salon SANDOVAL 3703 east indian school ❙ phoenix, az 85018 ❙ 602.957.9910 ❙ www.salonsandoval.com ©Aveda Corp. Check out the salon’s reviews on and Page 49 July 2015 By Jenet Simmons This story starts with a young lady who’s been working at the Boys & Girls Club of Arizona, in the Paiute Neighborhood Center for 10 years. Lucia Mundo-Garcia is dedicated, hard working and inspired by the children she sees daily. She pours her energy and encouragement into them without looking for recognition. Lucia was recently made aware of an ASU program, SPARKS. She desired to bring more arts and enrichment classes to the Paiute center through the Boys & Girls Club of Arizona. SPARKS stands for S t u d e n t s P r o v i d i n g Awareness Resources and Knowledge to Start college. It is a community service organization at ASU. Their mission is to inspire underrepresented (low- income and minority students) K-12 students to prepare for college success. Lucia connected with SPARKS and put a plan into place to work with the Paiute center. ASU theater students came to the Paiute center in South Scottsdale to work with the fourth- through sixth-graders. It was a one- day workshop of creative writing. As an option of enrichment that day, children had the choice to attend this workshop. They had freedom in this assignment: Write creative, short stories. Fifteen students arrived with curiosity. One of the students was Luis Zuniga. In fact, he was the only boy that made an appearance. A fifth-grader at Tavan Elementary School, Luis recalled his short story with vivid detail. A story that centered on something he loves: animals. This story has a complex plot, a surprising ending and an out-of-the-box imagination. It begins with a wizard and a field of animals. “The wizard is powerful and in full control of the animals’ comfort in life,” says Luis. The wizard’s power could turn animals into humans. The humans sought out the wizard in the winter or summer to bring them comfort. In the summer, humans could escape the heat by asking the wizard to turn them into fish to feel cooled and refreshed. In the winter, a human asked the wizard to be turned into a lion for warmth. At the end of this delightful story a normal human came to the wizard and found comfort in just being himself. The story may have been short, but it was bursting with details. When this workshop was originally created, the students from ASU told the Tavan Elementary students that a few of the short stories would become plays, performed by the ASU students. However, there were no promises and the college students visited many schools and after-school programs, so the competition was high. Later, Luis heard that the ASU students selected his short story. They planned to come to Tavan Elementary and the Paiute center to perform. In April, Luis saw his short story turned into a play, twice. “It was fun and the story was funny to me,” Luis said, beaming with a smile. Although a shy fifth-grader, he grew excited in retelling the details of his short story. With six animals at home, two puppies, two goldfish and two Australian birds, Luis has plenty of animal inspiration in his midst. The play was appropriately titled, The Wizard of Animals . “When they told me a few kids were selected, I was proud of them,” said Lucia. “It was nice to see the response of everyone, but mostly Luis’ reaction when the audience appreciated and l a u g h e d . P o s i t i v e reinforcement is always a good thing.” Lucia hopes to continue working with the collaboration of ASU and the SPARKS outreach program in the future. She was happy to see the joy the students from ASU brought with them. “At first I didn’t know what job I’d like to do, but after this,” said Luis. “I know I like to write and I like math. I decided I’d like to be an engineer.” ASU inspires youth through creative writing Luis Zuniga stands with his teacher, Lucia Mundo-Garcia who helped turn his play into a live performance. At first I didn’t know what job I’d like to do, but after this, I know I like to write and I like math. I decided I’d like to be an engineer. ” ‘‘