Citizen Schools; exposing middle school kids to professional opportunities
Last night I had the honor of serving as a judge at the annual Citizen Schools Design & Development WOW! presentations. Citizen Schools is a local non profit that works with middle school kids. The Design and Development Apprenticeship is an urban planning ideas competition – and we at D2E love ideas! This event engages more than 100 youth from middle schools throughout Boston. For 10 weeks each fall, the students collaborate with volunteer architecture and development professionals and Citizen Schools staff to re-envision Boston’s built environment and public open spaces, developing plans and models for projects in different city neighborhoods.
This student from the McCormack school impressed us with his innovative ideas, his spiffy suit and his articulate presentation. Well done!
The Edison Middle School tackled the problems with City Hall!
It was inspiring to hear these students ideas. And it was great to also meet some of the graduates from previous years that are now in college. This really is what it’s all about. Kids have to be exposed to options in order to understand that there are opportunities.
According to John Werner, the enthusiastic leader of Citizen Schools, “This program works. Our combination of rigorous academic support and engaging apprenticeships is producing a generation of eager and invested learners. Citizen teachers are sharing their expertise and kids are listening. Our students are outperforming a comparison group of public middle school students on 6 of 7 key indicators, including MCAS scores, attendance, suspension rates and on time promotion to 10th grade, a critical indicator of HS graduation rates. As well, graduate of our 8th grade academy program are graduating from HS and attending college at nearly twice the rates of their BPS peers.”
I was really tired on this Monday and at 4pm I was dreading the commitment I made to be a judge. Those feelings faded as soon as I arrived and saw all the great work being done. I was energized and excited to be a part of this great effort. And a big “Thank you” goes out to all of the local businesses that stepped up to the plate and brought the students into their offices. This was a big time commitment and a great investment in the future of Boston. We at D2E applaud you!
Participating Apprenticeships:
Payette Associates: McCormack Middle School
Cubellis: Edwards Middle School
Goody Clancy: Irving Middle School
Harvard Graduate School of Design: 8th Grade Academy
ICON Architecture, Inc: Rogers Middle school
Paul Lukez Architecture: Mario Umana Middle School Academy
Shepley Bulfinch: Gavin Middle School
Jones Lang LaSalle: Edison Middle School
Altitude, Inc.: McCormack Middle School
Below are a bunch of photos to enjoy.
Students are making plans for a bike and pedestrian path to help improve and reinvigorate the Columbia Point neighborhood.
Jones Lang LaSalle even went to the extent of teaching the kids about budgeting. I could have used a few of these lessons!
To the tune of Rocky, the students marched up to the podium to collect their awards.
Ernest Pough, a graduate of Citizen Schools and current Freshman at Union College was one of my fellow judges. He passed out our awards to the teams.
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