Sunnyside High School wrestlers Soleil Ponce, Josiah Ballesteros and Chris Lopez are three of 131 “Dragon Fellows” across Arizona, California and Nevada who have organized and operated a Dragon Kim Fellowship Program at their school this summer.
Their program titled, “Speaking Champions Into Existence,” which ran Monday and Tuesday, consisted of a mixture of wrestling training and classroom time involving a student-agency course for the students in fourth through eighth grade.
The more than 50 kids who attended were admitted free of charge.
Sunnyside wrestlers Audrey Jimenez, Jaime Rivera and Michael Avelar ran a similar program with the Dragon Kim Foundation two years ago titled, “Counting Takedowns,” which included economics classes in between the wrestling instruction for kids.
Mountain View High School’s softball team also ran a Dragon Kim Foundation fellowship program in 2022 with economics classes mixed with drills on the softball diamond.
.@SSBDwrestling and @_SHSSoftball standout Soleil Ponce talks about her athletic career at Sunnyside (where her mom Stephanie is the principal) and her work with the free student agency classroom course and wrestling camp offered to local fourth through eighth graders at… pic.twitter.com/g0B1onWPP7
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 22, 2024
“We’re making it a point to the kids that their voice matters in the classroom,” Ponce said. “Their love for wrestling can really connect to their love for learning. Trying new things, speaking up, not being afraid to speak with your teacher — I think it’s really important to understand as a student simple things like send e-mails, take notes and ask questions.
“Stuff like that may seem small but it can really help you advance as a student and as a scholar.”
The Dragon Kim Fellowship Program awards grants of up to $5,000 to project teams who want to make an impact on their community, such as Ponce, Ballesteros and Lopez.
The 131 Dragon Fellows are leading 60 projects that are addressing the needs of their communities.
Called DKF-8 because it is the eighth year of the program, it uses the slogan, “Shoot Past the Stars.” All the kids involved in Sunnyside’s “Speaking Champions into Existence” program wore a Dragon Kim Foundation t-shirt with the words “Shoot Past the Stars” on the back.
Daniel Kim and his wife Grace created the Dragon Kim Foundation after their 14-year-old son Dragon and his friend Justin Lee were instantly killed in 2015 when a large oak tree branch fell on them while camping in Yosemite.
“They say grief is love with nowhere to go,” Daniel and Grace Kim penned on the foundation’s Web site. “Our love for Dragon needed somewhere to land. We established The Dragon Kim Foundation in Dragon’s honor to carry on his love of life, to make it possible for other young people to pursue their passions, and to help give others access to a bright future.”
All projects will be complete or have accomplished a major milestone by September. Dragon Fellows will present their project results in a celebratory Dragon Graduation at that time. Three projects will be selected from the Dragon Graduation to compete in the annual Dragon Challenge Gala. The winning project of the Dragon Challenge will receive additional funding from the Foundation.
Jimenez, who is headed for Lehigh University at Bethlehem, Pa., was one of the speakers who talked with the campers at Sunnyside on Tuesday. Sunnyside wrestling coach Anthony Leon and principal Stephanie Ponce — Soleil’s mother — also talked with the kids.
The speeches are in the videos below:
.@SSBDwrestling four-time state champion and world-class wrestler Audrey Jimenez talks with the youngsters at Sunnyside’s Dragon Kim Foundation fellowship event in which wrestlers Soleil Ponce, Josiah Ballesteros and Chris Lopez organized and operated a two-day event free of… pic.twitter.com/WAfGmoM4vt
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 24, 2024
Eight-time state-champion @SSBDwrestling coach Anthony Leon speaks to the fourth through eighth graders about the importance of gratitude at the Dragon Kim Foundation community event in which the youngsters attended classes that taught student agency and participated in wrestling… pic.twitter.com/vKxi635EtD
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 23, 2024
.@SunnysideHS principal Stephanie Ponce knows of the importance of sports on youth in the community having played for Flowing Wells’ state championship softball teams under Armando Quiroz in 1999 and 2000. Her daughter Soleil is one of three wrestlers at Sunnyside who organized… pic.twitter.com/SZgaIYCp1w
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 23, 2024
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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