POPS is now a program of The Pathfinder Network.
When Kate Savage met POPS co-founders Amy Friedman and Dennis Danziger, they were years away from launching their first POPS club, but a friendship quickly developed. An accomplished visual artist , Kate had already been teaching art to teens for the years as her mindfulness practice and training began to grow. In 2017, when POPS
Like many POPS 'students, Fran had an inconsistent relationship with her father growing up. She was always interested in education-her mother and aunt were educators-and even when she landed a coveted writing position on the critically-acclaimed HBO show Insecure, she still found herself asking: "Am I making any kind of difference?" out several possible volunteer
Author, and Boston native, Claire LaZebnik thinks what motivated her to volunteer for POPS the Club was both "practical" and "emotional." Practically, she was recruited by a friend, and was "sold instantly" on the ideas of working with youth affected by mass incarceration. But that practicality had an underlying emotional core. After the 2016 election,
Michelle Lee is an English teacher at Lawndale High School where she also serves as the sponsor for POPS Lawndale. One of Michelle’s most memorable encounters with the prison system came in the form of a former student’s comment. “I’d write to my dad,” he said, “if I knew how to get a letter
Fernando Lopez became part of the POPS family before there even was a POPS. Over a decade ago, he was a student of Dennis Danziger (POPS’s co-founder), who was his English teacher at Pacific Palisades High. Fernando and his sisters now own and operate the celebrated Oaxacan restaurant “Guelaguetza”—winner of the James A Beard
Stacey Cohan has the distinction of being the first and longest serving POPS the Club volunteer; she began at Venice High and currently works with students at El Camino Charter High POPS. Stacey describes what initially drew her to the club as either "kismet" or "fluke." She heard a piece about POPS the Club
James De Larme, the POPS the Club teacher sponsor at El Camino Real Charter High, first learned about POPS from his wife, Karie DeLarme, who works with at-risk and homeless youth through LAUSD’s Homeless Education Department . Since the fall of 2016, James has led POPS the Club on El Camino’s campus, a group
