When I first came to the school and found out that I had to stay in school till 4:45 I didn’t want to, and this was a mandatory thing for all grades that had Citizen Schools. I felt like this was just a waste of my time, but just two weeks in I loved staying after school because we learned a lot about people and their jobs and I learned about the kids in my class. They were all strange unfamiliar faces when I came but during Citizen Schools they became my friends.

As an Alumni of 8GA at the Trotter Innovation School, I am entering as a freshman at the John D O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. I was in Citizen schools for only one year, but throughout that year I learned a lot that I wouldn't have known if I wasn’t in Citizen Schools, like what people actually do at work and how college impacted their lives. My name is Jaydha Leigh Cabrera, I live in Roxbury, and I am currently an Intern at Citizen Schools Headquarters. I work in in the Philanthropy Department and Chloe Stroman, Associate, Grant Writing and Foundation Relations, is my Manager. If it wasn’t for one of my Citizen Schools teachers, Ms.Wilson, I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity to show all that I have learned through school and in the real world.

We went to WayFair together and we all learned how to code and the importance of communication. We all finally realized that we had to combine all of our ideas to make something we love and what other people will like too.Since I’ve only been in citizens schools for a year they already had groups in wayfair so I joined one the group that I joined had an idea of what they wanted to do but we all had to agree on it. They had an idea about having something that talks to you and helps you when you need it, but we made it for specifically a closet.  We ended up creating “AOG” (Automatic Outfit Generator), an app that scans your own closet and with the click of a button creates an outfit for you whenever you want. We had Mock Trial and that was one of my favorites because in the future I want to become a lawyer and it was fun to actually pursue and do something that I loved. Seeing the reality of stacks of papers that the lawyers had to look through to make their argument the best they could showed me the work I should be expecting to help my future clients and to show them what I am capable of.

Ms. Wilson taught us a lot about the real word and I love her for that because I wouldn’t know the stuff I know now. I am very thankful for Citizen Schools because it gives students a chance to explore different interests and I hope they keep on doing that because it makes every kid leave school with a smile on their face.