News

Tonya Horton Co-Presents “Cradle to College” at SYNERGY Conference

Building partnerships is essential to bringing more resources into schools to close the achievement and opportunity gap. But where should a school or nonprofit start?

In the context of their own experiences with Citizen Schools and East Durham Children’s Initiative respectively, Tonya Horton and David Reese provided forty-four SYNERGY conference attendees with a framework for building partnerships in their communities through their presentation, Cradle to College. Tonya Horton is the Executive Director of Citizen Schools North Carolina, and David Reese is the Director of East Durham Children’s Initiative. Both presenters shared an overview of their organization and tied their work into the discussion about building partnerships which begins with a “needs assessment” according to Horton and Reese. Once a school or organization has identified what their community needs, the work for connecting with potential partners, formulating a strategy and timeline, and establishing an evaluation process should begin.

Tonya Horton & David Reese answer questions from session participants

Following the formal presentation, all attendees had an opportunity to share ideas from their regions and organizations during the group work session “Building Partnerships in Your Community.” Many of the Cradle to College attendees were representatives from all over North Carolina – primarily from Wake, Mecklenburg, Vance, and Guilford counties. Some worked for nonprofits, and others, like Dietrich Danner of Durham Public Schools, were from local school districts. The diversity added to the value of the conversations happening.

After a few group leaders shared highlights form their session, Tonya Horton left the attendees with this reminder about the necessity of building partnerships:

We can’t do it all, and we don’t do it all well. 

Click here to see photos from the session

About Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a national nonprofit organization that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for low income children across the country. Citizen Schools uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships. The organization’s programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

The Citizen Schools North Carolina program launched in 2006 and currently serves nearly 400 students and engages over 300 volunteers.  Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org.

About East Durham Children’s Initiative

EDCI was envisioned by Durham and East Durham community leaders in 2008 after reading Paul Tough’s book Whatever It Takes. Like Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York, they were determined to provide children in low wealth communities with the same high quality, comprehensive services and opportunities offered to kids in high wealth communities, with the goal of successfully preparing kids for college and/or career.

With the help of research by Duke University’s Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, risk factors for various communities were assessed and East Durham was identified as one of the most distressed neighborhoods in the area. A 120-block area of East Durham was later selected as the target area of EDCI, also known as the EDCI zone.

In 2009, EDCI was launched with a trip to the Harlem Children’s Zone, planning activities, seed grants and a visit to Durham by Paul Tough. Community forums were conducted to get feedback from East Durham residents and leaders. One of the most important community forums was a “kitchen table” conversation in October 2009, attended by over 100 residents and community leaders. Community members spent time in small groups discussing a range of issues (Results of Community Conversations, October 2009). The concerns, hopes and possible solutions presented at this and other meetings formed the basis for EDCI’s initial programming.

EDCI began working with partners to implement services in the EDCI zone in 2010 and continues to move forward with planning and developing a successful, strategic initiative.

Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation Awards $75,000 Grant

Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation recently announced grant awards totaling $1,714,830 to 33 non-profit organizations, including Citizen Schools. The granted funds are available for a variety of uses by the beneficiaries with supported programs including affordable housing, children’s services, crisis assistance, education, health care, legal services, and social services.

Citizen Schools North Carolina was awarded $75,000 to support campus programs in Charlotte. The funds will also assist with planning costs for Expanded Learning Time in collaboration with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Project LIFT.

Other organizations and institutions receiving grants from the Foundation include Central Piedmont Community College Foundation, Charlotte Community Health Clinic, and United Family Services.

 

About Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation

Sisters of Mercy is a Supporting Organization and Sponsored Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas South Central Community, and provides support for its charitable, religious, and educational mission. Since October 1996, the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation has awarded, on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas South Central Community, 1,246 grants, totaling more than $56,100,000, to organizations serving underserved or overlooked communities. For more information, please call (704) 366-0087 or visit online at www.somncfdn.org.

About Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a national nonprofit organization that partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for low income children across the country. Citizen Schools uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building Apprenticeships after school. The organization’s programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

The Citizen Schools North Carolina program launched in 2006 and currently serves nearly 400 students and engages over 300 volunteers. Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org.

Eastway Students Are Smitten & Hooked on Photography

Lucy Parker Randall and Steven Randall of Smitten & Hooked photography shared their time and expertise with a group of students at Eastway Middle School on Tuesday March 12th.  The husband and wife team visited as guest speakers for the Prevention through Photography apprenticeship led by volunteer Citizen Teacher, Melissa Garrett of Anuvia Prevention and Recovery Center.  Lucy kicked off the presentation with a sneak peak of their new promotional video which features Lucy and Steven as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, playfully shooting photographs around town.  After viewing the video, Lucy showed the students a few examples of key photography principles such as rule of thirds, perspective, and the golden hour.  The students asked many great questions and, with equipment in hand, the group headed outside for a photography demonstration.  Lucy and Steven led hands-on activities with the students to further explain other elements of design such as leading lines and to illustrate lighting techniques including operating a light reflector.  The impact of the guest speakers’ visit was most obvious when the students ran to Lucy and Steven to proudly show them the photographs they had captured.

