Weekly Media Roundup: May 27, 2020

L.A. School District Plans Star-Studded Summer Learning for Students — with James Cameron Teaching ‘Titanic’ and a Book Group with Alicia Keys and Others, The Washington Post

This summer, students in Los Angeles will learn to draw and animate from the studio behind “Despicable Me,” take online guitar lessons and receive free instruments from Fender Musical Instruments Corp.,  explore physics and biology in a class on the Titanic led by director James Cameron and more. Los Angeles Unified School District designed the unique summer learning program to help students discover new interests and continue learning while in-person programming and schooling is suspended due to the pandemic. “We have to meet [students] where they are, or we’ll never get better,” Superintendent Austin Beutner told the Washington Post. “And there’s never been a time when it’s more important to meet them where they are.”

Chester Eastside Educational Program [Goes] Virtual, Delco Times (Pennsylvania)

In the Chester Eastside Inc.’s (CEI) Virtual Out of School program in Chester, Pennsylvania, students are assigned to volunteer coaches who lead them through fun, engaging literacy games and lessons online. The program also offers remote literacy instruction from professional teachers. Staff are on-call each weekday to help students with homework. “Our program is named Phoenix after the legendary bird that rises from the ashes,” CEI Program Consultant Elizabeth Doherty told the Delco Times. “We took it as a challenge to continue it while the children are not in school so they can rise beyond the pandemic.”

Area Youth Pitch Creative Ideas for Young Entrepreneur Pitch Challenge, KMMO-FM (Missouri)

This spring, the Missouri AfterSchool Network, the Young Entrepreneur Institute in northeastern Ohio, and Missouri 4-H collaborated to host a Young Entrepreneurs Pitch Challenge for students ages five to 17 in the state. Students recorded and submitted short videos pitching original ideas for businesses and a panel of community entrepreneurs, University of Missouri campus and extension faculty, and graduate students judged them. Winning pitches included a single device that serves as a plunger, toilet brush, container and cleanser and a bracelet that alerts law enforcement to violence and crime. “Developing an entrepreneurial mindset will give [students] the essential skills for their future success,” Mark Cowsert, Missouri AfterSchool Network associate director of policy and partnerships, and an Afterschool Ambassador for the Afterschool Alliance, told KMMO-FM.

UrbanPromise Charlotte Vows to Reach, Raise, Restore Community, WSOC-TV (North Carolina)

UrbanPromise Charlotte provides robust afterschool and summer programming to nearly 300 low-income kindergarten through eighth grade students in North Carolina. The organization recently received a $20,000 grant from the United Way of Central Carolinas and Foundation For The Carolinas’ COVID-19 Response Fund. UrbanPromise Charlotte will use these funds to pay high school students in its Street Leader program to serve as mentors and counselors in a virtual summer learning program. “It’s important to support the individual development of our youth at every stage, especially as we look to them as future leaders within our community,” Laura Yates Clark, president and CEO for United Way of Central Carolinas, told WSOC-TV.