Thankful Thursday: 2011-2012 Corps Members

This is to the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley corps of 2011/2012.

Congratulations to all of you.  Thank you for your service.

As I was preparing to write this blog I came upon the realization that “Thank you” is such a trite way to express gratitude.

I can list the great accomplishments of your 2000 hours of service. The 100’s of students served, the difference you made in schools around attendance behavior and course performance. But that does not capture it all. There is “behind the scenes” work that no one sees that’s helps make this all happen.

Things like:

• Preparing lesson plans after 10 hour days
• In some cases, convincing your parents to let you do this
• Stepping up when a teammate was sick
• Minimum days (which were really maximum days)
• Living on a small stipend
• Piloting programs
• Data and all the entry, analysis, adjustment of same
• Serving on committees in addition to your regular responsibilities
• Staying late, with a great attitude, until the l a s t  s t u d e n t is  finally picked up
• Lunch with students, spending the time to get to know them and building relationships
• Walking students home
• Working with teachers, doing meetings, tracking student progress
• Talking with parents and siblings of students and building relationships with them

and

• End of year events

You took time from your life and devoted it to service. Pure service that entailed you giving your absolute best ALL the time to make sure students that were total strangers 11 months ago became the reason for your being.

You’ve been trained, observed and evaluated. You rose above daunting challenges and chose not be overwhelmed by your task of giving a year and changing the world.  You just did it. You put your shoulder into the grindstone and did it via your 50+ hour work week, minute by minute, line by line, math problem by math problem you did it. You changed the worlds of so many students. You worked with students who had no hope, no confidence and no investment in their own future. These same students now have goals, and aspirations. Once more, they can write about them and even figure out how to achieve them.

You chose this path perhaps for personal or professional reasons. Maybe both. All of you were challenged. Some left. But if you are a City Year San Jose / Silicon Valley graduate. You stayed.

And here you are, 53 friends who were strangers a year ago.  A corps of 53 change agents. You took a chance to join City Year and change the world. And you did it. Thank you and congratulations.

Beach Pace, Executive Director CYSJ/SV

Showing students the world

There is a joke on the East Coast, where I am from, that California is a country of its own.

When I arrived for service in San José, I found that the joke has some elements of truth, at least in the minds of the students. The students’ knowledge of geography is so basic that it is not unusual for a student to answer “California?” in response to any question about different cities, states or countries.

Last week, my team put on several events to appreciate the students for their hard work this year and get them pumped up about the California Standards Tests that begin today.

When the idea of a World Culture/Art Fair surfaced as a possible activity for Student Appreciation Week, I jumped on the idea, excited at the possibility of teaching students about many countries and cultures.

The students worked hard to prepare for the World Culture /Art Fair by gaining points every day of April during the after school program for their good behavior. Students could earn as many as four points for excellent behavior, or lose up to three points for poor behavior.

Senior Corps Member Krista Corwin wore tradition Spanish garb as she taught the students more about Spain.

Each grade also helped prepare art projects, including tie dye t-shirts and paper bag piñatas, which students could then “buy” during the fair using their behavior points. The team was able to purchase art supplies and other materials for the fair thanks to a City Year Attendance, Behavior and Coursework grant.

On the day of the fair, in addition to buying their art projects, students were free to essentially tour the world, by visiting 14 booths, set up outside on the school’s blacktop and inside the cafeteria. Corps members as well as senior corps members, City Year staff members, school staff and members of the Parent Teacher Association led the booths. Many of the booths featured food, souvenirs from the country or culture and activities or games, all of which students could “buy” or “pay” to participate in using their behavior points.

The students and staff had a great time writing their names in Hebrew like the Israelis, practicing the limbo in Trinidad, eating fried dough at the Native American booth, simulating the plight of the Chilean miners, popping balloons tied to their legs; a popular game in Germany, listening to music and viewing artifacts from Mexico, learning about Hurricane Katrina, making Spanish castanets and much more.

Program Manager Laura Cutler taught students how to write their names in Hebrew at the Israel booth.

In addition to games and treats, each booth also had a poster with information and photographs from the given country or culture so students got to taste, feel and learn about each culture they visited. Each student also received a passport, which was stamped at each booth after the student completed the activity. The students who filled in every location on their passport were entered into a raffle for a grand prize.

At the end of the day, the students had been rewarded for their good behavior, had practiced saving and spending money, had spent time with their City Year and school staff and most importantly, had learned that there are many interesting, diverse countries and cultures in addition to the state of California.

For more photos from a couple of the World Culture Fairs that corps members held in after school program, click here.

Anya Bergman, Corps Member CYSJ

Reliving the transformation of GYSD

Dan Maurath is a corps member serving on the Bank of America Team at A.J. Dorsa Elementary School.

At the end of service days past, I found myself visually amnesiac. I could not remember how the school campus or park had once looked. The site had been so transformed that my memory was also transformed. The faded faint lines faded in my memory, replaced by the bright colorful paint of the blacktop and murals.

Transform was our theme for Global Youth Service Day 2011. So on April 16 at Majestic Way Elementary, I sought to capture the transformation of the day. I made a visual record of the transformation. I recorded the initial outlook of the school and the progression of it into the vibrant campus it’s become. I made two separate time-lapses, one of which is included below, and a short documentary entitled GYSD 11.

