Salinas Valley Dream Academy launches the school year with 100 new members.

Alisal High School government teacher Ruben Pizarro started incubating the idea for the Alisal Dream Academy started the Alisal Dream Academy with a simple idea in mind: to take kids from Salinas to President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. in 2009. 

He returned in 2013 with a group of 61 students to make a 30-minute documentary called Dreams of D.C., and had started incubating the idea to create something longer term. 

The group evolved into the Alisal Dream Academy, then the more expansive Salinas Valley Dream Academy last year; the name change was meant to reflect student members from other parts of Salinas. This school year, the Academy includes kids from all four Salinas high schools. 

Last year's Dream Academy traveled to New York and DC, and produced a 41-minute documentary about what they learned. (It's available to view on YouTube.)

The group for 2015-16 has already launched with 100 members, selected from a pool of 300 applicants. 

"College awareness is one of our focus points," Pizarro says.

Their itinerary for a week-long trip to New York and Boston scheduled for next March is proof of that. 

Stops include Harvard, Yale and Columbia, as well as the statue of liberty, the Apollo Theater and Boston's freedom trail. 

"These visits and the meetings with the minority college students who come from communities like Salinas profoundly impact and motivate the students to pursue higher education," Pizarro says. 

Next year's academy members will plan to return to Washington for the inauguration of the next president. 

The new group of Dream Academy students meeting tomorrow, Saturday Oct. 10, from 10am-1pm at the Cesar Chavez Library for a presentation on the program and a talk by Mayor Joe Gunter. The public is welcome to attend.