We are excited to announce the 2021 Citizen Schools Staff & Service Member Awards winners! These awards honor the hard work and dedication of our team over the last year. This important tradition builds on our values of confidence, curiosity, DEI, perseverance, and teamwork—and gives us an excellent opportunity to celebrate the great work of our peers.
Read MoreWe can't thank you all enough for helping us make #CycED2021 with Hot HIIT a success. It was a day of intense sweating, laughing and celebrating, and we couldn't have done it without you.
Read MoreThrough the generosity of Infosys Foundation USA’s grant, the Citizen Schools’ Catalyst team and Makers + Mentors Network created a four-part live webinar series to help grades 5-8 educators create meaningful student engagement.
Read MoreThis year Citizen Schools hosted nine WOW! celebrations with thousands of students, parents, teachers, and community members to highlight students’ hard work from their apprenticeships.
Read MoreMICRO and Makers + Mentors Network recently partnered together, where Maker Fellows and other members of the team participated in a month-long series of workshops and collaborative conversations to develop their ideas for a museum.
Read MoreCatalyst Teacher Sylvia Beckham has been an invaluable asset to the Innovation Cohort and advancing STEM learning. She provided some practical tips for teachers who are looking to bring experiential learning into the classroom.
Read MoreMake For All, a national coalition of leading organizations focused on broadening access to maker-centered learning opportunities for students is announcing 40 new partnerships, collaborations and initiatives.
Read MoreIn April 2021, Trevon Adams, Nadia K. Selby, and Kruschef Sanchez were invited to join Connor Anovick, a former Citizen Schools volunteer himself. They discuss how COVID has impacted public schools and how Citizen Schools supports public schools, both during and before the pandemic.
Read MoreThe Makers + Mentors Network Maker Fellow program is designed to connect K-12 students to new, disruptive learning opportunities that help students build the academic and social-emotional skills key to their success in school, post-secondary enrollment, and workforce placement. We are adding ten new locations in four new states, and with a growing number of HBCUs and our first tribal college partner as host sites.
Read MoreCitizen Schools students recently had the opportunity to participate in our special Shark Tank event, which included four weeks of learning through a detailed set of modules called GoIT. Students who participated had the opportunity to learn about app development and pitched ideas to a panel of judges.
Read MoreWhen you are serving students during a pandemic, your after-school programming looks a lot different.
Read MoreDuring our three-part series, Elevating Voices For Equity, we learn, engage, and bring together community members to uplift Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices. In our first event, K-12 Educational Equity and Access, we hear from: Orlando Watkins, Jean Claude Brizard, Amanda Fernandez, Bing Howell, and Frankline Mardi.
Read MoreCitizen Schools Makers + Mentors Network is leading a team as part of the Reach for the Upside initiative, hosted by the K12 Lab at Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”) in partnership with Genentech and with participation of Northern California Community foundations.
Read More2020 has been a year filled with tragedy, anxiety and uncertainty as communities have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the greater realization that systemic racism has existed for years and that something must be done about this immediately. We also saw intense wildfires and storms affecting so many areas of the country, including some in our own backyard. We know that these catastrophic events have disproportionately affected communities of color.
Read MoreIf you’re a parent or teacher, you’re probably familiar with the many challenges of remote learning. Sherry Tom, earth science teacher at Hostos Lincoln Academy of Science in Bronx, NY, is both, doing her best to support her students while sharing a workspace with her husband and two elementary school kids. “At school, my kids are led from one activity to the next. When learning from home, they’re expected to navigate Google Classroom on their own because I’m working and their dad is working.”
Read MoreMost middle school memories are a bit hazy, but Isabel Morales remembers clearly how much she enjoyed her Community Development apprenticeship as a Citizen Schools student at Robinson Middle School in Lowell, MA. “We went to so many places in Lowell and I learned so much about the city. I grew up in Lowell but my parents weren’t born here, so I didn’t have that family connection to it. Learning about the history of it and being a part of fixing it up was really meaningful to me.” 12 years later, Isabel has come full circle as a first year Teaching Fellow (TF) serving students at Winter Hill Community School in Somerville, MA.
Read MoreEarlier this month, Citizen Schools’ Maker Fellows participated in the Maker Fellows Institute, a 4-day immersive learning experience focused on introducing this year’s cohort to the pedagogy and research, techniques and tools that will support their efforts to create more opportunities for K-12 students to engage in maker-centered learning.
Read MoreIt never crossed my mind that I’d be using my STEM-related skills at an internship with a nonprofit. However, my time with Citizen Schools as an IT Specialist Intern has taught me that STEM is just as essential for nonprofits as it is for science/engineering focused industries.
Read MoreBOSTON, MA – Makers + Mentors Network, a Citizen Schools STEM initiative, is partnering with community colleges and historically black colleges and universities to launch an innovative new program called Maker Fellows this fall. This program will connect over 25,000 K-12 students to maker-centered learning opportunities that help students build the academic and social emotional skills key to their success in school, postsecondary enrollment and workforce placement. Through service in their local communities and participation in targeted professional development, Maker Fellows will launch a career as leaders and champions of maker-centered learning and mentorship for underserved students.
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