Weekly Media Roundup: June 3, 2020

Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito Youth Stay Active With Virtual Services, Encinitas Advocate (California)

While in-person programming is suspended due to the pandemic, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sandieguito in California is offering tutoring, music classes and sports practice to keep students engaged online. Nearly 200 students regularly join virtual music lessons through the Youth Arts Academy via Zoom, and the Clubs’ swim and basketball team members are learning about sports psychology and participating in virtual workouts. Students can also access homework assistance from staff online. “We wanted to give our youth something to look forward to, and make sure we all stayed connected. So, we asked our staff to come up with as many out-of-the-box ideas as they could think of. The result has been truly impressive,” Marineke Vandervort told the Encinitas Advocate.

Las Cruces Summer Camp Goes Online, KRWG (New Mexico)

New Mexico State University’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Outreach Center will hold free online summer learning programs through the month of June to help spark middle school students’ interest in these subjects. Using materials provided by the center, students will build rockets, complete photography challenges, design catapults, explore botany with biologists, virtually visit NMSU’s labs, and more. “Camps are funded through local and state grants that provide out-of-school time programs to K-12 students,” KRWG reports.

New Dimensions School Partners with YMCA for Summer Camp, The News Herald (North Carolina)

This summer, students at the New Dimension Charter School in Morganton, North Carolina will benefit from a robust summer learning camp facilitated by the YMCA of Catawba Valley. The camp will feature outdoor, socially-distanced fun activities as well as tutoring from certified teachers to help prevent learning loss.  Precautions will be in place due to the pandemic, such as a reduced staff-to-camper ratio and extra sanitation protocols. The partnership “will create unique camp experience for children that will be filled with outdoor and wilderness adventures, healthy fun, creativity, friendships and lasting memories,” Paxton Tallent, executive director of the Hickory Foundation YMCA, told the News Herald.

TN Tutoring Corps, Boys & Girls Club to Fight ‘Summer Slide’, News Channel 11 (Tennessee)

College students throughout Tennessee will provide small-group tutoring at Boys & Girls Clubs and other youth development organizations through the new Tennessee Tutoring Corps. A project of the Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation, Corps members will work with students in kindergarten through sixth grade on math and English language arts for seven to eight weeks. “It is fascinating to know that even in a pandemic, partnerships can be made, and what an awesome opportunity for addressing an issue which has always been there – summer learning loss – and partnering [with] people who want to tutor and can tutor, with staff that know how to direct that, with kids that need to use that,” Robin Crumley, President and CEO of the Johnson City/Washington County Boys & Girls Club, told News Channel 11.