WOW!

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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Giving Time, Changing Lives

Lynne Brown is a Lease Analyst at Cassidy Turley FHO. She is also a Citizen Teacher with Citizen Schools. 

I am a Citizen Teacher.

It is one of the many things I am.  I am a girlfriend.   I am a daughter.  I am the fun aunt.  I am a friend.  I am a lease analyst.  I am a sister.  I am a mentor.  I am a real estate professional.  I am a writer.  I am an optimist.  I am a member of Red Sox Nation.

I am a Citizen Teacher.

My path to becoming a Citizen Teacher began in August 2009.  During the media coverage of Senator Edward Kennedy’s death, I was struck by one photo: a simple photo taken in an unglamorous setting – a public school classroom.

That photo and the story behind it taught me something I never knew about the Senator.  For years, he mentored in a public school classroom.  It amazed me that a man of his stature and with his hectic schedule took the time to volunteer in an inner city school.  It struck me, if he could do it, what could I do?

In 2010, I was introduced to Citizen Schools and their City Building program by one of my clients, a national supporter of the program.  I answered the Citizen Schools call of what will you teach by volunteering to teach Real Estate to a group of middle school students at the Salemwood School in Malden, MA.

As I headed to my first class, I was terrified.  Positive I’d gotten in over my head, I questioned what I had been thinking when I volunteered.  “I can’t teach,” I told myself.  And the only other thing I thought I knew for sure was that when the ten week commitment was over, I would never volunteer again and I’d never have to set foot inside a middle school classroom again.

Citizen Schools changes lives.  It is not just the students’ lives that are changed.  The lives of the volunteers are changed as well.  I get to spend 90 minutes a week with a group of enthusiastic and energetic middle school students.  It is unlike anything else I do.  As a Citizen Teacher, I have had to step out of my comfort zone and well, teach.  Being a Citizen Teacher as it turns out is not only fun, but also rewarding.

The rewards and successes come in various forms:

  • witnessing the pride on a student’s face when she gets the answer correct to a real estate vocabulary question;
  • the simple joy when a student sneaks back to the classroom to say “I love you, Ms. Brown, see you next week;”
  • encouraging a student, who struggles to write one sentence until he is able to write six whole sentences for his WOW! presentation;
  • watching a reticent boy who barely spoke a word during the first class transform into a prolific speaker and deliver a wonderful presentation at WOW!;
  • the text messages I receive from former students letting me know how they are doing.

Ironically after four semesters of being a Citizen Teacher, the two things I thought I knew for sure on that first day: that I can’t teach and that I’d never ever do this again turned out to be untrue.  The truth is I can teach and I do.  And while it may be true that I never have to do this again, the larger truth is that I want to.

On Tuesday afternoons from 4:15 – 5:45, I can be found in Room 126 at the Dever-McCormack School in Dorchester, MA teaching sixth graders about commercial real estate development or real estate math.  By the end of the semester, my students will know what profit and revenue are, how to prepare a construction budget and an operating expense reconciliation statement.  Throughout the term, they will have fun playing math games or visiting construction sites, build confidence in their math and public speaking skills, eat a few cookies and hopefully prove that:

Math Fun + Math Practice = Better Math Grades.

And that in itself is the only reward required.

Volunteering: A Learning Experience for Student and Teacher

Darakshan Mir is a Graduate Student at Rutgers University and a volunteer Citizen Teacher  with Citizen Schools through the New York Academy of Sciences.

Looking back at the Coloring Outside of the Lines apprenticeship that I taught this past fall, I really feel lucky that I had the opportunity to get involved in something as meaningful as this. The apprenticeship taught me a lot about teaching, learning and empathy.

Student tessellations presented at the WOW!

Coloring Outside the Lines was designed for students to explore and learn math concepts while applying them to creating tessellations – two-dimensional planes that feature the repetition of a geometric shape with no overlaps and no gaps (like a honeycomb). The apprenticeship focused on building innovation capabilities in students as they were tasked with using the design process to create their own unique tessellations. I was amazed how my students got involved in the WOW! and how well some of them performed in the WOW!. I had many students, who were constantly involved and invested in the work, who connected to it, and it wasn’t surprising to see them shine through at the end of the apprenticeship. But, I personally found the trajectory of two other students very interesting. Read more…

The National Teaching Fellowship: Service That Closes The Gap

The Citizen Schools Teaching Fellowship is a two-year AmeriCorps service opportunity that allows committed people to support students in their critical years by building relationships with their families, their teachers, and an extraordinary range of community members.

Here’s former Teaching Fellow Lia Sheperd, who served as part of a team of caring adults who invested their time, talent, and resources to put students on the path to success in high school, college, and career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHIwRH627bQ&feature=youtu.be
Learn more about the Citizen Schools Teaching Fellowship here. 

Warning: Volunteering May Lead to Overwhelming Pride

Lindsey Waldron is a Bain & Company Employee and a Two-Time Volunteer Citizen Teacher with Citizen Schools. 

Ms. W and an Edwards student presenting at the WOW!

On December 15th, 2011 the executive board room of Bain & Company’s Boston office was taken over by a group of sixth grade students from the Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, Massachusetts.  They had spent the last three months in my Citizen Schools apprenticeship learning business fundamentals as they helped determine what new, exciting ice cream flavor Ben & Jerry’s should launch nationwide.  This was their opportunity to present their findings to Ben & Jerry’s own ‘Board of Directors’ in an authentic business environment. Read more…

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