The Green Rockets Rising afterschool program was recently visited by Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne, who praised the impact the program has on students at Morristown Central School. “This is fantastic. You are doing a lot of stuff that teachers used to be able to do during the school day,” she told the staff during her visit. According to North Country This Week, the program offers students homework help, healthy snacks and a variety of clubs that focus on students’ interests. Funded by the Empire State After-School Program Grant, the program boasts clubs that focus on STEM subjects, journalism, boating, literature, cooking, wellness and many more subjects the children enjoy.
In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps afterschool and summer program has nature on the curriculum. Participants’ ages range from as young as 11 to as old as 25, and activities range from more traditional educational programming to programs with a larger civic engagement component. Participants even get to work with federal agencies such as the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service. “I can't think of an organization that has accomplished so much as the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps,” RMYC Board chairman Margi Briggs-Casson told the Steamboat Pilot & Today.
Capitol Music Group Graduates Inaugural Bonus Tracks Class (Billboard)
The large record label Capitol Music Group recently launched Bonus Tracks, a 10-week afterschool program in Dominguez High School in Compton, California. The program aims to introduce students to the excitement of working in the music industry in general and specifically at a record label. “Students’ passion for learning about the industry translated into a real commitment to the program,” Brian Nolan, senior vice president of Capitol’s sync licensing and brand partnerships department seventeenfifty, told Billboard. Funded by big-name artists such as Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar, the program gave underprivileged students in the school district a unique platform to break into the industry and develop a passion for production.
Tanner Students Explore Geology at Summer Camp (News Courier, Alabama)
At Tanner Elementary School in Athens, Alabama, summer campers recently got the opportunity to learn about geology from Dawn Hagood, a local gemologist. She taught the children how to identify gemstones that they find, what their birthstones were and how the gems are made into rings and other jewelry. Throughout the rest of the camp, which is funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, the children will also be able to explore Cathedral Caverns and put their newfound gem knowledge to use. As fifth-grader Jason Novalis told the News Courier, “[Gemology is] something I had never heard of. But, now that I know what a gemologist does, it seems like something I could get into.”