Life comes full circle for CREST’s Torres
By CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
REED PARK For kids and parents in Santa Monica with questions about local afterschool programs and their long-term benefits, a brochure or Web site just may not be enough. Luckily for them, Adriana Torres is happy to act as a real-life success story.
Torres, a staff assistant in the CREST after-school program, grew up in the Pico Neighborhood and was a longtime member of the Virginia Avenue Project, an arts mentoring nonprofit for at-risk youth in Santa Monica. Torres’ experiences at the Virginia Avenue Project were so powerful that she has devoted her career to helping other local youth like her instructors helped her.
“I was a very shy girl,” Torres said. “The Virginia Avenue Project exposed me to meeting new people and doing something I wouldn’t normally do on my own.”
Torres, now 26, was a quiet 11-year-old with low self-confidence when she first signed up for classes at the Virginia Avenue Project. Her self-doubt was something that jumped out at Leigh Curran, the program’s founder, as a challenge to overcome.
“She was extremely shy and self-effacing,” Curran said. “But she was always very warm and very thoughtful, which I really loved about her.”
Curran recalled Torres’ first on-stage performance with the Virginia Avenue Project, in which they acted together.
“I forgot my line and she saved me,” Curran said.“Her confidence just blossomed after that. That moment bonded us and gave her confidence.”
As Torres continued to build her self-esteem, she discovered her passions through the programs that the project offered. She fell in love with her ballet folklòrico class, so much so that she ended up teaching the class when she graduated and the former instructor left the program.
“I loved it because all the girls would get to wear makeup and wear heels, and learn the steps and real choreography,” Torres said of her time as a student in the folklòrico class. Her love of dance has proven so strong that she still helps local girls choreograph their quinceañera dances.
While some others in the program moved away to other towns and, eventually, other jobs after leaving the Virginia Park Project, Torres felt a pull to help the youth in her community the same way that she was helped as a young girl.
“It’s not that she feels like she has to give back,” said Concepciòn Rechtszajd, who has worked with Torres at Virginia Avenue Park and now at CREST. “It just comes naturally to her.”
Through Santa Monica City College, Torres joined a work-study program and tutored kids at Virginia Avenue Park. When the park closed for renovations, Torres joined the CREST team at the youth office at Reed Park.
Colleagues and customers alike benefit from Torres’ close ties to Santa Monica’s youth programs. This summer, Torres was recognized by the City Manager’s office as part of their “Doing the Right Thing Right” campaign, highlighting the best customer service among City Hall offices.
“I like it when a parent comes to us with a question, and we’re able to not only answer their question but to give them different options and work with them,” Torres said.
She found that her Santa Monica roots also helped gave her a unique view on the needs of local youth.
“I don’t only see it from the perspective of us as a city,” Torres said. “I also see how the parents would look at it, how the students would look at it and even how the companies we work with would look at it, since I worked at the Virginia Avenue Project. It’s a totally different perspective — you’re able to put everything together.”
Coming full circle, Torres recently initiated efforts to join the Virginia Avenue Project, her creative alma mater, with CREST, her current office. Starting the week of Sept. 29, CREST will offer drama classes to students at Edison and Franklin elementary schools.
“It’s not just an acting class,” Torres said. “It’s improv, it’s voice changing, it’s being creative and being able to be silly.”
The Virginia Avenue Project, which focuses on long-term arts mentoring, will work with students at the two schools for the entire school year before evaluating the results and possibly expanding the program to more schools. Curran said that Adriana’s history with the program helped to facilitate the new project.
“Adriana brings a deep knowledge of what we do an the impact it has on the kids,” she said. “She can speak with passion when she’s speaking to the school principals about the classes.”
Employees of both the Virginia Avenue Project and CREST said that the collaboration is long overdue.
“There’s no real reason why it hasn’t happened earlier,” said Rebecca Sprigg, the program director of CREST. “It just took someone like Adriana thinking outside of the box.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 15, 2008. Read the original PDF.