CALSA Summer Institute 2025

Immediately following our Problem of Practice Luncheon, stay with us for a powerful Spotlight Session featuring actor, director, producer, and humanitarian Edward James Olmos as he presents the transformative work of the Youth Cinema Project (YCP)—a program of the Latino Film Institute that engages students in hands-on filmmaking and prepares them for careers in entertainment and tech.
Mr. Olmos will be joined by LFI CEO Axel Caballero; Rachel Raimist, Ph.D., director, professor, and mentor; Dr. Raul Maldonado, Superintendent of Palmdale School District; and Dr. Karling Aguilera-Fort, former Oxnard School District Superintendent and current San Francisco Unified School District Deputy Superintendent.
The session includes a short screening and a panel discussion highlighting YCP’s academic impact, alignment with A-G/CTE pathways, and its role in empowering youth voice. Stanford University’s Center for Assessment Learning and Equity (SCALE) studied YCP and concluded that its curricular and instructional program implements research-based best practices supporting both academic and social-emotional learning and can close performance gaps, build socially and emotionally competent students and “change[ing] the trajectory of diverse students’ lives in ways we are only beginning to imagine.”