About 150 parents, teachers, students, and civic leaders are expected to attend today's Mobilization for Education Excellence summit in the Jemez Rooms at the Santa Fe Community College on Richards Avenue.

The summit runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and is designed to develop strategies for a community plan for educational reform here. It is co-sponsored by New Mexico First and the United Way of Santa Fe County, which have already joined forces to release a preliminary report for summit participants.

That report, based on about 25 community meetings with some 300 people, did not offer too many surprises: more quality early-education programming will help; reading is the main building block for academic success; parental and teacher involvement are vital to the process, and so on. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out today and how the participants work to address these issues — something summit organizers will do on Tuesday in response to today's event.

Saluting students

More and more educators, parents, and teens are reaching out to media to promote student success stories and programs. So here we go:

• Kudos to Santa Fe Waldorf's Middle School Choir, under the direction of Yelena Petrova, which took first place for the Santa Fe region in the NMAA State Choir Contest in Albuquerque and sixth place in the state competition recently.

• The New Mexico Museum of Art and Earth Now are working with several local organizations on an educational digital-photography workshop and exhibition called "New Mexico Now: Area Youth Photograph Their Environment." Starting today, teens can take part in a week of photo workshops at Warehouse 21, Girls Inc. of Santa Fe, The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe, and the Monica Roybal Youth Center. It's from 1 to 5 p.m., it's free and yes, you can still get in. Call program coordinator Hannah Yohalem at 690-8962 for information. Video projections of the teens' environmental photos will run at the museum starting in mid-July.

• Back in May students from 84 state schools (public, charter, private, etc.) collected more than 2 million coins to purchase 1 million gallons of river water for others and 1 million square yards of South American rain forest as part of the Earth's Birthday Project (www.earthsbirthday.org). Event organizers held activities and celebrations in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, with the children's contribution being commemorated through a butterfly release at Acoma Elementary School in Albuquerque on May 23rd.

• The Venice Six — as they are called — from the Institute of American Indian Arts, are in Italy as of today to take part in a one-month Venice Biennale Summer Program that offers the students a hands-on immersion into the history and artistry behind the event, which started in 1895 and is held every two years. They'll come back to Santa Fe with knowledge, cross-cultural stories, and six college credits. The six are Daryl Lucero, Crystal Worl, Dylan McLaughlin, Alicia Maria Da Silva, Brian Fleetwood, and Daniel Grignon.

It's costing the students more than $11,000 each and they are still looking for funding (IAIA came up with about $21,000). If you want to help, contact Kristen Jasna, director of institutional advancement at IAIA, at 424-2309. Visit www.iaia.edu/venice-six-biennale for information and to access the group's Facebook account. The Venice Six will also make a film of their experiences and probably screen it at IAIA.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3012 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com