Volunteer

Pfizer volunteers inspire future engineers and scientists

George Sienkiewicz, Senior Manager, Global Manufacturing Services, and Kris Dermody, Director, Global Manufacturing Services, explain the importance of blend uniformity in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

It’s not often that middle school students get to learn about pharmaceutical manufacturing, but it happens at Citizen Schools.  A team of eleven Pfizer colleagues  recently brought science to life for a group of 25 sixth grade students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Newark, New Jersey.  The Pfizer volunteers even simulated the pharmaceutical manufacturing process by making candy!  Read more about the special event here.  


Googler, Citizen Teacher, Survivor

Eric Schwarz is the Co-Founder and CEO of Citizen Schools. 

Kristen Thiede

Everyone who teaches middle school is amazing. Those who volunteer to do it are particularly courageous. Those who inspire their companies to support education are remarkable. And then, there’s Yul.

Last week at the annual Clark Foundation gathering for leading youth development organizations, I had the chance to meet and introduce Kristen Thiede, a principal at Google and one of their leading innovators. She is employee number two-hundred-and-something (started in 2001) and has worked all over the world for Google, currently on a project to make home internet service 100 times faster. And she’s worked hard on their social enterprise collaborations with the Harlem Children’s Zone and others. She’s a rock star!

I was gratified to hear that lots of her friends have volunteered at Citizen Schools, and that we have been held up at Google as a best practice for employee engagement. Meeting Kristen prompted me to refresh my memory about how our organizations came to work together so closely. A refreshing, sexy story of youthful innovation and leadership.

Jane Choi - Campus Director (Photo Credit: Ralph Alswang)

I knew the Google relationship started with Citizen Schools Campus Director and later Program Director, the fabulous Jane Choi, who led our then after-school program at McKinley Institute of Technology in Redwood City from 2004-2006. I remembered that the first volunteers from Google were friends of Jane’s, but that’s as much as I knew; so I emailed Jane the night before my introduction of Kristen to get the full scoop. Read more…

Citizen Schools is Coming to the Windy City

Bryce Bowman is the Executive Director of Citizen Schools’ new launch site in Chicago.

Chicago has been my home for the past seven years and I am energized, honored, and inspired to be in a role that brings an organization with a proven model for student  success to an amazing city. Citizen Schools has been a successful expanded learning time school partner in cities around the nation and I am excited to help bring the organization to the city where I am raising my own family, Chicago, and to the students of Chicago Public Schools.

Education reform and expanding the school day has been a very hot topic in Chicago recently, and what excites me most about bringing Citizen Schools into that environment is that it gives everyday people the opportunity to get off the sidelines and into the classroom. It offers the ability to integrate the Chicago business and civic community into our schools.

We can all agree that, given the right support and access, all kids can learn and we can all help give kids more opportunities. We all have something to contribute to help them realize their potential regardless of what happens with union negotiations and policy decisions.

Through Citizen Schools, rather than just discussing education reform around the water cooler or at a party, people from all walks of life can enter schools, inspire kids by teaching what they’re passionate about, and become active change agents in closing the achievement gap for the students of Chicago Public Schools.

We eagerly look forward to partnering with great  schools and providing them with additional resources to drive student achievement. But, in order to truly impact students, we need to build a great team. Consider volunteering as a Citizen Teacher, applying for the Teaching Fellowship, or learning more about our mission.

Volunteer to Teach 

Apply for the Teaching Fellowship

Learn more

 


PRESS RELEASE: May 8th, Students Showcase Skills at Google

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CITIZEN SCHOOLS TEAMS UP WITH GOOGLE TO TEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Students to Showcase New Skills at Google Offices on May 8th 

Mountain View, CA – May 3, 2011 – For a group of lucky Bay Area middle school students, Google’s Mountain View campus has been transformed into their classroom. These students have been working hand in hand with Google employees – “Googlers” – during the afternoon hours to learn about topics ranging from website development to debate. The project is part of a national partnership between Google and Citizen Schools, an education nonprofit that partners with schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities through afterschool and expanded learning time programs.

