WOW! Season Recap
Citizen Schools Massachusetts concluded the fall semester with three incredible WOW!s showcasing student achievement.
East Somerville Community School enjoyed a “Saturday Morning Cartoons” theme to learn more about game design, finances, and design thinking.
Argenziano showcased Google Apprenticeship with lego robots, Maker Challenge involved families in science experiments, and Beautiful Children tapped into artistic skills with stress balls and face-masks.
Winter Hill celebrated with an 80’s themed WOW! Featuring superheroes, crime-scene investigators and, dancers.
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Intersessions flex student skills and prepare them for networking opportunities
Students embark on intersession activities every semester before apprenticeships begin, where they are given the opportunity to explore new passions or hone important skill sets with their classmates. This consists of activities ranging from developing ideas for a new phone application to playing math games and mastering proficiency levels in different subjects.
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Community comes together to celebrate successful apprenticeships
Citizen Schools California ended a successful Fall semester with WOW! events, a culmination of the 10-week-long apprenticeship program. In apprenticeships, volunteers across different industries teach their passion to students once a week for 1.5 hour sessions. Students spend the semester learning a particular skill set or subject matter, all while working towards developing a final project.
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Evias, the teeny tiny but strong leader
In one of Pauline’s earliest Carbon Footprint apprenticeships a few years ago, a “teeny tiny” 7th grader named Evias caught her eye. In the beginning, he was more on the quiet side but otherwise totally engaged, and by the end of the apprenticeship, he was participating more and answering tough questions with ease. Evias had improved so much and did so well that Pauline selected him to be the class ambassador for the WOW! presentation at the end of the semester.
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Girls’ Backpacking develops life and career skills
Bob France taught his first Lego Robotics Apprenticeship with Citizen Schools in 2013, then went on to develop a 3D Printing class, and later led a Girls’ Backpacking trip. It’s become a family affair, where his son participated in facilitating the 3D Printing class and his wife, Dianne, partnered with him on the backpacking trip. What do all of these have in common? It’s about building skills and ultimately, confidence for life and career. Bob said, “Years from now kids may not remember the specifics of what they learned but I hope they will always have that confidence. Confidence is actually a job skill!”
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How Citizen Schools inspired Sue to give back with Northeastern University students
When Sue Freeman was in middle school, she loved math and according to her, that was definitely “weird”. But in recent years, she has seen many more students name it and science as their favorite subjects. Students in her classes don’t just want to be basketball players or dancers, but also mechanical or industrial engineers that design cars or invent robots. This was why Sue’s robotics apprenticeships were so popular with students--building and programming robots got even the rowdiest kids focused and engaged in scientific concepts.
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Student transformations and building confidence
Chuck taught several Citizen Schools apprenticeships including Generation Citizen, Talk Like a Pro, Shark Tank and creative writing. He comes back year after year because he’s always “blown away” during the WOW!, where students showcase their projects to volunteers, teachers, family and fellow students. Oftentimes, he finds “those that you least expect, shine the most.”
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VidLab: Producing a professional music video with 6th graders
“Do you know what dubstep is Joanne? We want to do a dance to dubstep” said Jeremiah, one of my 6th grade students in my video production apprenticeship called VidLab at Orchard Gardens, a K-8 school in Roxbury, MA. Having been in college when Skrillex was at the height of his dubstep career, I was certainly familiar with the bass-heavy electronic dance music genre, but couldn’t believe this tiny 10-year old not only knew what it was but enjoyed it!
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Students mentoring students
When you first meet Sonali, you might be surprised that at only 17 years old, she’s already volunteered for several Citizen Schools Game Coding apprenticeships and started her own “chapter” of volunteers at Saratoga High School. Sonali has a love for Computer Science and wanted to find ways to give back to the larger community. In her research, she found Citizen Schools, which gave her an outlet for sharing her passion for coding, working with middle-school students of diverse backgrounds, and partnering with passionate STEM professionals to student teach classes.
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Students get a Backstage Pass to music production.
