Episode 1: It Takes a Village

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Michael Tubbs’ family and Rebekah Fenton

The Mayor’s Village

In this episode we feature the voices of City of Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs’ Mother Racole Dixon, Grandmother Barbara Nicholson, and Aunt Tasha Dixon on their family legacy of community service as well as Michael Tubbs’ college friend Rebekah Fenton on the founding of the Phoenix Scholars program.

Barbara Nicholson

I have lived in Stockton over 40 years. I am a retired county worker, Human Service Agency. I do volunteer work in serving the homeless for various nonprofit agencies. Also nursing homes. Also am an active member at my church. I am very proud of the success of my daughters and grandchildren. I give God all the glory. I am patiently waiting for great-grandchildren!

Tasha Dixon

Tasha Dixon is a Stockton, California native. She works at San Joaquin Delta College as a fiscal Assistant. Tasha is heavily involved at her church, the Congregation of Zion. She is the pastor’s assistant, children’s church teacher and financial officer. Tasha is the mother of two beautiful daughters and aunt of two handsome nephews.

Rebekah Fenton

Rebekah Fenton a pediatrics resident at Seattle Children’s Hospital and longtime friend of Michael Tubbs, shares her insights into both her support of the creation of the Phoenix Scholars as well as Michael Tubbs’ drive to support access to a college education for low-income first-generation minority high school seniors.

The Phoenix Scholars is the model that Michael Tubbs utilized to create the Stockton Scholars which is a guaranteed college scholarship for any Stockton Unified School District graduate. The Stockton Scholars is a program of the Reinvent Stockton Foundation which Michael Tubbs created and is managed by Michael Tubb’s friend, associate and Stockton Unified School District Trustee Lange Luntao. Please listen to both Episode 5 [Link to Episode 5 landing page] to find out more about Mayor Tubbs’ and Trustee Luntao’s efforts to address the Stockton Unified School District problems.

Dr. Rebekah Fenton grew up in Sacramento, CA and obtained a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. At Stanford, she met Michael Tubbs and he invited her to help high school seniors apply to college. His idea became The Phoenix Scholars, a non-profit organization that pairs Stanford undergraduates with high school seniors from low-income, underrepresented minority backgrounds apply to college and often become the first in their families to attend a four-year institution. She served as Director of Mentor Development for 3 years in addition to personally working with four incredible mentees. She is now a 3rd year Pediatrics resident training at Seattle Children's Hospital with a plan to specialize in Adolescent Medicine and focus on marginalized youth communities, including gender-nonconforming and homeless youth.

More about Rebekah

Despite doubts and hurdles, why medicine is a calling for Penn Med student:

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthcare/On-the-eve-of-Match-Day-a-Penn-student-.html?arc404=true

Rebekah Fenton’s Medical Publishings:

Weaponizing Social Media and its real world consequences: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/655824435/the-weaponization-of-social-media-and-its-real-world-consequences

“What Options Do I Have?”: Qualitative Analysis of Comments by Transgender Youth and Their Families on Adolescent Health Blog: https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(17)30617-1/abstract

Listen to Teenagers: Gun Violence is a Public Health Problem: https://medium.com/@rdlucien/listen-to-teenagers-gun-violence-is-a-public-health-problem-2eb279b56c31

When Doctors Unlearn English: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0825859718795438

As med school swells vocabulary, plain English can wither: https://newsroom.uw.edu/postscript/med-school-swells-vocabulary-plain-english-can-wither

Medical education systematically ignores the diversity of medical practice: https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/01/medical-education-systematically-ignores-diversity-medical-practice.html

The Phoenix Scholars

The Phoenix Scholars recruits low income, first generation, and minority high school seniors from some of California's toughest communities. Over the course of a year, starting the summer after their junior year, our scholars will work with their undergraduate mentors to build college lists, prepare for standardized tests, obtain financial aid and scholarships, draft essays, and submit college applications.

Find out more about Phoenix Scholars: http://www.phoenixscholars.org/our-program.html

Apply to Phoenix Scholars: http://www.phoenixscholars.org/apply.html