StarShine is making history happen. The vision of StarShine Academy from the very beginning was to HIGHLY educate the masses AND the elite…not just the elite. If we know what works, why don’t we use it every time for every student, for every child? Well, after nearly ten years, we know a lot more about why things don’t work for every child and we are determined to break through and help every single child get what they need to become a part of our dear American Dream, so precious to the world.

An historical event happened on Friday, December 16th, 2011. The StarShine Board of Directors met in the morning with Utah State Senator Mike Morley to hear about our vision for StarShine; to build an Eco-Village, focused on K-12 college preparatory education, community and parenting, arts, science, music and theater to be opened seven days per week from 7am to 7pm and to include a child-care center for employees and students’ families. StarShine wants to be a beam of light for other communities to use the talents within their own communities to repair and rebuild each person and each community, one person, one community at a time; to build love not fear, academic achievement and reverence for the wisdom of elders while including surrounding colleges, universities and global schools.

StarShine has created a StarShine Network to give other schools, home schools and communities the tools they need to become successful for their children’s futures. We see a great beam of hope rising from this little village and want you to become a part of it. There are many opportunities to help, no matter where you are or what you have to offer. This is a very exciting time.

The tragic events of 9/11/10 tipped-over a serious effort to change the way people look at things and to launch a new way to work together, starting with “Teach Your Children Well.” This coming September 11 Days of Peace and Sustainability, 9-11–21 includes the United Nations Day of Peace. We will combine efforts to recognize Arizona’s 100th Birthday with StarShine’s 10th Anniversary and our vision for all that is possible for America and the rest of the world. We encourage you to be a part of this history in the making.

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course. ~Peter Drucker

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928

Much education today is monumentally ineffective.  All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.  ~John W. Gardner

When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. ~Chinese Proverb

The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. ~Sydney J. Harris

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John Dewey

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. ~Ralph W. Sockman

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. ~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. ~Edward Everett

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~Victor Hugo

At a time when many are wringing their hands and lamenting the state of education a small but powerful force has emerged as a source of hope … StarShine.

A public hearing is set on August 12 at 8am at Mavery Hall in Santa Fe, New Mexico to decide on whether StarShine Academy Charter School will be approved. Anyone who can be there and provide testimony about why StarShine should be allowed to open in New Mexico, would be appreciated.

StarShine Academy Happy Boy

StarShine Academy, a K-12 charter school, opened as a community outreach project in 2002 to fulfill the needs of children and families in one of the highest crime areas in Arizona. All of the high school students had previously dropped out of school and none of the kindergartners could speak English. None of their family members had ever graduated from high school. Since then, StarShine has graduated 121 students; only 3 had previous family graduates and they graduated from StarShine. StarShine has earned high accreditation nationally with NCA and internationally, with CITA and AdvancEd, and works with the United Nations.

StarShine has provided its Teachers as Leaders Training in London, Liberia, Africa, Shanghai and throughout the U.S. We have opened model schools for refugee children, established a second pilot in Glendale, Arizona and are opening this fall in Santa Fe, New Mexico. StarShine has created a replicable model for all students to excel–and for teachers to enjoy teaching–by providing support and research for best practices, technology and the whole child, brain-based learning for body, mind, spirit, health, wealth and happiness.

StarShine Academy is re-inspiring the American Dream and will one day be throughout the United States to help improve the education system for K-12, for all kids. StarShine Academy does not drop students to bring test scores up, as is standard at many schools; we work with each child as an individual learner, as long as it takes for them to achieve greatness. This philosophy has at times had an adverse effect on the scores the school attains, but it’s a price we’re willing to pay to make each child succeed.