Share your passion or expertise. Volunteer with Citizen Schools students.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEM Success Stories from Lowe’s Grove Middle School

At Lowe’s Grove Middle School in Durham, North Carolina, students in STEM-related apprenticeships are learning about the world in innovative ways. What better way to teach engineering, health, science, the environment – you name it – than in a hands-on, engaging way? Here are a few examples of how the Lowe’s Grove staff and volunteer Citizen Teachers from many of our partnerships are expanding the learning day with STEM:

It’s one thing to learn about engineering straight out of a book, but our students are captivated in the Electrical Engineering apprenticeship as they see the textbook facts come to life. One of our partners, EMC Corporation, is teaching students through a hands-on approach about circuits, circuit boards, and their design and assembly. In one class, students found the room rearranged with a large cart which appeared to be made out of cardboard in the middle of two rows of desks. The cart had extended clear plastic tubes with small plastic wires emerging and blue electrical tape in different places. The students had no idea what to expect. Was something going to jump out of the box? Were they going to have to recreate it? Was it going to explode? As the Citizen Teacher explained transducers and motors most students were paying attention but several were fascinated by all of the possibilities for this mysterious box. Suddenly the box came to life with the whir of an electrical motor. The startled kids jumped in shock and awe, and hands shot up in the air to ask the Citizen Teacher how he did it. Leaning forward in their desks, the students were silent – completely engaged – and the Citizen Teacher goes on to explain how he used a remote and simple engineering to make the box spring to life; how the small plastic tubes coming out of the larger plastic tubes were LED light; and how light travels from the source down the tube so it becomes visible. The machine fascinated the students and simultaneously gave them a a real experience of the subject matter.

In the Robotics apprenticeship led by one of our national partners,  Fidelity Investments, student Brandon Holder demonstrates the power of the Citizen Schools program. Although he is known by his teachers to be a handful at times, Brandon thrives in our hands-on apprenticeships. During one of the Robotics lessons, he and his teammate were incredibly excited to program and test their robot. Completely immersed in the project, Brandon was able to stay focused on his work and, as a result, avoided the principal’s office.

Volunteers from the Environmental Protection Agency, another Citizen Schools partner, is teaching “Sustainability through Upcycling.” In this apprenticeship, students are learning how to see products in new ways and reuse them for other purposes. On the second day of the apprenticeship, students were asked to sort “trash” into recycling, composting or trash bins which caused one student to become distressed by what he was learning in the activity. The student realized the large amount of products that could have been repurposed but were instead being discarded on a daily basis. Disappointed, he declared, “People are so wasteful!” But he took that frustration and turned it into inspiration, determined to make some changes.

In the “Happy Lungs, Happy Living” apprenticeship, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is teaching students about the air they breathe and how it compares to the air they exhale. In the second week of the apprenticeship, they were engaged in several activities using phenol red, a liquid that changes colors to visually reflect the PH level of various substances. To further understand the subject of PH, students used phenol red to determine whether three substances were acidic, basic, or neutral. Each student donned safety goggles and gloves and received beakers of phenol red and three separate test tubes of soapy water, tap water, and a mystery substance. The students were then instructed to carefully pour the contents of the test tubes into different tubes of phenol red and observe the changes that occurred. As he cautiously in added soapy water to a vial of phenol red Jamal Midgette, a sixth-grade student, exclaimed, “I feel like such a scientist!”

Want to be involved? Learn more in our volunteer section.

 

Letter to Supporters from Executive Director Tonya Horton

Tonya Horton with CMS Board Chair Ericka Ellis-Stewart & CSNC Community Connector Christy Kluesner

Greetings,

It is with great delight that I say “thank you” to each of you for supporting our work at Citizen Schools North Carolina. We are excited about the status of our partnerships and our mid-year results indicate that we are moving steadily along the student achievement track. As I travel to our campuses, I have been pleased bythe dedication of our staff, the commitment of our 100 volunteers, and the continued support of our funders. My experiences have included the fabulous 6 Degrees of Charlotte networking event during which our 8th grade students were able to network with professionals in the fields of banking & finance, energy, philanthropy & community service, law & government, and much more. Joining me at 6 Degrees were over 150 supporters in the Charlotte area. I have also witnessed lawyers from Parker Poe and law students from NCCU teaching students the fundamentals of arguing a case; Wireless Generation employees teaching urban teens about survival skills; teams from EMC making engineering accessible to middle school students; and EPA volunteers and college students engaging students in science explorations.