The time-lapses were shot at 10-minute intervals throughout the lifespan of the projects. I sourced much of the documentary from volunteers and other corps members who became amateur filmmakers for the day, documenting the progress of their projects and the transformation through their eyes. All 11 perspectives were edited together to produce a single cohesive record of all that transformed.

I invite you as a reader to witness the change giving a morning can produce and as a volunteer to see the transformation you helped create.

Dan Maurath, Corps Member CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: PTA at Majestic Way Elementary School

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, we would like to thank the PTA at Majestic Way Elementary School for all of their hard work in helping us make Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) a success.

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is literally the largest service event in the world. Since 1988, GYSD has been a celebration of service that mobilizes millions of young people around the world in service.

PTA members stayed late into the night to help us trace monarchs (the school's mascot) at the entrance of the school.

This year, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will be serving at Majestic Way Elementary School with about 300 volunteers. Together we will paint murals, brighten up the blacktop, build an outdoor classroom and benches and more.

And it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the PTA.

From day one, the PTA has been super energetic and excited about bringing City Year onto its campus for a day of service. (It didn’t hurt that their new principal was the former principal of the school where we celebrated GYSD last year).

Here is a rundown of just some of the amazing things the PTA did to support our service at their school:

• Held a cookie dough sale fundraiser that ended up covering the costs of the majority of our supplies
• Reached out to the local community to not only volunteer, but to donate to the project
• Helped us identify what projects the school could benefit from
• Organized sponsorship of picnic tables
• Helped us with the prep work (and stayed at the school until 10 o’clock at night so that we could get lots of work done)

The PTA has been so grateful to us as we gear up for this huge day of service. So before that day comes, we want to recognize all of their hard work and thank them for everything that they did to make this day bigger than we could have imagined.

Not only will Majestic Way get a makeover, but the spirit of volunteerism in the community will really have the opportunity to shine.

Thank you to the Majestic Way community for making this all happen. It’s truly going to be an awesome day of service.

* Be sure to follow @CityYearSanJose for updates on the service day as it happens on Saturday, April 16th.

Megan Baker, Recruitment Project Leader & Social Media Manager CYSJ

Goodjoe: Celebrating City Year’s mission through design

Inspired by the words and colors of the City Year logo, I designed a t-shirt for a contest in honor of City Year’s mission at Goodjoe.com.

If my design is chosen, I will use the prize money to help purchase 120 t-shirts for the students of the after school program at Dorsa Elementary.

The t-shirts would be given out as presents during their graduation from the City Year program in June.

The design was particularly inspired by my service as a first year corps member at City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley.

The radiant California sun sets on a city skyline. The skyline consists not of silhouettes of buildings, rather of the many people constituting a city. The silhouettes have been chosen to convey a sense of friendship, mentorship, and community.

The sunset also represents the passage of time and speaks to the timely need of intervention in education as well as the significant amount of time during the year that a corps member dedicates towards that intervention. The simple white text expresses all this succinctly with “City Year.”

So, I encourage you to support the contest by voting. Site registration is quick and voting is simple way to support our service and reward the children. The contest ends on ends Friday, April 8, 2011 at 11:59 PST.

Once the design is chosen, the t-shirts will be for sale to the general public, with half of all proceeds benefiting City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley.

Vote for my design here.

Dan Maurath, Corps Member CYSJ

Thankful Thursday: Student Edition

Each week, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley will thank a person or organization for inspiring us in our service. This week, some very special people wanted to thank us.

Throughout this year, many corps members, senior corps members and staff at City Year San José/Silicon Valley have offered many different insights about their service through this blog.

Their words are inspiring and heartfelt, often centering on various efforts to give the students we serve the best year possible. As we roll into spring and the last few months of the year, I gave students the opportunity to share back, giving their insights into what City Year has taught them and why they are thankful to have City Year at their school.

These are the words from students at A.J. Dorsa Elementary School:

“I like how we do Great Leaps [our guided tutoring model]. Great Leaps is the best because it helps my learning and I always get stickers when I do leaps.”
-       Daniel, 5th grade

“City Year helps me read and do Great Leaps to help me succeed in life.”
-       Adrian, 5th grade

“From this year in City Year, I like the new program [Building Responsible Individuals, Developing Great Education] because you get to do more fun stuff in the new program like PE and Buddy Reading.”
-       Alejandra, 2nd grade

“My favorite part in City Year is Jiji [computer-based math program] because we do math and we have fun. I like PE because we are learning about sports.”
-       Nancy, 4th grade

“My favorite thing about City Year is we always improve in our math and we read different stories and tell what it is about.”
-       Bryan, 3rd grade

“Something I learned from City Year is that Mr. J taught us how to do overhand passes and the other thing that he teaches us is chest passes and they make us play a game of knockout.”
-       America, 2nd grade

“Ms. K taught us things and only one thing a day because sometimes I didn’t get the homework and she explained it to the kids.”
- Arnold, 4th grade

Anya Bergman, Corps Member CYSJ