User:Zodiac01
D’Andre Devon Lampkin (born January 3, 1985, in Los Angeles, California) is a Criminal Justice apprentice and advocate of public school reform.
Early Life
D'Andre Lampkin was born in Los Angeles to Rosalyn Marie Lampkin and Wayne Howard and raised in South Los Angeles, California. His parents were unmarried. D'Andre has a twin brother name Delwin and an older brother name Keith who is currently serving in the United States Army.
Education
The majority of D'Andre's life has been spent in schooling. The beginning of his elementary education started at 21 Street Elementary School. Some of his favorite activies included playing in the sandbox with his classmates, finger-painting, and climbing on the jungle gym.
Later as he progressed, he went to the Raymond Avenue Elementary School. Raymond Avenue Elementary consisted of approximately 700 students. In his fourth grade year, his mother had an argument with the then new principle Mr. Kimball. The day of the argument resulted in his last day at Raymond Avenue Elementary and his first day of enrollment into Woodcrest Elementary located in on 109th Street and Budlong Avenue in Los Angeles County, east of Lennox, California.
After culminating from elementary school D'Andre went on to Audubon Middle School named after the late John James Audubon. While there, he learned the colloquialism and vernacularism of slang and a true understanding of the Ebonics language, appreciating it as a separate language of its own. At the time, it had been a topic that was being debated amongst local politicians and the media. D'Andre also participated in a pen pal program with a member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California through letter writing.
Later, D'Andre went on to the neighboring Crenshaw High School, home of the Crenshaw High Cougars. He participated in a number of school spirit activities such as Cougars On The Prowl, a school based leadership club that promoted school spirit through social gathering at all school sponsored events. He also participated in peer mediation training, which had, and continues to allow him to council fellow peers who are at risk of doing harm to each other. The training included a three-month course in conflict resolution and closely monitored hands on training. And, last, but not least, He was a representative of the Student Body Advisory Board as a Commissioner of School Spirit.
Lastly, D'Andre attended George Washington Preparatory High School. He transferred to the school at the beginning of the second semester of his tenth grade year. As a student of Washington Preparatory High School D'Andre participated in the schools Student Body Government. As a Student Body Parliamentarian, he played a very active role in formulating ideas and opinions on a number of school activities. The position was very demanding considering he was a representative of the student body. D'Andre listened to and presented their ideas to council and reported back results which were sometimes not favorable. After serving 1 term in the position, D'Andre was re-elected by his peers in June of 2002. Prior to becoming the Student Body Parliamentarian, D'Andre held other positions such as Junior Class Secretary in the 11th grade and Sophomore Class Historian in the 10th grade.
D'Andre currently attends California State University of Los Angeles (CSULA) where he is studying Criminal Justice and Mass Communication.
Champion For Education Reform
D'Andre spent a great deal of his years in High School working to expose the poor conditions of South Los Angeles schools. During his 9th grade year of High School, D'Andre joined a social group called South Central Youth Empowered Through Action, better known as SCYEA. SCYEA is a subsection of the community organization Community Coalition which prepared students to lead the fight for better schools and education. SCYEA also gave high school students the resources to be better prepared for college.
D'Andre's first taste of political campaigning occured when he participated in the Proposition Better Buildings movement. Proposition Better Buildings, (Prop BB), was a $2.4 billion school bond that allowed the Los Angeles Unified School District to repair schools within the district. SCYEA pressured the LAUSD to add $153 million dollars to make additional repairs to schools located in South Los Angeles inner-city schools which had been previously diregarded.
D'Andre participated in several other campaigns afterwards, but one of the most noteworthy was the class action lawsuit Williams v. State of California. D'Andre, along with other key plaintiffs across the state of California spent 4 years fighting for better educational resources, better qualified teachers, healthier school facilities, and smaller classroom sizes. Detailed information regarding the case was also published on the website http://www.decentschools.org.