On Tuesday, May 8th, students will gather at Google to showcase what they’ve learned in “apprenticeships” – ten week mini-courses where students and Googlers have worked together on hands-on projects that help students make the connection between school and future careers. Parents, teachers, Googlers, and community supporters will be in attendance at this science fair style event to see firsthand what new skills the students have mastered. Four groups of students will present on a variety of topics, including website design, debate, healthy cooking and technology innovation.

Since 2006, over four hundred Googlers have been involved in teaching nearly 140 apprenticeships through Citizen Schools in California, New York, and Massachusetts. This spring, there are nearly 100 Googlers teaching twenty-seven apprenticeships nationwide, including thirty-three Googlers teaching seven apprenticeships in California.

According to internal surveys, 80 percent of students taking Google apprenticeships through Citizen Schools this fall expressed interest in pursuing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) career. This data is especially powerful given the current concerns about STEM education nationally. Just as the STEM field is growing and demanding new talented employees to fill jobs, our education system is struggling to produce enough highly-skilled young people ready for the challenge. Part of the problem, according to MIT, is that our students need more exposure to people who might spark a passion for STEM. According to a 2009 MIT survey, nearly two-thirds of teenagers said that they may be discouraged from pursuing STEM careers because they do not know anyone who works in these fields and they do not understand what people in these fields do.

“Citizen Schools helps Google make a positive contribution in our community by supporting efforts to promote math, science and technology on a local and national scale,” said Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Google. “There’s nothing better than seeing the reward in the faces of students learning at Google. Citizen Schools makes a real difference for those great kids—not to mention the immeasurable benefit to the Google employees volunteering their time to help out.”

Last year, Google announced a $3.25 million grant to support Citizen Schools’ expanded learning programs. The organization partners closely with struggling schools across the country, including six schools in the Bay Area, to increase student achievement through expanded hours and hands-on learning projects. External evaluations have shown that Citizen Schools students have better attendance rates, higher grades, and fewer behavior issues than their peers. Long-term, studies have shown that Citizen Schools participants graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than their peers who did not participate.

“Google and their employees are playing a significant role in setting thousands of students across the country on a path towards educational success,” said Joe Ross, Executive Director of Citizen Schools California. “We are inspired by the work that Googlers have taken on through teaching apprenticeships and sharing their talent and passion with our students.”

About Citizen Schools 

Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities across the country through afterschool and expanded learning time programs. The organization mobilizes a second shift of afternoon educators, who provide academic support, leadership development, and “apprenticeships”—hands-on projects taught by volunteers from business and civic organizations. At partner middle schools in eight states across the country, Citizen Schools students develop the skills they need to succeed in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org. For California specifics, visit http://www.citizenschools.org/california/.

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Students stand up to bullying in Charlotte with help from Cognizant Volunteers

At the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina, students in Cognizant’s Flip Camera apprenticeship this spring learned about the world in innovative ways. What better way to teach documentary film and technology skills – than in a hands-on, engaging way? Here are a few examples of how the hardworking volunteers from Cognizant helped Citizen Schools to expand the learning day with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) while making a difference in the Charlotte community:

Bullying is a problem that unfortunately most students and youth in today’s society encounter at some point during their school day. When Citizen Teacher volunteers Saurav Das, Sandeep Jha and Arun Sivanand asked students what they wanted their Flip Camera documentary to focus on the students unanimously chose bullying. In this apprenticeship lead by Cognizant, student’s stories took center stage in documentary films based on their own passions and issues. Students worked alongside their volunteers for 10 weeks learning technology skills for filming and basic film editing to propose solutions to the bullying problem in their community. This became an opportunity for students to share a persuasive film rooted in their own experience. Teams worked together to gather footage and understand the core of the problem they choose. These aspiring film editors gathered comments and reactions from adults at their school like teachers, principals and Citizen Schools staff.

Filmmaking builds student’s voice and confidence and allows students to become advocates for themselves and their communities as leaders and effective team members. Students even created a slogan to stop bullying “Speak Up, Speak Out, Your Voice, No More Bullying.”  In addition to developing skills, the Cognizant Flip Camera apprenticeship gave students an opportunity to see their documentary come to life in front of a live audience. On April 26th, 2012 Cognizant’s apprentices screened their documentaries for parents, peers and faculty attending Martin Luther King Jr.’s end of the semester WOW! event showcase. The students’ films were a huge success and the volunteers from Cognizant are already putting their heads together to decide what to teach next year.

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