July 7, 2014
Thank you to all supporters and volunteers that participated in the Youth Leadership Council Backpack Drive! With your help, the GO Project was able to puchase brand new backpacks and supplies for all of our students. On July 7th, all 570 GO students received a bag filled with all of the supplies they will need over our 5-week program. These items included notebooks, folders, papers, markers, pens, pencils, pencil cases, dictionaries, scissors, erasers and more. The students we serve were thrilled. On behalf of our families, thank you!
September 28, 2013
The GO Project was featured on American Graduate Day, a multi-platform event committed to helping communities tackle the nation’s dropout crisis and preparing students for success with a high school diploma. The broadcast premiered live on Saturday, September 28 on PBS and streamed live from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center.
The event featured local and national programming, community partners, and celebrities focused on improving the high school graduation rates in America. Nearly 30 national partner organizations, 14 local organizations, and celebrity guests involved in education and youth intervention programs participated. In 2013, the GO Project was honored to be chosen as a local New York City partner organization.
The GO segment, featuring two GO parents and a GO teacher, can be viewed below. For more information on American Graduate Day, please visit: http://americangraduate.org/.
August 15, 2012
Avenues, a private school that opened in the fall of 2012 in Chelsea with tall ceilings and an abundance of natural light, offers its students a global view on education. The GO Project began a new partnership with Avenues-The World School in January. Avenues provides GO Project with ten classrooms and common space for gatherings and parent workshops on Saturdays during GO School and has demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting the GO Project’s vision to provide educational access to struggling students in New York City public schools.
Students enrolled in GO programming at Avenues attend many of GO’s current public school partners downtown. Additionally, we have begun to develop relationships with P.S. 11, P.S 33, and NYCHA. At the program’s onset, the GO Project served 31 students at Avenues, with an attendance rate of 90%. Enrollment has grown to 50 students and plans are in place to increase enrollment up to 100 students this summer.
This new partnership began through initial introductions between school leaders and the GO Project’s Board of Directors and staff. Since then, Avenues has demonstrated its commitment to GO and to giving back to the community. The GO Project’s Executive Director, Erica Ahdoot, “would love for the GO Project to be more present in Avenues and hopes for a deeper partnership in the school next year, such as recruiting and training Avenues teachers and staff to work with GO students during the school year.”
The Program Manager at Avenues, Allie Kramer, a former elementary New York City public school teacher, also hopes for wider visibility within the school community and the neighborhood of Chelsea. Students have already taken field trips to the High Line in conjunction with science lessons. The GO Project staff plan to hold informational sessions for the community in the future and further explore the surrounding area of Chelsea this summer.
August 9, 2012
The GO Project Visual Arts Program, a new program initiated in October, is ending its pilot year this month. Through this unique arts opportunity, LREI high school students mentor and interact with ten 7th grade students from the GO Project over the course of 11 sessions. One of LREI’s arts teachers instructs students in a variety of arts education activities, including fine art and 3D art in a hands-on, small class setting.
Along with improving their self-expression and critical-thinking skills, the seventh grade GO Project students develop their arts abilities through work on a range of exercises that explore the skill-based, conceptual and creative aspects of art making. In the first half of the program, students work with various art materials and study a range of techniques: drawing with graphite, painting with acrylics from photo reference, and linoleum block printing to create self-portraits. Students explore the formal aspects of art-making with an emphasis on value and color theory; their paintings are done with a palette limited to analogous colors, composition and linear construction. Currently in the second half of programming, students are learning the hand building techniques of basic ceramics and will be presenting their finished art work pieces to fellow peers, mentors, and teachers.
Ji Young Park, the GO Project’s Director of Programs, thanks LREI for supporting the GO Project in facilitating this pilot program: “We want to continue to programmatically merge the resources and support of private institutions with the public school system in this way. Seeing how both sets of students gain knowledge, learn from each other, and build mutual trust is remarkable. We hope to expand this program in the 2013-2014 school year to include additional arts activities or to include all middle school students at the GO Project.”
June 6, 2012
This summer, the GO Project will be conducting a summer internship program, which was created using Echoing Green's Work on Purpose framework of Heart + Head = Hustle. Approximately 35 high school students from public and private schools in NYC such as, LREI, Friends Seminary, Stuyvesant High School, and Bard High School-Early College have been selected to participate through a competitive application process.
The GO Project 5-week Work on Purpose Internship will place high school interns as teaching assistants in Kindergarten-6th grade classes. As teaching assistants, the interns will work in small groups or one-on-one to help students complete projects and assignments prepared by their GO Summer teachers. In addition to working with the students, the interns will also take part in daily professional development sessions. During these sessions, the interns will discuss the challenges and successes they are seeing in the classroom, lead group discussions on topics of their choice, and develop their own leadership skills. The goal of the internship is to help the students discover and enhance their passions and talents to become change-makers in their community.
By the end of the summer, the interns will have completed a portfolio which will highlight their work both in the classroom in professional development sessions.
