MEDIA RELEASE
Cal State Northridge’s MOSAIC’s At-Risk Youths Come Up
With an Environment-Friendly Grand Prize Winner
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., April 15, 2008) — The road to winning the grand prize in MTV Tr3s’ "Tu Voz, My Venture" contest was paved with sustainability, fueled by vegetable oil and driven by the young people in Cal State Northridge’s MOSAIC (Mentoring to Overcome Struggles and Inspire Courage) program.
As a CSUN program that links mentors to at-risk youth with a focus on after-school activities such as art shows, concerts and painting community murals, MOSAIC schedules numerous field trips.
It was this last activity that inspired the group’s BioMotors project and ultimately its entry into the contest recently held by MTV Tr3s, a "pop culture destination" for U.S. Latinos via cable, broadcast, satellite and other platforms.
Chafing under the expense of reserving a bus for every excursion, MOSAIC was grateful when CM Concrete, one of its community supporters, donated a school bus. But another concern instantly emerged: the cost of diesel gas.
After extensive research, the youths proposed using 100% vegetable oil as a way both to cut costs and to be environmentally friendly. They began collecting "waste" vegetable oil from campus events and local restaurants such as Maria’s Italian Kitchen.
"Veggies Give You GAS" became the project’s irreverent tagline.
Intent on raising the $1,000 needed for the engine conversion from diesel to vegetable oil, MOSAIC’s youngsters diligently learned vegetable oil collection techniques, and even attended a biodiesel conference in Santa Monica. Together with their mentors, they wrote a grant proposal—complete with a DVD presentation and accompanying brochure—for Youth Venture, an organization dedicated to inspiring youth-driven social change.
Grant recipients were entered into a contest called "Tu Voz, My Venture," a partnership between Youth Venture and MTV Tr3s to address the high dropout rate of Latino students. The BioMotors project was the grand prize winner, earning $5,000 in scholarship money for MOSAIC youth members. As the centerpiece of the MTV news report on the contest, the MOSAIC mentees were filmed visiting CSUN on College Day.
"Now we use the MTV video when we do presentations," said Manny Velazquez, MOSAIC youth intervention specialist and community art director, and director of Positive Alternatives for Youth (PAY), one of MOSAIC’s community partners. "It serves as both an environmental success story and demonstrates an unexpected relationship to at-risk youth, and CSUN is the backdrop."
In fact, Velazquez originally was hesitant to support the project, only coming on board "because of the persistence of Jennifer [Roman, MOSAIC founder and director] and the kids involved with it." However, he soon was won over. "Even though [the kids] are dealing with youth issues—drugs and gangs—environmental issues are still important to them."
Velazquez pointed out that "a lot of kids at risk have concerns" about the environment that disprove unfair stereotypes. "The places we’ve taken [the BioMotors bus], we tend to brag about it, and people think: ‘Did the science department come up with this?’
"No," comes the response. "It was at-risk kids."
California State University, Northridge has 35,200 full- and part-time students and offers 64 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.