Weekly Media Roundup - February 1, 2012

Maryville Students Get a Glimpse of Careers at 'Citizen School' (The Courier-Journal, Kentucky)
Maryville Elementary School counselor Kaet Barron launched a free weekly afterschool program last month to give students a chance to gain exposure to a variety of careers. This week’s guest was Hillview Police Chief Glenn Caple. “At the elementary level, the discussion about jobs isn’t always introduced as often as it should,” Barron told the Courier-Journal. “The goal is to start connecting that, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’ question to what they’re learning now.”

Houston Library Looks to Big Businesses for Help (Houston Chronicle, Texas)
The Houston Public Library Foundation accepted a $100,000 check from Comerica Bank to support the library’s afterschool program and technology needs. In the past two years the library’s annual budget has shrunk from $37- to $32 million, so library officials are challenging the Houston business community to step up and support community programs.

Fine Tuning: Memphis’ Cypress Middle School Guitar Club Teaches Music, Accountability (The Commercial Appeal, Tennessee)
A 12-member guitar club, led by Rhodes College student volunteers through the Mike Curb Institute for Music, at Cypress Middle School teaches students accountability and music and encourages students to improve their behavior during the school day. The afterschool program teaches guitar to economically disadvantaged students at their neighborhood school. “A 2009 study published in the journal Psychology of Music found that elementary-school children exposed to a multi-year program of music tuition displayed superior cognitive performance in certain reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers,” the Commercial Appeal reports.

N.H. Among Lowest Drop Outs in the U.S. (Foster’s Daily Democrat, New Hampshire)
New Hampshire boasts one of the lowest dropout rates in the nation and one principal credits afterschool programs as one of the solutions to keeping at-risk youth engaged in the afternoons. Principal Todd Allen told Foster’s Daily Democrat that: academic supports, like the Homework Den afterschool program and a Learning Lab, which is available to students throughout the school day where students can find both short and long term assistance with subjects as needed; student tutors; and a comprehensive guidance program, where counselors work with any at-risk students and connect them to credit recovery programs, alternative credit options like internships and independent study, as well as traditional counseling services, are a big part of success.