This summer, United Way For Greater Austin is funding a six-week blended enrichment program for middle school students in Manor. In partnership with Bank of America, a special cohort of incoming 9th graders will concentrate on career readiness and financial literacy as they prepare for high school. Students will not only learn about careers in the classroom, but will take weekly field trips to various businesses and organizations to learn about different career paths from the employees working in each field. Last week, the summer program kicked off with students visiting the state capitol to learn more about the political sector. The students took a tour of the capitol to learn more about the history of the building and Texas government. They learned some interesting facts when visiting the State Senate room, like how the Senate does not have a limit for debate which can cause a filibuster. (The longest filibuster in Texas happened in 1977 when a representative talked for 43 hours!) After the tour, students met with Miguel Liscano and Curtis Smith to learn about their career paths and experiences working in the capitol. Curtis Smith works as the Chief of Staff for Representative Terry Canales from District 40, and Miguel Liscano who works as the Committee Director for the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence for Representative Abel Herrero of District 34. Miguel and Curtis discussed how they started their careers through internships, working with a business or organization for a semester or summer to get both educational and real life experience in different fields. The […]
Read MoreThe Effects of Summer Learning Loss on Low-Income Students
Students and parents alike usually view summer as a time for well-deserved relaxation and a break from learning. However, this break from learning can have consequences that are detrimental to students during the following school year and beyond. More than half of the achievement gap between low- and med/high-income students is due to unequal access to high-quality summer learning opportunities. Low-income students often can’t afford the summer camps, intensive programming or worldly vacations that their more affluent peers attend, and often spend their summers watching TV or babysitting their siblings. Most students lose about two months of mathematical computation skills over the summer. Low-income students also lose more than two months in reading achievement, while their mid/higher-income peers actually make slight gains. This achievement gap has more and more of an effect on students as they complete more schooling. These summer knowledge losses compound so greatly that it has even been identified as part of the reason that low-income kids are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (SummerLearning.org). Not only do students lose knowledge, many also gain unhealthy amounts of weight during the summer due to a lack of balanced meals at home and lack of exercise they normally get from recess, organized sports or gym class. Students gain weight on average two to three times faster than they do during the school year (Edutopia.org). As you can see, it’s important in many aspects of a child’s life to have access during the summer to programs […]
Read MoreEmpowering students is part of the program with Middle School Matters
At Webb Middle School, United Way Capital Area is helping 20 7th graders become the next generation of community leaders by hosting a nationally-recognized Volunteer Project Leader (VPL) training program on campus. These dedicated 12- and 13-year-olds regularly get to school early every Thursday to participate in training. They are eager to learn how to make their school and neighborhoods better. “It started when we hosted volunteer projects on campus last spring,” said Nikki Krueger, Director, Volunteer Engagement at UWCA. “After Deloitte’s IMPACT Day there, the principal and assistant principal asked if we had leadership opportunities for their students. This fit perfectly.”
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