Union City REALTOR trying to raise home values.
Date 10/25/10
New Haven Unified Dictionary Drive 2010 - Over 900 Dictionaries & Thesauruses Delivered
A local real estate agent trying to drive up home values in Union City, donates over 900 Dictionaries & Thesauruses to every 3rd grader in New Haven Unified School District this year. This is the fifth year, Sunil Sethi, broker/owner of Sunil Sethi Real Estate has taken responsibility to donate dictionaries to all the 3rd graders in the school district covering all of Union City and part of South Hayward. Mr. Sethi, got involved with the program because he liked that it showed REALTORS are interested in improving the performance of local schools and when that happens home prices rise. When I first met with Rick LaPlante over at New Haven Unified 5 years ago, I was bit nervous taking on the responsibility to find sponsors to find dictionaries for all the kids. Each year it has become harder to find sponsors. This year, I had only 3 co-sponsors, the Fremont Elks Lodge, Steven Fong – a fellow REALTOR, and Kristie Turner Insurance Agency, Inc.
“When the order form for the dictionaries came around this year, I decided that I wanted to do something special because the kids had done so well on their standardized tests last year”, said Mr. Sethi. Last year the students at Hillview Elementary saw their average API scores rise 41 points (Steven Fong also teaches at Hillview Elementary, and has been involved with the Dictionary Project since its beginning), and at Delaine Eastin the average API rose 32 points. “Those are huge achievements”, crowed Mr. Fong. Hillview Elementary implemented a number of new programs last year which paid off. These new programs are being implemented in the other schools in the district this year.
So this year, to reward the students for their achievement, we purchased Thesauruses as well as dictionaries. We also ordered a more comprehensive dictionary. “There’s nothing more frustrating than not find the word you’re trying to look-up in the dictionary. Also, as a kid, I remember how useful a thesaurus was to communicating your thoughts,” explained Mr. Sethi. I’m hoping these tools help the kids do even better this year and we see similar results in this next spring’s test results.
I'm very interested in getting API scores to rise in New Haven, and the sooner the better, since higher scores relate to higher homes values. It'll help a lot of community members financially when we get home values to go up.
The financial commitment level required by sponsors was more than double last year’s amount and with so many small businesses suffering, it was hard to find sponsors. Fortunately, Kristy Turner Insurance Agency, stepped-up at the last minute as a new donor and the Fremont Elks continued to participate (this is their 3rd year helping out the kids in New Haven).
Mr. Sethi, asked the students to not write thank you letters, but instead write a letter to their principal or teacher on how they plan to be better students this year. Next year, Mr. Sethi has some other ideas on how he’d like to further build on the dictionary project to get students to think about their future.
SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE
Sunil Sethi / Broker, President, REALTOR, MBA / SUNIL SETHI REAL ESTATE
38750 Paseo Padre Pkwy Suite B3 / Fremont, CA 94536
Main 510 388 2436 / Fax 510 431 9046
www.sunilsethi.com
CA DRE#: 01173766
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