Citizen Schools :: A National Movement of Citizen Teachers

A CVS apprentice shows off her customer service skills—article below.

Sharing their Skills: Volunteers Around the Citizen Schools Network

CVS and Citizen Schools make a "Prescription for Success"

Jump Associates
Redwood City, CA
Design and Planning

“One student named Marc loves robots. Every week his ideas involved robotic automation of some kind - robot waiters, robot maids. Somehow, he was able to translate his love of robots into a cool idea for a smoothie kiosk.” Read more.

Carol Ball
Lehman Brothers
Boston, MA
Stock Market

Carol Ball knew she wanted to volunteer the moment she learned which middle school was being served—her own. Read more.

Brenda Ross Houston, TX
PowerPoint

“I felt that knowing how to effectively prepare a PowerPoint project would be something that the students would be able to use in their academic as well as business careers.”

Antonia Perlacia
Houston, TX
Flamenco Dancing

“I love Flamenco and would do anything to teach this dance art to anyone who is willing...and we had a more than willing group of talented students.” Read more.

Boston, MA — At most schools, you will not often see a middle schooler making small talk with the principal. But Fitsum Asafu of the Edison Middle School in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, MA, is not the average middle schooler. On a recent school day, he stopped Principal Elliot Stern in the hallway– just to say hello.

Fits, as he is called, was inspired to reach out to his principal through his Citizen Schools apprenticeship with CVS, “Prescription for Success.” Since February, he and a group of his peers have been working once a week with CVS store managers and volunteer Citizen Teachers Bill Bruce and Kenny Wong. Together, they spend an hour and a half each week practicing not only the skills they would need to manage a pharmacy and store, but what it takes to have positive and productive interactions, resolve conflicts, and build relationships.

Fits’ interaction with Principal Stern during the school day was part of his “weekly mission,” an assignment to initiate a conversation or exchange with someone in his life in a positive way. All of the students in the apprenticeship have these tasks, and they come back with great stories – teachers they learned something about, a member of their community they got to know a little better. Read more.

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Thursday, June 7, 2007

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Anastasia Agrafiotis
Charlotte, NC
Architecture

In addition to working in the school, Anastasia exposed her apprentices to the work environment of professional architects by bringing them out to the high-rise office of her firm in downtown Charlotte.



	THE VOLUNTEER Citizen Teachers, whose service and leadership are at the heart of Citizen Schools, inspire a zest for learning that carries over into all aspects of our students’ lives. The fantastic WOW! events that conclude each season of apprenticeship courses at Citizen Schools remind us that our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity is to build a movement of volunteers who will engage with young people in their communities and who will build stronger communities together. Since Citizen Schools began, more than 7,000 Citizen Teachers have led apprenticeships. We have developed strong relationships with professionals in diverse fields, including architecture, finance, and law. And our volunteers are returning at a higher rate than ever. By 2012, we plan to involve 6,200 volunteers annually, serving 7,700 students on 75 campuses. To accomplish this goal, we are building a system to recruit high-quality volunteers on a national scale. We are creating and expanding relationships in the sciences, arts and culture, and media. We are also working with corporations, colleges and universities, and other groups to create renewable volunteer pipelines. Here in Boston, I met a Citizen Teacher named Tony Helies. Tony, who worked in high-tech but had a passion for astronomy, has led five apprenticeships in three years. His lessons focus on measuring the universe – the size of the sun and the earth, the distance to the moon. The students make these measurements without any instruments, using techniques that are thousands of years old. Though teaching is challenging, Tony says it’s also a joy. “It’s a high to see the kids master something that they didn’t think they could master,” he says. “It’s also neat to see that they come away with a much better, real understanding of what the universe is like out there. They’re nice kids. And I get to do astronomy!” When I meet volunteers like Tony, I am inspired – not only by their engagement and energy, but by what they represent: the thousands of people across this country who have unrealized potential as volunteers, as citizens, and as human beings. In light of all that we are already doing, think what a national movement of Citizen Teachers could accomplish. Eric Schwarz President and CEO Citizen Schools www.citizenschools.org Please send us your feedback, suggested articles, or letters to the editor to editor@citizenschools.org