AmeriCorps Member Spotlight: Liam McCarthy

At Citizen Schools, no role is more essential to the success of our students than that of the AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow. Citizen Schools National Teaching Fellows create extraordinary enrichment and academic support experiences for the students we serve the nation. On a daily basis, Fellows deepen connections between schools and parents, help to develop social-emotional skills through mentoring and coaching students, and facilitate hands-on learning opportunities through our apprenticeships

AT&T Helps Students Reach their Potential at Citizen Schools

AT&T asserts that, “Every student deserves opportunities to reach his or her full potential. By removing barriers, sparking innovative solutions and making connections, we can help every student achieve a bright, successful future.”

Media Coverage, NationalSue Marble CuthbertNovember 15, 2017AT&T, Education, Coding Academy

A Step in the Right Direction: Career Exploration in Middle School

In the quest for college and career readiness, policymakers are slowly but surely coming around to the importance of career readiness. Though much of this nascent effort is focused on career readiness for high schoolers, middle school is beginning to enter the discussion, too. The middle grades are a crucial time to engage, or reengage, students and put them on a path to college and career success. Research has demonstrated that grades, attendance, and engagement in middle school are strong predictors of high school graduation and postsecondary success. The Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University found that “sixth graders who failed math or English/reading, or attended school less than 80% of the time, or received an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core course had only a 10% to 20% chance of graduating [high school] on time.”

Becky Shipp, Key Senate Staffer on Child Welfare, Heads to Private Sector

Becky Shipp, a veteran policy advisor for the Senate Finance Committee, has been named vice president of The Sheridan Group, a D.C.-based consulting firm that specializes in helping to create advocacy campaigns.

Media CoverageJohn KellyOctober 5, 2017Education, Private Sector

Afropunk Inspires Brooklyn Students

On August 24th, Citizen Schools students from Urban Assembly Unison had the opportunity to visit the Afropunk festival site. The students experienced how the organization set up for their annual festival in Brooklyn. The staff at Afropunk emphasized the importance of “ going for what you want in life and never letting fear control your destiny".

New YorkLenard PittsSeptember 19, 2017Brooklyn, Education, Afropunk

CSNY School Principal Highlight: Dr. Brian Bradley Renaissance School of the Arts

“ Citizen Schools is part of the community at RSA, the young men and women from Citizen Schools build such rich relationships with our students that transcend academics. Their presence here has a truly lasting effect on our students.”

New YorkLenard PittsSeptember 19, 2017Education, back to school

Meet our 2017-18 Campus Teams!

Citizen Schools welcomes 21 new teaching fellows and 9 returning Fellows this year. The teachers spread out across four middle schools and three grade levels. Fellows bring diverse professional experience—as artists, social workers, entrepreneurs, and recent grads—into the classroom. Our Teaching Fellow cohort went through three weeks of Summer Institute. Our CSNY orientation is an opportunity to welcome our new staff to Citizen Schools, educate them about our mission and core values, and show them all we have to offer for academic, social and emotional learning. From the start, we want to make them feel like a part of the Citizen Schools family.

New YorkLenard PittsSeptember 19, 2017Education, new york, Teaching Fellow

A personal connection to Harlem brings New Campus Director Chantell Brown to Global Technology Preparatory School

"I am excited to return in a capacity that will allow me to work directly with students and families in programming designed to explore ideas, encourage self-discovery and promote lifelong learning through hands on experiences and connections to caring adults and professionals," says Brown.

TF Spotlight: Liana St. Bernard

I decided to be an AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow because I've met so many adults impacted by childhood trauma. I feel like if someone was able to be a positive light to them in their childhood things could have been different. It made me reflect on my life and the support I had. At that moment I realized my calling to be a resource to children through education.

8th Grade Academy Inspires Creativity in Students

It was the excitement to grow as a writer that led Sanai, an 8th-grade student at Urban Assembly Unison to join Citizen Schools 8th Grade Academy. She was a member of multiple apprenticeships, and the staff was impressed by her work ethic and creativeness. Sanai was offered the chance to participate in 8th Grade Academy with like-minded peers.She credits 8GA for helping her develop as a writer and preparing her for high school with the deadlines.

New YorkLenard PittsJune 26, 2017Education, Afterschool programs, New York

Inside Citizen Schools A Documentary Film

Since 2015, the staff at Cavelight Films, a New York-based production company, have led apprenticeships inspiring students to be creative, while teaching technical skills exercised in the film production field. Last spring, Jordan Ehrlich -(Cavelight Films) and Caitlin McNally -( National Geographic) guided students through a 10-week Documentary filming class at the Urban Assembly Unison Middle School in Brooklyn. The students had the opportunity to create a documentary that showcased Citizen Schools programing at Urban Assembly Unison Middle School.

CycED for Citizen Schools Recap

Over 23 teams joined us at Swerve Fitness on June 3 to help raise, nearly $54,000 to help fight the opportunity gap in New York City Public schools!

New YorkLenard PittsJune 5, 2017CIEducation, new york city, Afterschool programs, STEM, spin class

Thank You for Supporting Citizen Schools

National, California, Massachusetts, New YorkWhitney BuckleyJanuary 9, 2017Education, schools, Volunteer, AmeriCorps

Abt Associates Evaluation of Citizen Schools ELT Model

Since our earliest days at Citizen Schools, we have invested in rigorous external evaluation to understand the impact of our program on students, school communities, and Citizen Schools volunteers, and to identify the priority areas for improvement. Today marks an important milestone in this commitment. We are pleased to release the final report of a five-year external evaluation of the Citizen Schools national Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative, conducted by Abt Associates.

National, Policy & AdvocacyEmily McCannNovember 3, 2016abt associates, Citizen Schools, Education, emily mccann

Citizen Schools Receives All Points North Foundation Grant to Fund Programming at Browne School