Weekly Media Roundup: December 19, 2018

Girl Power Movement Taking Hold at Sunnyside Elementary, KFYR (North Dakota)

Teacher Sara Medalen started the Girl Power afterschool program with several colleagues at Sunnyside Elementary in Minot, North Dakota in response to low literacy rates among women worldwide. The program aims to inspire Sunnyside girls to develop and achieve career goals as well as serve as champions for girls’ education around the world. In addition to meeting local women in nontraditional female career fields like firefighting, students have video chatted with girls in Haiti and raised more than $600 to send two Haitian girls to school. “They did talk about what their goals and aspirations are [with the Haitian students]. It was really cool to see that our girls wanted to be doctors, and lawyers, and hair dressers, and musicians, and artists, and [the Haitian] girls had the same dreams,” Medalen told KYFR.

Nearby Nature Encourages Neighborhood Kids to Explore Outdoors, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (Michigan)

Milwaukee’s Nearby Nature afterschool and summer programs introduce students to a wide variety of nature-based activities, from rock climbing to snowshoeing to bird watching and more. Launched with a grant from the Sierra Club, the programs aim to compensate for the lack of nature-oriented programming in Milwaukee’s urban and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Educators from the Urban Ecology Center (UEC) facilitate hands-on activities such as showing students how to examine snake skins, in order to build their knowledge of sciences such as animal ecology, meteorology and geology.  “Ultimately, we’re teaching our next generation of what we hope are stewards of the earth,” UEC Interim Branch Manager Meghan Forseth told Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

Tyer Meets With Herberg's Future Leaders, iBerkshires (Massachussetts)

In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, students spent a month researching and learning about leadership in an afterschool program that culminated in a visit from the town’s mayor. Herberg Leaders is one of ten clubs in Herberg Middle School’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. Its purpose is to help students develop their own philosophies of leadership and identify leaders they want to emulate. The students decided collaboratively to invite Mayor Linda Tyer to visit the program and discuss her leadership experience. “I have a lot of leaders and role models, people I look up to…The whole time I've been working, I've always looked for people who could help me be better at the work I am doing,” Tyer told the students, according to iBerkshires.

Food Pantry, Computer Room Planned for New After-School Program at Ypsi Township School, Second Wave Media (Michigan)

A new afterschool program in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan will serve as a hub of community resources for Brick Elementary families. Run by the Community Action Network (CAN), the program will include a technology room, a food pantry, academic support, family activities and more. Data indicates that students in CAN programs maintain higher attendance and graduation rates than their peers who do not participate, something CAN leaders attribute to the safe community the programs create. “In reality, creating meaningful relationships is a huge part of what we do,” Executive Director Derrick Miller told Second Wave Media.