Celerity Dream Project

For the past 8 months, a group of eighth grade students at The Celerity Nascent Charter School in South Central Los Angeles have been "thinking and acting globally" by participating in The Dream Project – an offshoot of The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

Founded by Kelly Sullivan Walden, author, dream coach and vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Women's National Book Association, after participating in the 2006 United Nations Conference where the goals were unveiled, The Dream Project was designed to empower young people to recognize themselves as leaders that behold the potential to make a positive and real contribution to the world and to instill in them social responsibility, self-esteem, and creative problem solving.

The Celerity Nascent Charter School is the first school to take part in The Dream Project's pilot program which gives students the opportunity to address and create solutions for the issues recognized in the United Nation's Millennium Goals to combat hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination in an attempt to fulfill these goals by the year 2015.

Vielka McFarlane, a veteran educator and founder of the Celerity Educational Group, knows all too well the responsibility and fortitude it takes to make a change in this world. She mortgaged her home and acquired a building on the corner of Jefferson and Crenshaw Boulevard in the notoriously underserved South Central Los Angeles community. This is where her vision of empowering children came to life - with The Celerity Nascent Charter School.

Since opening the Celerity Nascent School in 2005 (and two more since), Ms. McFarlane has been instilling these values in her students and it's apparent in their enthusiasm and dedication to The Dream Project. With several components, all of which are being filmed and compiled for a documentary, the Dream Project has kept the students at the Celerity Nascent School entrenched in global issues for the last few months. Ms. McFarlane knows this project, along with the rest of Celerity's curriculum, will make a lifelong impression on these students.

Ms. McFarlane explains, "For us (at the Celerity Schools), the Dream Project is an implementation of the mission and vision of the school in which we talk about empowerment. This project allows the students and our community to be social engineers and control their future."

Three eighth-grade classes at Celerity Nascent were chosen to take a hands-on involvement in the Dream Project. The classes were divided intro groups of eight, each group was given a Millennium Goal and asked to research the existing problem and envision its solution. At the end of a three-month period, each group will present their solutions to the entire school.

Yet this is just one of the school's many steps taken to better the world. In December, the school was a sponsor and distribution site for a Feed the Children project that fed more than 2,000 families in the Los Angeles area and ultimately more than 12,000 throughout the nation.

The Dream Project has also brought several high profile and inspiring speakers to the Celerity Nascent School and its community such as inspirational speaker including Pulitzer Prize Winner Mohammand Unis.

Just last month, a group of students will be traveling to meet with Honduras President Manuel Zelaya to share their involvement in the Dream Project in hopes to inspire students throughout Honduras to take action and help them fulfill the Millennium Goals.

"With our curriculum and the Dream Project, we are making it know that our vision at Celerity is not to just 'help' these underprivileged children, because that's too much talk and too little action," explains Ms. McFarlane. "We are giving them the tools and the knowledge to allow them to change the world and make a difference both within and on a larger scale."

For more information on The Celerity Nascent Charter School, please visit them on the web at www.celerityschools.org.

Sara Scipioni
Vice President, East Coast Office
Steve Allen Media
914-909-0764
www.steveallenmedia.com.

When Culinary Worlds Collide Traditional Sushi Meets Market Menu at Valencia's Maru Restaurant

Los Angeles, CA – March 24, 2008 - When is a sushi restaurant so much more than "just a sushi restaurant?" When can you start with exquisite sushi flown in daily from Japan paired with a great Sancerre, followed by a local heirloom tomato salad (just picked from the farm up the road), and then grass-fed Colorado lamb loin paired with California's latest cult wines. It doesn't happen often – if at all - but thanks to Chef Jason Park, he has integrated the two worlds quite nicely at Maru Restaurant in Valencia.

Maru is a self-described "French-Japanese fine dining restaurant" using only the finest artisinal ingredients, touting a boutique wine list with highly allocated gems and a menu featuring both traditional French inspired tasting menus as well as Japanese Omakase and traditional sushi. Chef Park has found his niche with Maru Restaurant and Los Angeles is taking notice.

Maru Restaurant
24250 Town Center Dr. Suite 180, Valencia, CA
(661) 290-2595
http://www.maruvalencia.com/

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CONTACT: STEVE ALLEN MEDIA
Sara Scipioni
sara@steveallenmedia.com
Direct Line: 914-909-0764
West Coast Office: 661-255-8283

http://www.steveallenmedia.com/

Maria Shaw Headlines New CBS Radio Show, Psychic Radio

Los Angeles, CA – April 10, 2008 - Celebrity Astrologer Maria Shaw is headlining CBS radio’s new Psychic Radio Network (http://www.psychiconair.com/), a 24-hour online radio network with her live call-in show, The Maria Shaw Show.

This new worldwide CBS Radio-owned network will stream programming devoted to the burgeoning metaphysical and new age markets. The CBS-owned radio station WYCD out of Detroit, MI, is the home of the Psychic Radio Network. The network will be streamed worldwide through http://www.psychiconair.com/ and through all CBS Radio Streaming players including WYCD and http://www.wycd.com/.

The Maria Shaw Show airs daily from 9 am to noon and again from 9 pm to midnight EST. As the star of the Psychic Radio Network, Maria Shaw will allow listeners and fans to call-in and share their personal experiences with ghosts, intuition, karma and spirituality.

Maria Shaw is America’s top celebrity astrologer. Whether you’re a faithful reader of her popular horoscope column in the National Enquirer, tune into her radio talk show on CBS Radio in Detroit or catch her guest appearances on national television; she’s a voice in the metaphysical world that millions have come to know and trust. She has nine books to her credit, published in six languages including Soul Mates and Cell Mates and The Enchanted Soul. Maria has appeared on VH1, MTV, Fox News, The Tony Danza Show, SoapNet, The Anna Nicole Show, The Oxygen Channel, Life and Style and many other programs. She is a regular contributor to more than sixty radio stations across the country and also writes columns for Soap Opera Digest and Complete Woman. Maria has been featured in hundreds of magazines and newspaper articles and her weekly forecasts reached 69 million homes as the TV Guide Channel astrologer. Currently, Maria is touring across the county, promoting her latest book Maria Shaw’s Sun Signs.

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CONTACT: STEVE ALLEN MEDIA
Steve Allen
media@steveallen.net
Direct Number: 661-255-8283
East Coast Office: 914-909-0764
www.steveallenmedia.com