Weekly Media Roundup: May 23, 2018

Express Yourself Milwaukee 'Moves It!' and Makes Magic (WUWM, Wisconsin)

During the afterschool program Express Yourself Milwaukee, artist and coordinator Holly Haebig teaches students how to perform, dance and express themselves. Students in the program are currently preparing for their end-of-year performance “Move It!” at the Miller High Life Theater, which aims to encourage people in the community with ideas to embrace them and improve the world around them. “When you hold these high standards up to children, they always will rise to the occasion if you stick with them. And that is so powerful to me,” Haebig explained to WUWM.

These Middle-Schoolers Explore the World on A Plate (Washington Post, District of Columbia)

In a small cafeteria at the Washington School for Girls, students have spent the past year learning how to prepare foods from around the world through the afterschool program Cooking Skills and World Cuisine. During the yearlong afterschool class, under the direction of chef instructor Patrick McDermott, these young chefs sliced, diced, sautéed and tasted a different culture’s food each class, gaining their own culinary skills along the way. For students like 12-year-old Za’Niyah Martin, it’s a social experience as well. As she told Washington Post, “I love making food with my hands and then sharing it with my friends.”

Chicago Youth ‘Empower’ Their Voices in Original Opera at The Lyric (Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois)

The EmpowerYouth! afterschool program is introducing youths in the south side of Chicago to the unfamiliar world of opera. Youths in the program have helped to compose their own opera (named “Empower!”), found their places (whether on or backstage) and worked to bring the energy and culture of opera to their community. “I think for a lot of these young people it’s not the fact that they’re not interested [in opera], it’s the fact that they don’t have access [to it]. They don’t have the opportunity,” Kendrick Armstrong, conductor and music director of the afterschool program, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Apple Coding to Be Taught at Birmingham Summer Camps (AL.com, Alabama)

After school lets out this summer, Birmingham City Schools students will keep learning valuable STEM skills through Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” curriculum. The city is planning to host several free, weeklong sessions for middle- and high-school students to learn the basics of coding and build towards making apps of their own. Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin explained to AL.com, “We're committed to training the next generation of businessmen and businesswomen to be competitive and digitally savvy so that they can push our city to the next level.”