City Year January Newsletter

City Year Columbus

Table of Contents

Advanced Training Academy

MLK Service

Corps Member Spotlight7

The New Linden McKinley

345

Upcoming Events

Special Thanks to

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City Year Honors Dr. Kings Dream during MLK Day Camp

On Monday, January 16th, 2012, City Year Columbus held its annual camp in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and the work he did for the Civil Rights movement. Many students in the community know who MLK is, but they don’t know how much he really did to progress the state of the country.To celebrate the day, City Year began by transforming one of the schools we serve in, Hamilton STEM Academy, into an exciting environment where the kids were enthused about their day. City Year began bright and early, decorating the school and setting up several classrooms for fun, educational activities for the yyouth we work with on a daily basis.

Unlike years past, this time the camp was set up for not just the students of the Linden community (where Hamilton STEM Academy is located), but also to the students of Weinland Park Elementary, another elementary school where we serve. Between the two schools, we had over 70 students paparticipate in the camp.Each City Year corps member worked, alongside several volunteers from Frito Lay and KidCorps to help lead a group of students throughout the day’s exercises. Hamilton and Weinland Park students came together and worked with one another to accomplish tasks, present skits, and and even wrote their their own “I Have a Dream” speech.

At mid-day the students were treated to a delicious lunch provided by Donatos, and a late snack thanks to contributions from Frito-Lay. As the day came to an end, the students were sad to leave, but still left with smiles on their faces. City Year doesn’t view MLK day as a day off, rather we celebrate it as a day on, where we have the opportunity to celebrate a man who pushed to knock down barriers in society and helped to build a better nation for our studentin society and helped to build a better nation for our students.

The refurbished Linden-McKinley STEM Academy is not exactly done. Our team began our second half of service last week in a building full of sawdust, loose wires, empty shelves, and untiled floors; two weeks later and there’s still much to be done. It’s a good thing City Year is always ready, because many rooms and technologies are not. But the masses of construction workers we slip by post-final circle show that these things will be completed. And the general feeling I get from this new Linden-McKinley, eeven in its unfinished state, is making my personal Panther Pride soar. Let me backtrack— I was a first year Corps Member last year, when LMSA was housed in the old North High building. Though architecturally pretty nifty, North was not ideal for teaching 21st century students, especially those enrolled in a supposed STEM academy. It was likewise tough to generate a positive school climate in a building that everyone knew was temporary fix (the murals we made were all mobile). There seemed to be an unspoken assumption amongst school faculty that the “ that the “STEM” identity would not be truly put on until we moved back into the renovated old building. The difference between then and now is astonishing. The place we’re at today is one that students and teachers can boast about. It’s big, bold, and maroon all over. Most importantly, it’s a place that could produce a ton of science and engineering talent in the near future. We’ve got smart boards in every room, beautiful science labs, tons of new, state of the art equipment, and yes, air conditioning. There’s plenty of other fun fun features, too, including a brand new wing for the 7th and 8th graders (something that pleases me to no end), a new gym (that’s one of those “work in progress” things, as of today), and an absolutely insane amount of windows. The new old Linden-McKinley STEM Academy is not exactly done, true, but it’s still a beautiful thing to see, especially in the Linden community. Having shiny stuff will not solve all the problems that plague our students, but the new building will certainly go a long way toward improving morale, increasing success, and helping our our students engage with the world around them. It’s very exciting to be a Team Leader right now.

The New LInden Mckinley STEM AcademyBy: Jack Wolfe

Advanced

Training

Academy

City Year Value #8, Unbuntu- “I am a person through other people; my humanity is tied to yours”.City Year is an organization deeply ingrained in its values. Everything we do as an organization, we do based off of our Core Values. This is no truer than during Advanced Training Academy. During the first week in January City Year Columbus came together for our annual Advanced Training Academy. One of City Year’s main focus is constantly strfocus is constantly striving for excellence. In order for one to be constantly improving we must always be looking for ways to improve ourselves. City Year Columbus really took hold of this idea of self-improvement through several workshops designed to make our service even more efficient and effective. Besides training to become a more effective corps, ATA is designed to rekindle the City Year values of Inclusivity and Teamwork among corps members across all sites. The ideas of Inclusivity and Teamwork were developed during the week through several teambuilding wworkshops, rock climbing, and an event called IgNight Columbus. During Ignight, City Year Columbus Corps Members were given the opportunity to share something that is important and that they value. The week was capped off with an overnight retreat that brought City Year Cleveland and Columbus together. Upon arrival at camp, both sights greeted each other with open hearts and open minds. Strangers who had never met before came together like old friends because of their shared City Year experience. The retreat served as a reminder to both sites that we are paare part of a larger whole and that we are all tied together. The inspiration drawn from the ATA will allow City Year Columbus to finish their year strong and leave an even greater impact on the communities we serve.

Show Us!“The more that you read,

the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

Starting Feburary 3rdIn honor of Dr. Sesus’s Read Across America Day,

City Year is looking for bookworms.

1. Snap a picture of yourself or others reading alone or to a group.

2 Then make sure to upload the picture to our Facebook Page or on twitter #CYbookworm.

3. The best picture will earn a special award at our annual SStarry Starry Night Gala as well as two free tickets

to the event (100 dollar value).

We look forward to seeing your entrees!

Read

Across

America

Are you a Bookworm?

Corps Member Spotlight

Hannah Cryer

Growing up, my parents were constantly involved in volunteerism, from running a halfway house for recently released inmates to volunteering weekly at a community run thrift store, their commitment to helping others made service a natural priority for me. By six years old I had already held a fundraiser to buy clothing for an orphanage in Yugoslavia. My Christmas’s were spent delivering donated presents with my parents to the children of inmates at the county jail.the county jail. At 12, I spent six weeks of my summer volunteering at a summer camp for at-risk youth. This is where I discovered my passion for working with young people. Four summers and countless weeks of camp later, I knew this passion would be integral to whatever I decidedto pursue as a career. When I started my freshman year of college in 2010, I was still unsure in what capacity I wanted to work with kids.

After completing two semesters without coming to a conclusion about what job I wanted or what I should major in, I began looking into taking a gap year to serve I wanted or what I should major in, I began looking into taking a gap year to serve with an AmeriCorps program focused on youth. And that’s when City Year found me. I receive an email from a city year recruiter, which motivated me to look up the City Year website. Within 5 minutes of surfing, I was hooked. I knew City Year was something I wanted to pursue. City Year’s appeal for me lied in its focus on education. As a lifelong homeschooler, public education was a new frontier for me. Serving with City Year would offer meexperience in an environment that I previously had very little exposure to. It opreviously had very little exposure to. It offered me a challenge, and theopportunity to explore a new area, where I just might find my niche.

Age: 18

Hometown: Mt. Vernron, Missouri

Education: QzacksTechnical College

Looking to apply to City Year?Join us for our open house Feburary 1st to receive a more in-depth look at City Year.

Located at 88 East Broad St Suite 800Columbus, OH 43215

We hope to see you there!

For more information please contact Mike Slepian at 614.592.4536For more information please contact Mike Slepian at 614.592.4536

City Year Open House

Brought to You by City Year Columbus