In June of 2018, Citizen Schools was awarded a $2M grant from the Biogen Foundation as part of the foundation's recently announced STAR Initiative.  As one of six recipients of the STAR (Science, Teacher Support, Access and Readiness) Initiative, funding will allow Citizen Schools to expand work in Somerville and Cambridge. One of the goals of this initiative is to show the impact that can be made when corporations partner with nonprofits, districts and communities so that other major corporations. Through this work, they hope to encourage other corporations to develop more of a partnership with their educational communities to provide more sustainable programs for children. The grantees from Star Network participated in an end-of-the-year STAR Initiative Showcase and Celebration on May 23rd at Lesley University to share the amazing work that was done over the past year.   

Over 80 guests, along with students, families, community members, and city and district officials were in attendance, which exceeded initial expectations for this inaugural event. In true Citizen School's fashion, they chose to do a mini version of a WOW at the showcase. Five of the Somerville apprenticeships (listed below) were focused on STEM and participants shared their work from this year. This event not only allowed students to showcase the work within Citizen Schools, but also the collaboration being done with schools and districts, other community partners, and corporations. Citizen Schools is excited to continue developing this collaboration for years to come!

• Robotics with Google led by Teaching Fellow Maria Navarro

• Maker Challenge with Pillpack led by Teaching Fellow Iris Restrop

• Wonderful World of Wayfair with Wayfair led by Teaching Fellows Carlos Cora and Julian Martinez

• Bootstrap with Emma and Matt led by Teaching Fellow Esmeralda Rojos

• Splats led by Teaching Fellow Sam Blomberg