Passion and Purpose celebrated at Citizen Schools New York WOW!NOW
On Tuesday, June 11th, Citizen Schools New York hosted our first annual WOW!NOW breakfast event. We invited all of the friends and families of Citizen Schools, including our corporate and foundation partners, our AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows and other staff members, our students and their family members, and our wonderful Citizen Teachers. The event included a showcase of our students’ great work from their semester-long apprenticeships, as well as a seated breakfast and program, during which we heard from some key members of the CS community.
The showcase featured projects from such apprenticeships as Google’s Lego Robotics and Pencil Code, Skadden Debate, and Documentary Film. Students had the opportunity to display and share their work with attendees, and speak about their experiences with Citizen Schools. Guests were invited to ask questions, learn more about our organization, and see firsthand the incredible work that our students created under the guidance of our Teaching Fellows and Citizen Teachers in their apprenticeships.
The program opened with words from Nadia K. Selby, who has been with Citizen Schools for over 10 years and now serves as the Executive Director for CSNY. We also had the privilege of featuring Joseph Colarusso, a former Campus Leader at Isaac Newton Middle School in East Harlem; he impressed on the room the importance of investing in our youth, and in the impact that strong mentorship can have on children as they move through their formative years. CSNY would also like to thank the following individuals and corporations for their continued and exceptional involvement in Citizen Schools:
Google: Trailblazer Award, accepted by Torrence Boone
Giovanni Green: Citizen Teacher of the Year
AllianceBernstein: Corporate Partner of the Year, accepted by Brogan Vandevelde
Nikki Branhut: Teaching Fellow of the Year
The recipients of these awards have shown consistent passion for Citizen Schools, and CSNY thanks them for their excellence. We are grateful to have such hardworking, mission-driven supporters at the core of the work we do in our schools.
Thank you to all those who attended. A special thank you to our sponsors who made the event possible: Google, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. We cannot wait to see how Citizen Schools New York continues to grow as we move into the 2019-2020 academic year, and hope to see everyone return at our WOW!NOW next year!