All interns were required to submit a personal statement upon applying to the program. An 11th grade student from partner school LREI, Emma Stydahar, shared an exemplary vision for the internship: “There are several reasons why I am interested in working with the GO Project this summer. The heavily debated issue of public education is on that is very close to my heart. I strongly believe that every single child should be getting the best possible education, whether they go to public school or private school, and that the caliber of education that children receive should not be proportional to their family's income. With the GO Project, I have witnessed the work being done to close that education gap, and I would love to continue to do whatever is in my capacity to have a hand in that change.”
March 16, 2012
The GO Project recently began a partnership with City Sounds of NY, a speech and language therapy provider in response to a growing need for language services among GO project students. Driven by student assessment data reflecting a high instance of complex language needs, the GO Project decided to extend this collaboration into the academic school year.
Currently, 10 students identified as having the greatest need receive 50 minutes of intensive speech and language therapy from a certified speech pathologist on Saturdays at the GO Red site located at Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI). Parents are regularly updated on the content and progress of their child’s sessions and our provided with training on strategies to use at home. This initiative is rooted in the GO project’s core belief that holistic intervention and support for students and families are essential to student success. In this unique agency collaboration, GO Project students benefit from expert services while families are empowered to increase their engagement with their child’s learning.
“Providing speech-language therapy services to the children of GO Project has been extremely rewarding for City Sounds of NY. Through GO Project we’ve been able to have a positive impact on children living in underserved communities. Access to educational, emotional and social support can be instrumental in a child’s success and GO Project’s goal is to make it accessible to those with need. We look forward to a long collaboration with GO Families and the entire GO Project team.” says Amy Grillo, President of City Sounds of NY.
March 16, 2012
The GO Project thanks our outstanding high school volunteer, Glorianna Macagnone for all of her hard work and dedication to our organization. A volunteer with GO Summer and GO School for 3 years, Glorianna has proved herself to be a great mentor and leader among the volunteers. Over the summer and now during GO School, Glorianna works with a GO Project second grader who benefits from having a consistent tutor with her throughout the day. Her patient relationship with this student has left a strong impression on GO staff who have witnessed her dedication in practice.
"Gloriana is phenomenal. She is mature beyond her years. She's always taking on more responsibilities and is a true mentor to this particular student who has grown tremendously as a result of Gloriana's consistent presence and intervention," praised Olivia Nunez, GO Project Volunteer Manager.
This student, once unable to remain in the classroom for more than 20 minutes is now able to fully participate in the full length of a GO School day so that she can build both the academic and social skills that she needs to succeed.
The GO Project is wrapped about the beautiful film that nycTIES made about our academic and enrichment program for GO students and families. Feel free to watch, forward and spread the word!
July 2009
The GO Project is actively expanding our network of masters student social work interns from the Silver School of Social Work at NYU to push into our partner public schools. The goal is to provide social and emotional support to GO Project students who would benefit the most from additional attention, and to maintain the support through more regular contact throughout the week.
The GO Project currently has seven interns who each work closely with the school’s administrators to target the students’ areas of concern. Public schools are selected to receive social work intern placement based on the number of their students that attend the GO Project and the amount of benefit to the students. The interns work with students either individually or in small groups.
Having social work interns placed inside our partner schools creates a link between Saturdays to help the GO Project staff understand and address issues that may come up during the week that may affect performance in class on Saturdays.
“The kids we work with are often too young to know why they are struggling in school, either with their confidence or their ability to focus, for instance. When we are able to provide them more attention in their school, we can get a sense of what might be holding them back and can help them work on it,” GO Project intern, Chrisitna Hunkins, said.
Rachel Kolodin, another intern, also feels strongly that intervention during the week is vital to provide consistency for the students. She does play therapy, as well as family and parent counseling, at PS 64.
“Having GO Project social work interns in the school is so important for the children, parents, and school staff. In the school we are given a much greater ability to address the children's issues on a more regular basis and focus on the problems at hand holistically. In the school environment, we are given the opportunity to see their interaction with other children and their teachers, and can handle issues as they arise,” Kolodin explained.
The goal is to both provide comprehensive support to the students who need it most, and to create lasting relationships with schools. Stronger partnerships with individual schools will ultimately allow the GO Project to be the go-to resource for children who are both academically underperforming and who may not have access to other services due to their family’s financial situation.
The response from partner schools has been very positive so far. At PS 64, Kolodin notes that “the principal is very grateful that we are in the school, and the guidance counselor has been a wonderful source of help.”
Additionally, the interns gain valuable firsthand experience and guidance from the GO Project’s Director of Social Services, Diana Gasperoni, who meets with each intern weekly to discuss strategies to work with their students.
“The GO Project is an ideal placement for a social work intern because of the combination of clinical practice, referral skills and a broader sense of the community that it provides. It allows me to apply directly what I’m learning in my classes. The GO Project provides a much more well-rounded experience than many other agencies can offer their interns,” says Hunkins.
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