StarShine Academy CTDS: 078992000

This is a notification that the above mentioned School District/Charter School will be having a public hearing and board meeting to adopt its Fiscal Year 2012 Expenditure Budget. Meeting Date: 7/11/2012 Time: 4:00 PM Location: Street Address: 2801 N 31st Street Bldg:   Rm/Ste:   City: Phoenix State: AZ Zip: 85008 A copy of the agenda of the matters to be discussed or decided at the meeting may be obtained by contacting:

Contact Name: Trish McCarty Phone: 602 957-9557 Email Address: trish@eduresources.com Phone Ext:   The information above is posted on ADE’s Web site pursuant to A.R.S. §15-905(C) and is not intended to satisfy Open Meeting Law requirements under A.R.S. §38-431.02 et seq. Comments:

To See The Complete Proposed Budget Please Follow This Link:

http://tinyurl.com/starshinebudget

Stanford is an amazing university. First, the setting is stunning. Every student should be so lucky to attend a school such as this. No matter where you look, the beauty is incredible. Gardens, detailed architecture, design of everything related to everything; one just feels more special, maybe even more intelligent, in this setting.

Dr. Byron Davies, Chief Systems Synthesist, who is in charge of StarShine’s data architecture, graduated with a Ph.D. from Stanford. He was invited along with me to attend a summit of two hundred people to focus on the urgent need to fix K-12 education in America and throughout the world. The Global Education meeting was hosted by the President of Stanford, John Hennessy, and Goldman Sachs (can you believe it?) because they are both saying that for over one hundred years we have ignored K-12 and now if we don’t fix it, America will not be able to survive economically or peacefully. President John Hennessy is calling for every person in America to help K-12 teachers and classrooms as the most pressing economic problem today. He has devoted every department of Stanford to have an initiative focused on K-12. Goldman Sachs predicts that more money will be made in K-12 for a longer, sustained time than in all previous sectors combined in history. They are saying the demand is worldwide and the market has been so ignored for so long it has created an almost unbelievable upside opportunity. And it will save kids and families.

We already knew about it. Maybe it will become the “In” career for the next part of life for the nearly 11,000 people per day, turning 60 years old, with the United States alone having about 78 million baby boomers. This group is the most passionate about saving our education system and is the most educated group on the planet. And according to a recent study, if you make it to sixty years old, chances are 95% that you will make it to eighty-five, so people will need to have something worthwhile to do.

StarShine was the only K-12 school at the conference and we have nine years of statistics to prove and share what we have learned. Our great friend and long-term partner, President Angel Cabrera from Thunderbird Global Management University in Phoenix, was there for the whole time and spent quite a bit of time with us talking about StarShine. We also got to spend time with John Sperling, University of Phoenix founder, and Michael Milken, who spends 100% of his time trying to change medicine and education.

It is going to get exciting around here.

Trish McCarty
StarShine Academy

THE HARP FOUNDATION CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO:

STARSHINE ACADEMY

PROMOTION and AWARDS CEREMONY

Rainbow of Sound Harp and Guitar Recital!

Come delight in the wonderful sounds of the Harp students and support their hard work this year!

Join us on Thursday, June 9th, 2011

5:00pm

Starshine Academy Cafeteria

2801 N. 31st Street

Phoenix, Arizona

Instructor: Jocelyn Obermeyer

Assistants: John Marshall, Helen Duff

In this video I put to music some amazing pictures of amazing people who have contributed to what we call The StarShine Effect: the thing that makes emotion happen and brings everyone to the core of what they perhaps forgot…You are probably in here–if not your picture…your heart.

the-starshine-effect-6411

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” — Anais Nin

When I awoke this morning, this phrase was in my head and it made me think about our graduating class. If you have never attended a StarShine Graduation, you are missing something big for yourself. The students talk about how they managed to graduate and what it was like to grow up in their neighborhood. You only hear the routine “Thank you’s” as a quick courtesy.

Our “Sowie” logo was created by world famous, Lucid Brands CEO, Scott Lerman from NYC. Scott said that “Sowie” is a representative StarShine kid, throwing stars of hope out for everyone else. These kids inspire me every day to do more than the impossible. When I was younger, “Alice In Wonderland” was a favorite book of mine. As I grew up, I used to tell people (quoting Alice’s White Queen) “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Faith makes impossible disappear. These students certainly proved it.