Giovanni Green has taught 12 Apprenticeships across Renaissance Academy, Urban Assembly, and Isaac Newton Middle School, finally reaching the “cool” factor that makes students stop to talk to him in the hallways—even if they’re not one of his students. It’s no wonder his Backstage Pass Apprenticeship is one of the most popular. Students write the lyrics, lay down the beats, finish an original song, and get to visit a real music studio.
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“Give them an opportunity to see a different world”
Bin Wu is a 10-time Citizen Teacher for Citizen Schools California, participating in Tech Challenge and several other Apprenticeships over the last five years. Though her background of growing up in China is quite different from the students she serves or the campuses she’s on, she believes deeply in exposing people to something different.
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Executive Director Vanessa Bishop Sworn into Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council
Last month, CSMA Executive Director Vanessa Bishop was officially sworn into the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council at the State House. The Council’s members include private and public sector professionals from around the Commonwealth who influence and advocate for STEM learning.
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Citizen Schools Celebrates Mass STEM Week
Citizen Schools celebrated Mass STEM Week 2019 with activities leading up to and throughout the week of October 21st. The partnership began as a collaboration with the Lieutenant Governor’s office. With a focus on STEM mentoring and illustrating career pathways, Citizen Schools activities included hands-on science stations, touring STEM companies and bringing more STEM industry professionals into the classroom to see how students can “See Yourself in STEM.” Using the #citizenschools, #SeeYourselfInSTEM and #MassSTEMWeek, Citizen Schools also captured the excitement across social media channels.
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A frozen banana is rocket science!
Adam Barriga’s story first caught our attention back in 2009, when he was a 6th grader in Dave Mantus’ apprenticeship It Is Rocket Science. At his WOW! presentation, Adam taught rocket science to crowds filled with politicians, directors and CEOs at the Massachusetts State House, where his grandfather Eduardo Barriga worked as a custodian for most of his life. Recently retired, Eduardo watched with pride as his grandson impressed audiences in the very halls he used to clean.
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Citizen Schools students take initiative on drug awareness
This month, Citizen Schools students at Joseph George Middle School in San Jose, California created a drug awareness campaign on campus. Staff and students worked with the Leadership Academy, a group of 30 seventh and eighth grade Citizen Schools students responsible for promoting school spirit and bringing attention to school-wide issues.
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Jerriline Martinez, Citizen Teacher, brings Qigong and Taiji to Middle Schoolers
Each semester, Citizen Schools California hosts apprenticeships, 10-week long hands-on projects led by passionate volunteers who teach students topics ranging from cooking to coding. This semester, we are excited to offer Qigong and Taiji as an apprenticeship at Renaissance Academy at Mathson, taught by Citizen Teacher Jerriline Martinez from Cisco, with support from Teaching Fellow Renee Lemieux. Read what Jerriline had to say about her experience as a Citizen Teacher:
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Apprenticeship in Action: McKinley Institute of Technology
On November 5th, community members from across the Bay Area came together to watch our apprenticeships in action at the McKinley Institute of Technology (MIT) site visit in Redwood City, CA. Attendees had the opportunity to meet with the Citizen Schools leadership team and hear from a panel of school partners and volunteer Citizen Teachers. They took a tour of the Tuesday after-school program and sat in on featured apprenticeships such as Fit Kids, Career Horizons, Making Beats, and Lego Robotics.
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Spotlight on our Teaching Fellow: Elisha Glass
Elisha Glass is an AmeriCorp Alumni and first year Teaching Fellow at Renaissance School of the Arts. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Business and Economics at Ohio State University. Shortly after graduating, Elisha moved to New York City, where he first committed to service in 2016. With this newfound ambition for service, Elisha wishes to dismantle systems of oppression through education and creative strategies individuals can apply towards their everyday lives.
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Meet Director of Corporate Engagement, Sierra Bush
This fall, Citizen Schools New York welcomed a new staff member to our team. Sierra Bush, Director of Corporate Engagement, drives corporate partnership and business development, diversifying the corporate apprenticeship experience for students while securing new corporate funding opportunities.
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