On Friday June 1, Citizen Schools’ diverse community of volunteer Citizen Teachers, corporate and community partners, AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows, Citizen Schools staff, students, family and friends gathered at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in celebration of the impressive work of our students, Teaching Fellows and volunteer Citizen Teachers over the last year.
Read More
Every year, Citizen Schools honors the impact that Andrew Balson and Sherif Nada have had on Citizen Schools in their former roles as National Board chairs and in their current roles as Directors Emeriti with the presentation of two awards - The Andrew Balson Leadership Award and Sherif Nada Legacy Award. These awards are presented to two current and two former Citizen Schools Massachusetts students, respectively. This year, the award ceremony was held on May 22, 2018 and members of the community, staff, family and friends joined our National Board to celebrate at Citizen Schools headquarters in Boston.
Read More
Project Exploration was selected from 92 applications from 82 communities across 35 states, representing more than 1,800 nonprofits, companies, school districts, and local government partners. Project Exploration (PE) is honored to have been selected as a finalist in the US2020 Challenge. As a finalist, Project Exploration sent representatives, Natasha Smith-Walker and Kelsey Galante, to attend the US2020 Collaboratory in Pittsburgh in February 2018.
Read More
New England Revolution right back Andrew Farrell recently visited the East Somerville Community School as the Revs wrapped up their apprenticeship program through Citizen Schools with a clinic and a donation of school supplies.
Read More
The Idaho STEM Action Center, an agency added to the Governor's Office in 2015 to give Idaho students more access to and guidance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, announced today that it is one of eight winners of the US2020 STEM Coalition Challenge. The challenge, which is a nationwide competition that rewards programs bringing STEM "mentoring and maker-centered learning" to underserved students, splits $1 million in cash and support among chosen STEM-related agencies, companies and nonprofits. The Idaho STEM Action Center is slated to receive a $50,000 cash award.
Read MoreEight winners were selected from a pool of nearly 100 communities representing close to 2,000 partners across 35 states looking to bring more STEM mentorship and maker-centered learning opportunities to students across the country in creative and compelling ways.
Read More
Eight community organizations from across the nation were recognized today at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California for developing innovative models to scale STEM mentorship and maker-centered learning experiences for students in low-income communities.
Read More
Buffalo’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership (ISEP) is one of eight groups from across the country named by US2020 as a winner of the 2018 STEM Coalition Challenge, a competition for communities nationwide to bring hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) mentoring and maker-centered learning to underrepresented students.
Read More
They’re helping to start a “Revolution” on the field – and in the classroom. Members of the New England Revolution Major League Soccer team will visit students at the East Somerville Community School, at 50 Cross Street in Somerville on Thursday, May 17 at 5:30 pm. as part of Citizen Schools’ apprenticeship program - which provides students with hands-on, project-based learning experiences that connect what they learn in school to real world career pathways. Revolution starting Defender Andrew Farrell, along with Marketing Supervisor Matthew Miller and a coach from the New England Revolution Academy, will be on hand, delivering school necessities donated at a recent Revolution home game and playing soccer with the students.
Read More
On May 23 2018, Beyond Sport and the San Francisco 49ers Foundation will hold the second installment of the Beyond Innovation Summit in Santa Clara, California. Expanding on the successes of last year’s event and the subsequent launch of the Sport & STEM Alliance, Beyond Innovation will bring together global experts, inspirational innovators and committed decision-makers to discuss state-of-art approaches to leveraging sport to improve, empower and create new approaches to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. Upwards of 200 delegates will explore the unique opportunity sports presents to help prevent the predicted shortfall of 85 million skilled jobs in the global economy by 2020.
Read MoreEach spring at Citizen Schools brings a flurry of energy and activity. Spring WOW! season: the culmination of another year of programming and celebration of the hard work of our students and campus teams; graduating yet another class of our hard working AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows; and the palpable buzz and youthful excitement you find in any school environment that grows with each passing day that brings us closer to summer.
Read More
In the 2016-17 school year, Citizen Schools completed the second year of our initiative to pilot and evaluate digital courseware across our national network to learn more about how best to integrate technology into Expanded Learning Time (ELT) for middle school students.
Read More
Volunteers come from all walks of life. Usually, they choose a cause that they feel passionate about or that they can relate to. Most volunteers are interested in making the difference and leaving a legacy in the organization they serve. Whether that impact is sustainable or not, depends on the community and the organization itself. However, their heart, dedication, and joy to serve others is what matters the most. In observance of National Volunteer Month, we decided to celebrate the individuals that bring our mission to life: our volunteers. Their passion, courage, and determination to join us in closing the opportunity gap inspires us everyday.
Read More
This semester, San Francisco-based nonprofit Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) partnered with Citizen Schools to teach apprenticeships at two of our middle schools in Oakland: Roots Academy and Greenleaf. The apprenticeship, called Girls on the Mic, educates girls about audio technology, recording and sound engineering through music and media. The goal of the program is to drive girls’ interest in STEM and introduce them to technology-based careers in a traditionally male-dominated field.
Read More
The third case study from the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development discusses the role community partners can play in supporting children’s learning in collaboration with schools. “School-Community Partnerships” cites key examples of school-community partnerships, highlighting the Tacoma Whole Child Initiative in particular which (as many of you may remember from our visit there last November) takes a city-wide approach to this work, joining everyone from the mayor’s office to the local Boys and Girls Club in support of children’s learning.
Read More
With the help of these passionate, driven individuals we raised $63,000, which surpassed last year’s event raise by nearly $10,000!
Read More
On January 31, 2018, US2020 hosted the STEM Collaboratory event in Pittsburgh. This unique gathering, sponsored by Arconic Foundation, brought together the 15 finalist communities of the US2020 STEM Coalition Challenge The initial intent behind the STEM Collaboratory was to provide competing teams a chance to connect with experts and refine their ideas — it turned out to be so much more.
Read More
While many at Sandia know Kayla Norris (8100) as a financial analyst, a class of students in Oakland knows her as “Ms. Kayla,” their afterschool yoga instructor. For ten weeks in the fall of 2017, Kayla taught a yoga and mindfulness class at Roots International Academy, a small middle school in East Oakland.
Read More
The Dalles is a top-15 finalist nationwide for a grant that could potentially hire two full-time employees to help bring hands-on STEM mentoring and projects to local students. US2020 announced the finalists in its STEM Coalition Challenge in January, and the top eight applicants will share around $1 million in grant awards. The finalists were selected based on their potential for impact, approach to partnership building, creative engagement strategies and sustainability planning, according to US2020. The goal of the challenge is to bring STEM mentorship and hands-on experiences to underrepresented students. The challenge received proposals from 92 communities, representing nearly 2,000 partners.
Read More