Right now — as in today, through midnight Thursday, April 29 – there is a competition among six very deserving high schools to bring President Obama to deliver the commencement address. Whatever your politics may be, you have to admit that the opportunity to have the sitting president deliver your high school commencement speech is one that any child will carry for the rest of his or her life. This is FOR KIDS. Please care about this.

All six schools are putting forth excellent efforts to win. One of the six schools, Los Angeles’ Environmental Charter High School (ECHS’s application video is below, along with some press from the nightly news), is the most deserving because:

• ECHS is the only environmental school in the finals.
• Compared to the other finalists, ECHS serves the highest percentage of socio-economically disadvantaged students.
• Not all the schools have random, open enrollment– ECHS does.
• And for those of you on the West Coast, FYI, ECHS is the only west coast school in the running.

You can help Environmental Charter High School bring President Obama to graduation. Voting is open RIGHT NOW at www.whitehouse.gov/commencement

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Go to www.whitehouse.gov/commencement
2. View the 6 videos (you can vote and press skip if you want to move on to the next video)
3. Rate each video from 1-5 (5 being best)
   Please give ECHS a 5!

Learn more about ECHS (and then scroll below to find out why Waxcreative cares about ECHS)

Please forward this voting information!

About ECHS in their own words: ECHS is alive.  We’re blocks from the world’s most congested freeway, yet we step onto campus with fruit trees and a running stream of reclaimed water, which was once asphalt, and we know we’re in an environment designed to envision a better life.  As freshmen evaluate community health, sophomores debate the sustainability of progress, juniors examine the American dream, and we ask, “How are we powerful?” In our urbanite amphitheatre, we showcase art, host composting workshops, and train freshmen for success at ECHS. We give tours and present solutions and best practices, so 98% of us feel comfortable public speaking. With more graduation requirements than schools nationally, we pack our schedules with AP and college courses and exceed service requirements.  ECHS is challenging; but, we thrive – we’ve learned education is empowerment and graduation is a milestone on our journey to a better world. We are 68% Latino, 20% African-American, 78% low income.  Arriving 2.5 grade levels behind peers in math and English, by graduation we outperform national averages. 92% of us were accepted into universities in 2009 and most are first in our families to attend.  We’re prepared to redefine the American Dream, rewrite our futures and heal our planet.

Kami, in her current career: the tireless pursuit of better education.

WHY WAXCREATIVE CARES:

This is a great school, and a great opportunity for kids who are really trying, and Wax cares about the future (AKA, KIDS!). I know about ECHS because my cousin, Kami Cotler, is the principal of a new start-up middle school charter, which is an expansion of Environmental Charter High School. Kami is very invest and involved in ECHS’s success, obviously.

Kami, in her previous life as Elizabeth Walton

I would also like to add that Kami, who spent over a decade in the role of Elizabeth on The Waltons, was a bona fide child star. She COULD have been another washed up, depressing story in Us Weekly, but no, instead she has devoted her life to education, especially for underprivileged kids. Go Kami! Go ECHS! Please vote.