WOW! season is quickly approaching and I invite you to attend a WOW! to see the great accomplishments of our students, staff and Citizen Teachers for yourself! The dates are listed on our events page here.

We are also in midst of the Citizens for Citizen Schools campaign, which is our annual effort to build awareness of our work and increase our sustainability. I encourage you to make an investment here and enhance our students’ learning experiences.

I wish you well,

 

 

 

 

Tonya Horton

CSNC Executive Director

 

Warning: Volunteering May be Addictive

John Gilson is a member of the Citizen Schools North Carolina Board and is a Four-Time Citizen Teacher

John Gilson at the Mock Trials in Fall 2010

In the summer of 2009 a colleague of mine approached me about teaching a Mock Trial apprenticeship through this organization called “Citizen Schools”.  I was reluctant at first. I was nervous about the time commitment, I hadn’t walked into a school in over ten years, and I did not know what to expect. That said, I knew that I wanted to improve public education here in Charlotte and I knew that I needed to step out of my comfort zone if I really wanted to do something meaningful.

For ten weeks, my team from Moore & Van Allen  taught an apprenticeship at Eastway Middle School.  It was designed to teach the students about the ins-and-outs of being a lawyer and how to try a case.  As you can imagine, spending an afternoon with twelve 12 year olds in a classroom proved to be much more entertaining than an afternoon spent with a bunch of lawyers stuck in a stuffy conference room.

  • The students learned about legal vocabulary, legal procedure, public speaking, confidence and powers of persuasion.
  • I learned that the music I listened to was no longer cool, that I had no idea what a Twitter “hashtag” was, and that a 12 year old will literally follow you into battle for a Butterfinger at 4PM. 
  • I also learned that IF you can make an 8th grader comprehend and accept that any career path or college goal that they have is indeed possible for them – you will drive home that day with the biggest goofiest smile on your face that the lady parked next to you at the red light has ever seen.

Mock Trial Apprenticeship Team

Our apprenticeship culminated with a Mock Trial WOW! at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in front of Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell and a jury from the community.

  • A REAL courthouse, a REAL judge and a REAL jury – and most importantly, a REAL bailiff with REAL handcuffs who I used as a ten week long threat for good behavior.  His services were not needed!

What a great experience for the students in our apprenticeship and what a terrifying one for me.

  • Had we prepared them enough?
  • Would the students remember their lines?
  • Would they remember what to do when the Judge called upon them?

For an hour and a half I watched in amazement as these young aspiring lawyers dazzled the judge, dazzled the jury, dazzled their family members in the audience and convinced me that someone else must have surely been sneaking into Eastway to teach them Mock Trial when I wasn’t around.  Walking out of the Courthouse that night I was hooked.  Our team has now taught 4 apprenticeships and we plan on teaching another this Fall!

Consider becoming a Citizen Teacher.  This gold standard of volunteering at Citizen Schools involves your willingness to join our students for 90 minutes a week for 10 weeks to share whatever you’re passionate about – whether it be your career or hobby.  No teaching experience is required – Citizen Schools provides all of the support you need – all you need is a desire to share something that fascinates you and a bag of Butterfingers.

My group at Moore & Van Allen is called the “Investment Team” and as a professional in the field I know a good investment when I see one.  The young aspiring professionals in our middle schools will one day comprise our workforce, and I encourage you to make an investment in them.

Charlotte Becomes 6 Degrees Closer

Ashley Ortiz and Bob Morgan

Charlotte came together to make a lifetime of difference in just one evening on February 2.  More than 150 local business professionals shared valuable advice and resources with over thirty eighth-grade students from Citizen Schools at the 6 Degrees of Charlotte event. Hand shakes weaved across the room, business cards were exchanged and faces beamed with pride as connections were made.


Don’t just take our word for it though, flip through our online album to see for yourself!

We would like to extend a special thank you to Bob Morgan, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, our Community Connectors and Sector Leaders for their support of and participation in the event.

Bobbi Pointdexter demonstrates her networking skills with event attendees.

 

Thank you to each of you who were able to attend for providing our eighth-grade students with guidance on how to navigate the path to future success in college, career and beyond. Your participation in this year’s event meant a great deal to our students. Please watch this video to hear their appreciation as expressed by Lizbeth Torres.

Did you miss the event? Want to stay involved?

Read more…

Charlotte Chamber Films Citizen Schools Students During Mock Interviews

Bob Morgan, President of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, recently visited the Citizen Schools program at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and filmed our students in action (video below). On Tuesday, January 24, eighth-grade students participated in mock interviews with volunteers as part of a larger curriculum focused on preparing the students for high school, college and career success. These lessons culminate in a showcase event, 6 Degrees of Charlotte, during which the students will network with local business professionals to get advice on how to build and leverage their own network to achieve their future goals.