Early Law Enforcement Endeavors and Successes
At the age of 15, D'Andre Lampkin graduated from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Explorer Academy on June 8, 2000. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has since provided many opportunities for D'Andre to continue his law enforcement studies. D'Andre got involved in Law Enforcement Exploring through the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and was originally assigned to Lennox Sheriff’s Station for 3 years. He had later transferred to the Reserve Forces Bureau to work more closely with Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department personnel to restructure the Explorer program. D'Andre dedicated six and a half years of my life to the Explorer program on a voluntary basis.
D'Andre's highest rank achieved at Lennox Sheriff’s Station was Sergeant where he supervised 15 post Explorers. Aside from his post duties he also held the collateral rank of Senior Drill Instructor, better known as Ramrod, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Region II Explorer Academy. The position required him to train seventy to one-hundred new recruits and permitted him to share his experiences as an Explorer. D'Andre's overall goal was to give the recruits the tools and skills to become future leaders of their own post and community.
While assigned to Reserve Forces Bureau, D'Andre continued to train new Explorers at the Sheriff’s Training and Regional Services Explorer Academy, better known as STARS. D'Andre also took on responsibilities such as drafting the current Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Explorer Manual, Academy Training Manual, and coordinated deployment of Explorers for events such as the televised Tournament of Roses Parade and Nissan Open Golf Tournament.
Other accomplishments included creating an identification card system for Explorers, compiled information and developed a program for the Explorer tracking system, evaluated the needs and monitored monthly stats submitted by Explorer post, and created department recognized Explorer employee numbers. Although he dropped the title of Explorer to become a Level II Sheriff's Reserve Deputy, He continued to play an active role in the program.
"We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
Fred Rogers (1928-2003)
Career
D'Andre graduated from the Level II Reserve Academy on August 28, 2006. D'Andre had previously been a Police Cadet with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employed by the Los Angeles Community College District and Police Cadet for Gardena Police Department. He is currently a Security and Guest Services Supervisor for the Macerich Company, a Real Estate Investment Trust, assigned to the Lakewood Center. D'Andre's duties include supervising Security Officers and reporting to upper management. He also hold the collateral duty of Here to Help Specialist. As a Here to Help Specialist, D'Andre is tasked with developing and implementing ideas that are consistent with the company’s Here to Help Initiative. The focus of the Here to Help initiative is to introduce the customer service aspect to the security profession; Develop a sense of pride, ownership, and service, while not neglecting the obvious need to be vigilant and “people watchers”.
Leadership
D'Andre Lampkin voluntarily participate in other disciplinary environments. On August of 2001, at the age of 16, D'Andre graduated from the Southeast Police Department ROP Academy and on July 27, 2002, at the age of 17, D'Andre graduated from the United States Marine Corps Devil Pups Academy. While at the Southeast Police Department ROP Academy he received the honorary awards for Best in Drill and Ceremony and at the USMC Devil Pups Academy and while at the United States Marine Corps Devil Pups academy, received the honorary plaque for Honor Pup.
D'Andre Lampkin, along with other peers, hold the Exploring experience as their highest achievement because of the sacrifices and obstacles they endured to make it through each of the academies. D'Andre said, "as teenagers, some of our friends would not have had the courage to do the thing’s we’ve done, accomplish the goals we have, and overcome the obstacles we faced."
Personality
Because of D'Andre successes, training, and raising, D'Andre feels that he is sometimes viewed as cocky. D'Andre openly discusses the perception of his character with hopes that others will learn from it. "My peers, and others who understand my background say I’m result driven, resourceful, hard working, and a leader." D'Andre said. D'Andre reminds people that he is a product of a single parent family, but nevertheless, exhibits a unique level of maturity and responsibility. D'Andre said, "If I dumb down what I know, those who know me say I’m giving half the effort, however, If I effectively demonstrate what I know, others will say I’m arrogant, especially because of my age." D'Andre's goal is to "find a happy medium until I become older, but nonetheless, I’m looked at as a young kid.'"
Personal
D'Andre Lampkin's hobbies include running, swimming, hunting, horseback riding, and going to comedy clubs. D'Andre also considers the career of law enforcement to be a hobby as well.
"Even though I’ve seen the worse facets of the field, I enjoy the most rewarding aspects of the career. They include my ability to help people, utilize my talents like an art form, and collaborate with others who enjoy the career as much as I do."