Following last year’s first place finish, a team of students from Phoenix House Academy of Los Angeles competed in the 2010 Los Angeles County Office of Education Academic Bowl. While they did not win this year’s competition, the residents at Phoenix House Academy were proud to see that this year’s Academic Achievement Trophy was handed out in memory of one their team members from last year, Samantha Sandoval. Samantha, who tragically was run over by a car and killed in October 2009 after completing her stay at Phoenix House, was represented by her parents. As the trophies were handed out, Samantha’s mother said in Spanish, “My daughter said that through her experience she discovered herself … her self- worth.”
Each year, Phoenix House Academy provides residential treatment and schooling to over three hundred teens who, like Samantha, suffer from co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders and their related problems. Click here to see the articles that appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times about this year’s Academic Bowl.