Do you have advice to share with them? Register for the February 2nd event today online – www.6degreesofcharlotte.org.

We would like to extend a special thanks to the volunteers who assisted with the mock interviews last Tuesday: Michael Juby, Parker Poe; Chuck Cocke & Nanelle Napp, Bank of America; and Adeola Fearon, MyOla Creations.

Charlotte Students Unveil Original Boutiques at Belk, Inc.

Eastway Middle School students in Charlotte, NC, spent one afternoon each week this fall participating in their own version of the hit show “Project Runway,” learning what it takes to discover and sell today’s hottest fashion designs. After 10 weeks of hard work it was time to show Charlotte what the students had learned by displaying their very own boutiques. Their visual displays were unveiled at the Belk Corporate office on Thursday, December 15th, 2011, to a crowd of Belk employees.

Brooke Stephens, an assistant buyer for Belk, led the apprenticeship that took place every Thursday afternoon. Halfway through the semester the students had the opportunity to visit the Belk SouthPark store and were treated to a tour from store manager, Randy Dell. In addition, students had the opportunity to select the latest fashion trends but were challenged to remain within a specific budget. Students posed in their chosen outfits in front of the holiday display at the SouthPark store, and to wrap up the tour that day, Belk generously donated gift bags filled with holiday goodies, ties for the young men, and Clinique make up samples for the young ladies.

In addition to the engaging field trip to the store, Brooke surprised the students with the opportunity to showcase their learning at the Belk Corporate offices on December 15th, 2011. The students walked through the office doors dressed to impress in business attire. They were armed with store logos, sample budgets and other boutique details – products of their semester-long work. Belk bystanders were blown away, and the “Lil’ Miss Swaggar” boutique was definitely a crowd favorite. Students had the opportunity to network with a number of Belk employees including Johanna Anderson, Belk Foundation Director.

Citizen Schools is fortunate to have the support from a business like Belk and its employees who work side by side with our staff to ensure all students are prepared for high school, college and future careers.

If this story has inspired you to get involved please consider volunteering in 2012, or attending our 6 Degrees of Charlotte event on February 2nd at the Mint Museum in Uptown Charlotte. For more information on volunteering visit: www.citizenschools.org/volunteer, and for more information on our 6 Degrees of Charlotte event visit: www.6degreesofcharlotte.org.

About the Belk Foundation

The Belk Foundation is a private, family foundation founded in 1928. Over the past 10 years, it has awarded grants totaling more than $33 million to non-profit organizations and causes benefiting communities where Belk associates live and work. The mission of The Belk Foundation is to invest in schools and organizations that work aggressively to ensure all students graduate from high school and continue on an intentional path toward college, career and life. For more information about The Belk Foundation, contact: Johanna Anderson, 704-426-8322 or Johanna_Anderson@belk.com. In May 2009, The Belk Foundation awarded Citizen Schools North Carolina $150,000 in support of its Apprenticeship and 8th Grade Academy programs.

About Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement and bridge the achievement gap by teaching skill-building apprenticeships after school. At 37 middle schools in seven states across the country, Citizen Schools programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing low-income students for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.

The Citizen Schools program launched in 2006 and currently serves approximately 400 students in North Carolina and engages over 200 volunteers. Learn more about Citizen Schools’ programs and results at www.citizenschools.org.

 

Tannenbaums and Tinsel: An Early Christmas for Citizen Schools?

With the Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge, many folks now have the fresh smell of an evergreen swelling throughout their homes – festively decorated and on display.  Citizen Schools North Carolina has been sharing the holiday spirit as well. On November 30th, staff members from Lowe’s Grove Middle School and our Development Director, Jill Ullman, gathered at Diamond View Park at the American Tobacco Campus to decorate Tree 51 for Citizen Schools’ chance to win up to $5,000!

Brad Powell, Joshua Johnson, Mykia Johnson, and Jill Ullman used student-created ornaments to don our 10-feet tall Christmas tree.  Students at Lowe’s Grove Middle School fashioned construction paper into brilliant trimmings displaying our program’s 7 values: Joy, Teamwork, Pride, Vision, Leadership, Courage, and Perseverance.  They even created clocks to represent the extended learning day – and a nod to Father Time for the approaching new year.  Jill also had her family pitch in by crafting some fantastic Moravian stars.  Citizen Schools’ Tree 51 along with many others were lit in the ceremonial Illumination of Trees this evening, and voting began at 8:00 pm along with other event activities.

Please show your support for our organization and cast your vote today!

Text “TREE51″ to 46988 or vote online here.  Voting ends at midnight on December 18th.

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