this. So
it really is a nice way to see what the
future holds and be able to have like really good
female role models right in front of them.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And what I love too. What really one of the
biggest selling points for me was that my fifth grade
are going into sixth grade. Everyone's new in sixth grade
because that's where they start, right, so they're all making
friends and they have like the summer camps where they
can go and meet new people, and it is. It
is a really great school. If you want more information,
you can find them on Facebook and Instagram, the Young
Women's Leadership Academy, the Young Women's Steam Academy, and the
(33:54):
Young Women's Preparatory Network. Are there websites that they can
go to, so I'm assuming they might be on the socials.
Speaker 7 (34:00):
Yes, yeah, absolutely, both schools have Facebook, they both have Instagram,
and then the school websites well as well. And they've
been offering as you know, they've been offering tours and
information sessions. That is ongoing. So if anyone ever wants
to come out, even as a community member, even if
you don't have a student that's in fifth through eleventh
grade looking to try one of these schools, we're happy
(34:21):
to show community members around. Just even though both schools
were established in twenty sixteen and seventeen, here we still
find that people don't know about us. Yeah, and so
I'm always willing to give a student. We bring the
students out student led tour and show off the amazing
things that we're doing.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Amazing. So, Jill, I want to say thank you again
for coming. Is there anything else that you would like
to tell the listening audience.
Speaker 7 (34:42):
No, I mean just please, if you're interested, reach out
to us. We would be happy to provide more information.
They are amazing schools and we're so happy that you're
going to be joining our family.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Thank you so much, Kay, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
You've been listening to our Passo Public Forum, a weekly
public affairs presentation of iHeart Radio l Passo. If you,
your organization or event would like to be featured on
an upcoming program, please email to epforum at iHeartMedia dot
com or call us at nine one five three five
one five four zero zero. Tune in again next week
(35:15):
for another additional of El Paso Public Forum. The preceding
program was recorded at the studios of iheartradiol Passo
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.