Weekly Media Roundup: October 7, 2015

Pathways Program, Walk a Continued Success (New Britain Herald, Connecticut)

The Greater New Britain Teen Pregnancy Prevention Inc. program at the Pathways/Senderos Center is providing a support network for teens. Pathways works with the school system to find students from poor homes and difficult family situations who could benefit from the afterschool program, which provides homework help and places the sixth- through 12th-graders in weekly sex education classes and career-related workshops. “We don’t only talk about teen pregnancy prevention; we talk about how we have the power to change our lives,” sophomore Jordan Santos told the New Britain Herald. “I think of it more as a life class.” In its 23 years, 100 percent of the center’s students have graduated high school.

Fun Program for Math Fosters Bonds (Central Wisconsin Sunday, Wisconsin)

A new afterschool program at Grant and Madison Elementary Schools is providing math help not just for elementary and middle school students, but for their parents as well. The Math and Parent Partners Program (MAPPS) wants parents to understand the math concepts their students are learning in school so they can assist them with their homework and help kids see math as more than just a classroom topic. “Parents don’t need to understand every homework problem to help their kids; what they need to do is bring math home in their everyday life in a way that is relevant, interesting and fun,” MAPPS director Andrea Knapp told Central Wisconsin Sunday. The program provides math enrichment activities and dinner for fourth- through eighth-grade students and their family members twice a week.

‘Bionic Model’ Shares Ways for Girls to Find Confidence (South Jersey Times, New Jersey)

Girls in the Evergreen Avenue School’s GALS (Girls-Athletes/Artists-Leaders-Scholars) afterschool group recently had a visit from the impressive Rebekah Marine, also known as the ‘Bionic Model.’ Marine, who was born without a right forearm, was chosen as last week’s ‘Mighty Girl’ by the group, which means “a young woman in the community or country or the world who is doing great things,” Evergreen Avenue social worker Crystal Ramirez told the South Jersey Times. Marine spoke to the students about how to foster self-confidence, answered their questions and then taught them how to do “the walk” like a professional model.

From Chili to Chess, They’ve Got It After School at NSLA (Riverdale Press, New York)

Students at the New School for Leadership and the Arts (NSLA) can’t get enough of the school’s afterschool program. More than 50 kids are on the waiting list for the program, which provides homework help on Tuesdays and Thursdays and “activity days” the rest of the week, where students can select classes from 34 diverse offerings. The program has an activity for every niche interest, including drama, archery, computer coding, cooking, fitness, fencing and fashion design. “I want this program to be set up in a way where every child who walks in feels like we thought of them,” director Dessa-Ann Petrochilos told the Riverdale Press. “We want everyone to find their niche, that there are so many things going on that they fall into place.” The program recently expanded thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s School’s Out NYC initiative, which provides funding for afterschool programs across the city.