Citizen Schools has and continues to be a program that has changed the lives of middle school children. This past fall the program has run on two campuses with more than 140-150 students participating in after school apprenticeships with community volunteers and professionals throughout the southcoast. Citizen Schools has been an Invest In Kids sponsored program that is focused on building participants leadership skills and academic performance. They achieve this by linking them with professionals that inspire them to think about career oriented goals and a commitment to higher education.

At both Normandin and Keith Middle Schools the apprenticeship programs this past fall were focused in Architecture, Whaling History, Mock trial, Financial Literacy, Basketball, Strings (music), Animate (animation), Web Design, Healthy Cooking, Volleyball and Brass. The program ran from 3-5pm from Monday through Thursday for 10 weeks. One student, Austin Amaral spoke about his thoughts in the website design program which was taught by Christina Janzelovich and Rose Ferro from the BCC Technology Department .

Austin Amaral, age 12 wrote
“I liked the website design program because our teachers showed us how to program your own website using a program called STAR-LOGO to design, it was cool! We also used Alice programming to make cool 3D pictures where I created my Halloween website. I learned that for a simple page it takes a long time. We also learned to not let just anyone build your website and to be sure you get your money’s worth. In general I like the apprenticeships because you get to learn to do these things by someone who does it for a living.”

As you can see many of the participants of the program were extremely excited to be involved, here is what one of the facilitators, Nelson Hockert Lotz, of the “This I believe” essay program had to say.

Nelson Hockert Lotz, local business owner

“I was one of the teachers for ‘This I believe’, which is a national essay program, I can’t say enough good about citizen schools, it’s a fabulous program and the staff is electric in the way that they turn kids on. The program is something that you don’t see enough of in the public schools. In our program we encouraged students to learn how personal beliefs can teach you how to find your voice. We left the program with more than we brought to it. As a mentor/teacher I was so happy to be a part of the program.”

In another apprentinticeship taught by Mrs. Tolicious, students learned the fundamentals of animation and creating characters using Windows video maker. Two of the students in this program, Denise Oliver, age 13 and Liberty Hayes, age 11 created “A Day at the Mall” which was an animated story of shoplifting and the lesson young people learn if they were found to be involved in that activity. “It’s the small stuff that gives us the opportunity to connect with the children.”

Citizen Schools culminated their fall semester with a wrap up WOW presentation, at Normandin Middle School on December 17th and at Keith Middle School on December 12th where they showcased all of the apprenticeships to all of their family and school staff. Parents have been amazing supporters of Citizen Schools. One parent, Quiana Gomes whose daughter Sydney, age 11 was a participant at Keith described Citizen Schools as “the best thing that ever happened to my daughter, Sydney loves the program and it has brought all of her graded up dramatically to A’s and B’s” She explained how as a parent it has been a great resource to know that she has received extra help on her schoolwork before she even gets home!