NY Daily News: Citizen Schools Students Get a Boost from Google Volunteers

“One of the things people don’t talk about is the inspiration gap,” said Kamar Samuels, Principal of Bronx Writing Academy, in a recent interview with NY Daily News. “My students don’t necessarily have as many role models, and so one of the things that Citizen Schools brings is a core group of high-functioning, high-achieving adults to help students, to inspire students, to make a clear transition between what’s happening in their classrooms and what it could mean for their life. If you’re thinking, ‘How is math applicable to my life?’ Who better to show you than a Google software engineer?”

Volunteers from companies like Google help students see how what they're learning in school now relates to a college degree and a successful career. Expanded learning time (ELT) opens up new experiences such as building a robot or writing a computer program that wouldn't be available to students otherwise.

“When they want a program to do something and they finally get it working, it’s totally exhilarating,” said Alexandra Taylor, a software engineer at Google, in the article. “They get the same moments of frustration and satisfaction that I do in my job everyday.”

Read the entire piece, Getting a Boost From Google: Citizen Schools makes STEM education relevant to at-risk students, at NY Daily News.