Gay Geiser-Sandoval -- Educationally Speaking

This is a story about the ultimate use of thematic-centered learning.

It is also the tale of how a classmate that you meet in high school can

change your life.

Costa Mesa High School isn’t known as a rich school. So it is unusual

to think that the school’s choirs, which sell everything from candy bars

to performance tickets to pay for their outfits, would be raising money

by giving a concert so people halfway across the world can sing.

The story about how this concert came to be is even more amazing.

In 1995, Asim Babokic, who was raised in the town of Mostar,

Bosnia-Herzegovina, came to Costa Mesa High School as a junior to get an

education away from his war-torn homeland.

The next year, a group of teachers set him up for senior prom with

fellow senior Sarah Millar. Sarah spent her years at Mesa active in choir

and drama.

Even when Sarah and Asim started at different colleges, they still

remained in touch.

Now, they are engaged and both attend Cal State Long Beach. They plan

to marry in June.

Asim brought the country of Bosnia to life for Sarah, who now wants to

pursue an advanced degree in Slavic literature. When the pair visited

Mostar last year, Sarah decided she should help the Pavarotti Music

Center, located there, to accomplish its mission. It provides free music

classes to promote peace and unity to a town and country divided by

ethnicity and religion. Mostar’s river is the dividing line.

The center started a children’s choir to give children on both sides

of the river the chance to find out they aren’t so different after all.

This may let the next generation live in peace and unity.

As Sarah searched for a way to help the Pavarotti Music Center, she

thought of her high school choir teacher at Mesa, Jon Lindfors.

Lindfors turned her dream of helping those in Bosnia into a real

learning experience for his choirs.

At their school, where the blending of students from different

ethnicities and religions is a daily occurrence, they have witnessed and

will share with you, through pictures and readings, the horrors of hate

and discrimination.

They have learned to sing in a foreign language. They have learned the

history of the war there and the sociological and psychological effects

on its children. They have learned geography and political science, since

the boundaries and governments of the country has undergone repeated

change. They have learned about composing songs for a purpose, when they

sing “Prayer of the Children,” a song written as a tribute to the

children of Bosnia. They have learned the power of healing through song.

They have learned the importance of giving their talents to help others.

Most of all, they have learned how rich they really are. While they

aren’t rich in some ways (that’s why you’ll see them in choir robes on

Thursday), they are rich in stability and peace. They are rich in a

school environment that lets them learn firsthand from immigrant students

what life is like elsewhere in the world.

They are rich in the history of Mesa choirs, as choir members from the

last 10 years join in to turn singing into peace.

They are rich in having a teacher who is willing to turn a vision of

his past student into a reality.

Sarah and Asim plan to spend a year in Mostar once they graduate from

college, so this story of how the choirs of Costa Mesa High School came

to sing for peace in Bosnia may have more chapters.

In the meantime, won’t you join them for the first chapter on Thurs.

Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in the school’s lyceum?

For just $5, you can feel as rich as the choir students do.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .