Snacks by Molly Tomlinson
Weekly Media Roundup - May 15, 2013
At GRLZ Radio in Dorchester, a radio station and afterschool program run by St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children, teens learn radio production and communication skills while gaining an outlet for self-expression. GRLZ Radio is partnering with WERS and providing regular programming on its sister station ETIN, and “soon the teens will be anchoring newscasts, assembling radio pieces, and handling production duties,” the Boston Globe Magazine reports.
“Children in the Tag, You’re It! after-school program at Lincoln Elementary School in Wausau are having so much fun playing versions of the popular chase game that they might not even realize how many calories they are burning,” the Marshfield News Herald reports. The popular programs emphasize getting kids active and moving, playing well together and learning about healthy eating. At the end of the six-week session, afterschool students will take home a packet with how many calories they burned and other ideas for fun fitness activities.
A mentoring program that started with five teens in Angela Nash’s Columbus living room is expanding to an afterschool program that will eventually serve at least 50 at-risk youth. A Chosen Generation “matches volunteer mentors with at-risk youth as identified by teachers, school counselors and parents, and seeks to improve their performance in school and discuss problems the students are experiencing outside the classroom,” The Dispatch reports. It aims to reduce the academic achievement gap between minorities and low-income students and their peers, increase job readiness and employability and reduce risky behaviors for teens.
The Girls on the Run afterschool program at Roseboro Elementary School in Clinton was the inspiration behind the town’s 5K May Day run. One of the race organizers, Jessica Eason, told The Samson Independent that the program, “teaches the girls that it is okay to be yourself. You don’t have to be a follower. You can step out of the box and be who you are.” The proceeds raised from the race will help fund the afterschool program next year.
Weekly Media Roundup - May 8, 2013
Two C.K. McClatchy High School seniors, John Spurlock and Keenan Harris, took first place in the policy debate division at the national Tournament of Champions last month. The win was unexpected because the C.K. McClatchydebate team is an afterschool program and has a significantly smaller budget than the private schools it was competing against. “What we feel is important is hard work and showing teams like us that are without gigantic coaching staffs or huge travel budgets that success is possible,” Harris told the Sacramento Bee.
The D.C. Council unanimously voted this week to increase funding for summer school by $4 million and to continue teaching as many city students as possible over the summer. The council added the extra funds after D.C. public schools said it would scale back summer classes this year. “The council also approved an ‘emergency’ declaration stating that all students who need extra instruction should be able to enroll in summer school,” the Washington Post reports.
Since January, afterschool students at Hoover Elementary in Crawfordsville have been training for a 5k run. The students started running after school through a partnership of Fuel Up to Play 60, Chartwell’s and Prairie Farms, The Paper of Montgomery County reports. Even after the afterschool program ended, the students kept running and training for a 5k race on Saturday. Proceeds from Saturday’s run will help the school buy equipment and fund next year’s afterschool program.
Afterschool students from Hoffman Elementary School were left scrambling when minutes before the Texas Solar Race Car Event at Gustafson Stadium, their entry was accidentally crushed by a fellow competitor. The students, with the help of their coach, stripped the wheels from a decommissioned car, applied superglue liberally, and returned to the track to place first in their heat and advance to the semi-finals. The team’s coach Patrick Ware told the San Antonio Express-News, “The most important thing I think they get out of it is how to work together. Things we have to learn as adults they're learning right there.” The afterschool students dedicated the past two months to their goal of engineering the fastest miniature solar car in the competition.
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Weekly Media Roundup - May 2, 2013
Kujanga Jackson, head of the Zone afterschool program for at-risk and under-performing students at Mark Twain Elementary in Tulsa, says he can see positive changes in students who have participated in the program. “I have a performance report that shows the students we've had in our program have improved academically, socially, behaviorally,” Jackson told the Tulsa World. “Socially, we're seeing the kids learn to function better in the classroom, better with their peers.”
Afterschool students at Lebanon High School competed in a taste-off last week. The afterschool students were challenged with finding nutritious recipes to create a complete meal. The winning recipe, mango chicken, will be served for lunch in the high school cafeteria! Organizers also announced that the runner up, Spanish chicken, will be served later this month.
Afterschool Ambassador and Dallas AfterSchool Network (DASN) CEO Tanya McDonald told the Dallas Business Journal that the Network is looking to expand area afterschool programs without sacrificing quality. The network helps 145 afterschool and summer programs in Dallas County achieve national quality standards. “As we help to create quality programs in the community, we want to work with those organizations to expand their capacity to serve more kids," McDonald said. "But we want to make sure that as spaces are added, they are high quality."
Fourteen afterschool students from the Teen Producers Academy at the Maysles Institute in Manhattan created a 20-minute film about the role gun violence has played in their Harlem community. "Triggering Wounds" premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Documentary in the "Our City, My Story” youth showcase.
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learn more about: Afterschool Ambassadors Nutrition Academic Enrichment Youth Development
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Weekly Media Roundup - April 24, 2013
Mayors and city council members from across the country co-authored a piece on the importance of afterschool programs in Education Week. It said: “For our cities to remain beacons of hope, it is our responsibility as municipal leaders to help young people develop the skills and talents they need to find gainful employment and become successful adults in a knowledge-based economy. City leaders must work together with schools, parents, and others to help young people thrive, with a shared understanding that their success will determine the success of our cities. Maximizing the after-school hours is one important way in which city governments can improve educational outcomes for children and teenagers and reinforce what they learn in the classroom.” The op-ed was signed by Mayors Christopher Coleman (St. Paul, Minn.), Karl Dean (Nashville, Tenn.), and Betsy Price (Fort Worth, Texas) and City Council Members James Mitchell Jr. (Charlotte, N.C.) and Ronnie Steine (Nashville, Tenn.).
Using data from a survey of young people, associate director of the Center for Education Policy Research Angelo Gonzales and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico, “have identified a strong relationship between students who are involved in activities outside of school and those who engage in less risky behaviors,” the Albuquerque Journal reports. “Specifically, students who said they were involved in extracurricular activities reported lower levels of attempts to commit suicide, smoking, binge drinking, drug use and sexual activity…and significantly higher rates of daily physical activity.” The New Mexico-specific data is from the 2011 state Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey of middle and high school students.
Students from the Whitney Community Center afterschool program are walking around the playground with Boise City Council member TJ Thomson as part of a local initiative to encourage physical fitness, the Idaho Statesman reports. Boise Mayor David H. Bieter has pledged to walk 150 miles in honor of the city’s sesquicentennial.
The the Worcester Technical High School Robotics and Automation Technology Team, one of 420 teams from 23 countries, won the 2013 VEX Robotics World Championships trophy over the weekend. Worcester Polytechnic Institute President and CEO Dennis Berkey told the Telegram & Gazette, “Their world championship award reinforces the power of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] education, specifically as it applies in robotics, and especially the highly effective curriculum and dedication of the faculty and staff at ‘the other’ Worcester Tech.”
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learn more about: Afterschool Voices Health and Wellness Robotics Science Community Partners
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Weekly Media Roundup - April 17, 2013
“Detroit Public Schools plans to provide preschool to all of the city's 4-year-olds, offer music and art after school and allow schools to house educational and social services for 12 hours every day as part of an ambitious effort to attract and retain students,” the Detroit Free Press reports. The new plan also calls for a longer school day and a longer school year and for turning some of Detroit’s schools into community schools. Detroit Public Schools has lost two-thirds of its enrollment in the past decade and has a deficit of about $76 million and long-term debt of about $400 million. The district is hoping its reform efforts will enable it to keep its students and its per-pupil funding so that it won’t be forced to close more schools.
The Herald-Standard reports that California State Rep. Peter J. Daley (D) recently visited the Charleroi Elementary Center’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers afterschool program to read to students from Brownsville, Connellsville and Charleroi area school districts. The afterschool program has partnered with California University of Pennsylvania. The program includes daily skill development, individual tutoring, physical education, cultural and technology enrichment.
Some students from Access 21, an afterschool program at Haverhill High, are spending two afternoons each week painting “images of native plants such as sumac trees, and cattails as well as animals such as deer, foxes, coyotes, great blue herons, eagles, seagulls, geese, beavers, turtles and turkey vultures” on 12 4-by-8-foot panels for the Merrimack River Rail Trail, the Haverhill Gazette reports. The panels will be mounted on the back wall of a hardware store abutting the rail trail, creating an 80-foot-long by 20-foot-high mural for all to see.
Weekly Media Roundup - April 10, 2013
Children at Risk president and CEO Dr. Robert Sanborn wrote a column in the El Paso Times urging legislators to expand learning opportunities for students. He writes, “Expanded learning opportunities are nationally recognized as a key strategy to improve academic achievement and the overall success of youth. Texas has the opportunity during this 83rd legislative session to continue the dialogue on expanded learning opportunities for our students, following Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's interim charge from last session to study after-school and extended learning time programs.”
Agricultural Corporation Monsanto has donated $500,000 to the National 4-H Council to expand the group’s National 4-H Volunteer Initiative, which provides the organization’s 540,000 volunteers with training, and will fund pilot volunteer-related programs in Illinois and Iowa, the St. Louis Business Journal reports.
This week the York Daily Record profiled the Mighty Dantz Team, an afterschool program that offers dance and life lessons to girls in fifth to eighth grade in York. The program was started after New Hope won a GoGirlGo! Pennsylvania Grant from the Women's Sport Foundation and The Hershey Co. in December. Three days a week, in addition to dance training, the girls get to talk about a range of issues from body image to family issues to peer pressure. Organizers are hoping to enroll about 20 more students before the end of the school year.
Afterschool students attending Modesto City School’s After School Education & Safety (ASES) programs are staying “on track and out of trouble, with statistics showing fewer juvenile crimes committed in afternoon hours where the programs are in place,” the Modesto Bee reports. Mark Twain Junior High Principal Mike Berhorst said he sees the afterschool program making a difference for students. “I do see a difference in the culture. Higher expectations, more support. This is something they cherish.”
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learn more about: Health and Wellness Arts Community Partners
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Weekly Media Roundup - April 3, 2013
Students in Anderson’s Park Place Community Center’s After School Fun program are using photos and videos to capture their lives. The students then write stories to go with their photos. “Amrutha Pulikottil, operations manager of Fireside, said they want the students to leave with better communication skills crucial to doing well not only in the classroom and future workplace, but life,” and promote students’ self-discovery and self-confidence, The Herald Bulletin reports. At the end of the program, students will post their photos and videos in a blog for the public to view at www.storytellersofanderson.tumblr.com.
Afterschool students in J.J. Jones Intermediate School’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program use the Iditarod to learn how to work together as a team and hosted their own mini-Iditarod on the school’s walking trail. Students followed news of the race online using GPS trackers and hosted their own version of races—Simon Says with musher commands, warm clothes relay race, checkpoints to monitor the dogs’ health, and more.
To raise awareness and money for the Sussex Family, YMCA 61-year-old Jack Vassalotti walked the width of Delaware last week. Vassalotti is a board member of the YMCA and heads its Strong Kids campaign, which raises more than $100,000 annually to provide financial assistance for underprivileged children to participate in the nonprofit’s youth activities.
Weekly Media Roundup - March 27, 2013
“Two Tazewell County Sheriff’s deputies took students of the after school program at North Tazewell Elementary School by Storm ... and by Evo ... Friday afternoon as two Tazewell County sheriff’s deputies and their K9 partners demonstrated their combined talents for detecting drugs and following commands,” the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. Officers explained how and why they use Evo and other dogs to help detect drugs and answered questions from students.
“Mr. Science” paid a visit to the afterschool students at James A. Cawood Elementary School’s 21st Century Community Learning Center this week to showcase some hands-on experiments. Using toilet paper and a leaf blower “Mr. Science” explained flight and used household ingredients to teach students about electricity. Fifth-grader Elizabeth Inman told the Harlan Daily Enterprise, “He is so much fun. He teaches us about erosion, balance, good structure, how water moves and how air pushes things. He shows us how things work instead of talking about it or reading it in a book. He shows us detail.” “Mr. Science” is an award-winning science educator and author Jason Lindsey of Paducah.
In response to the investigation fraud allegations at some of Florida’s private tutoring firms, Florida Afterschool Network CEO Larry Pintacuda argues that allocating funds for high-quality afterschool programs could be a better way to spend state funds. In the Tallahassee Democrat he writes: “While tutoring can be a powerful tool for many children, quality after-school programs provide opportunities that not only support children’s cognitive development, but their physical, social and emotional development as well… Children attending quality after-school programs attend school more regularly, perform better on tests, have fewer behavioral problems and are less likely to use tobacco, alcohol or drugs. Quality after-school programs also provide a safe, nurturing environment that decreases the likelihood that children will become victims or perpetrators of criminal activity.”
Last week, 150 T-Mobile employees and city workers volunteered and painted and refurbished the Mission Boys & Girls Club. Volunteers painted murals of trees, athletes, spaceships, stars and more on the walls of the club, landscaped and added planters, organized the library, and moved in new furniture. T-Mobile donated a 50-inch TV, a couch, chairs, rugs and food machines as a part of its Huddle Up program, which works with afterschool programs in high-need areas, The Monitor reports. The activity was coordinated through the Corpsgiving program which helps companies volunteer in their communities.
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