United We Are

Relationships are at the core of everything we at City Year do. Whether we spend 10 hours together or 10 minutes, our fellow teammates and corps members are the life force of our social and work lives. We find ourselves eager to learn more about these people, and never fail to be awed, inspired, and proud of each person in the corps because of these exchanges. For every human interaction we have, we are slightly different individuals because of it. In a job where we have to make ourselves extremely vulnerable to be effective, we find that it is these corps members who have shaped us and our experience during our corps year, forever changing our perspective. For these reasons, I believe the relationships built within City Year are arguably the strongest relationships built in our young lives thus far.

City Year thrives off of the relationships corps members build with each other, our service partners, schools, teachers and communities. A year of service is, at times, positively grueling.  But the silver lining is that you are not going through it alone at any time. In San Jose, I have at least 67 other people who are going through it in my corps year, 8 additional people who have gone through it before in our senior corps, and 14 more people who see corps members go through it year after year in staff members. Across the City Year network, thousands of young idealists are getting similar experiences. That doesn’t include the principals who eagerly put us to work in their schools, the teachers who welcome us into their classrooms, the students who let us into their lives or the service partners and individuals who give to us because they see the value in our work time and time again. They care about us as individuals, and though our service begins and ends with the goal of increasing the chances of success for the students we serve, the relationships we build are arguably what help us provide such a high quality of service from start to finish.

-Cindee Crosby, Corps Member, Cisco Team at Cesar Chavez Elementary School

Life Through the Eyes of a Second-Grader

Before I left for holiday break I anticipated sitting in front of a warm fire with my younger sister and brother, my mom, dad and our goofy dog. I looked forward to watching some old episodes of West Wing together, laughing at my brother’s silly comments, and then heading off to bed. I would treasure a warm house with my beautiful family, being home for the holidays, and resting my body and spirit.

As a City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley Corps Member on the Cisco Team at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, I work with second, third and fourth graders each day to help improve their reading. I have 14 students on my tutoring focus list, and teach two literacy classes during our After School Program. However, through all of the hard work that I have done and lessons that I have learned, I have been most amazed by what my youngest students, the second graders, have taught me.

To a second grader, the most important bond that you could make is over tag or tether-ball. To a second-grader, your best friends are the ones that play with you at recess every day, not the ones who are ‘cool’. To a second grader, asking for help on your homework is not embarrassing, but necessary, helpful and even fun. You show a second-grader that you care by letting them color as part of your lesson. You show a second-grader that you care by quizzing them on their spelling words. You show a second-grader that you care by talking to them calmly rather than yelling when they get out of their seat for the sixth time to ask you a question. Over the past few months, these youngsters have taught me that so much of life’s pleasures are simple, we just have to be present to notice and appreciate them.

As a City Year San Jose corps member, I am blessed every day in ways that I could never have imagined prior to coming to the West Coast. Our work is hard and it will never end, but I am blessed to spend each day with students that remind me to step back and enjoy the simpler details of life. My wall is now covered in drawings from my second graders and my daily exercise is playing tag with 7 year olds.

Over the next few weeks, I hope that you too can take a step back to ask yourself what makes each day worthwhile, and whom to give an extra hug and “I love you”.

Maybe, if you’re lucky, you will be able to see life through the eyes of a second-grader.

-Meg Hassey, Corps Member CYSJ

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

Wordless Wednesday: Opening Day slideshow

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our Opening Day that took place on Friday, October 7 at the San José Athletic Club.

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-Photos by Romel Antoine, Program Manager CYSJ

Encouraging students to dream big

Gisela Martinez will be serving again next year as a Team Leader at Cureton.

Majors, minors, sports division, and dorms are words the students I serve at Cureton Elementary School weren’t very much familiar with until this past Thursday when our team held a College Fair in the after school program.

Not all communities get the same opportunities, especially low-income communities, like the ones City Year corps members volunteer in. Innocent children suffer from these economic inequalities.  Its clear children will define the future of our world.

So, I ask, why the injustice? Why are children from tougher economic backgrounds expected to dream less than others?

I grew up in an area very similar to East San Jose where the topic of college wasn’t talked about much, not at all for that matter. I know from firsthand experience that the limitation of resources in low-income communities, such as the one I’m from and the one I’m currently serving in, affect their accessibility to grow to their highest potential and hinder their ability to create a positive imagining for their future.  My biggest goal in elementary school was to simply graduate high school. College wasn’t a dream for me until as late as my sophomore year of high school.

This is the reason I serve. To be that resource. To help craft the children of today’s generation with wonderful dreams for their own future.

Dreams like, “looking forward to studying about criminology and med school stuff,” said by one of our 5^th graders during the College Fair.

Inspired by a field trip to Stanford for some of the 4^th and 5^th graders a couple of weeks before, I decided to organize a City Year College Fair to get students in all grades at Horace Cureton Elementary excited about college and a limitless future.

I knew that my team of first year corps members had an impressive and diverse collegiate background. Stanford University, Penn State, Fordham University, Harvard, West Virginia University, Drew University, Brown University, and The University of Rochester were all represented at the College Fair. We each contacted our Alma Mater or soon-to-be university for some type of informational material and we received an abundance of magnets, posters, sports schedules, stickers and brochures for our kids.

Students from 1^st -5^th grade were able to walk freely through each station and stay as long as they wanted to question each of us about our studies, reasons we attended college, why we picked our majors and general experiences. An overwhelming feeling of joy and pride rushed through me while I watched our 1^st- 5^th graders’ eager faces asking questions and getting excited about the classes they can take and the clubs they can join.

The day ended with groups of kids chanting, “HARVARD!”, “WVU!”, and “FORDHAM!!” and other groups retaliating and cheering, “STANFORD!! STANFORD!! STANFORD!!” To this day, kids are still chanting the school names they want to attend, letting me know that my team and I have rooted a fun and positive outlook for their future and potential, fulfilling my purpose to serve and the reason for me continuing to serve the remarkable students of Cureton Elementary.

Gisela Martinez, Corps Member CYSJ 

Showcasing student talent

The first day of our new enrichment cycle, I recall calling my students to attention by saying, “Dance, there are six weeks until the enrichment showcase. I don’t know about you guys but I’m super excited.” I was then greeted with a dance class of thirty something students who were all smiles.

Not only were these students anxious to learn three different styles of dance, they were excited to share it with their community. While there were many bumps along the way, there was not a day that passed by that I did not see those kids dance with heart. They were determined to make this showcase memorable.

With the end of the year fast approaching, the pressure was on for all five enrichment classes. Not only was the dance class talking up the showcase, but I heard other enrichments buzzing about what they were going to be doing to show everyone what they had learned this time around.

By June 1^st, the anticipation was no longer measurable. Those students were not only mentally preparing themselves for what they were about to do but they were tired of waiting to see what their friends had been working on for weeks!

The patience paid off. I have never encountered a group of students so supporting of their fellow classmates. They would point at a student on the stage and say “I know him,” or “I can’t believe they can do that!” I was overwhelmed with joy.

I know this holds true for all the corps members on my team because as I looked at each one of them (one in particular with tears in her eyes) there was a particular smile that expressed everything they were feeling. Our students worked hard for weeks to come up with a routine for their community, and they never shied away from the opportunity of showing that off.

We are so incredibly proud of their work and their determination. We honestly could not have asked for a better enrichment showcase that truly had a great turnout from the community. I believe that should be testament enough of the hard work these students have strived to do during enrichments and all their activities.

Steph Yero, Corps Member CYSJ

Incorporating health into service

Alex joined City Year to have the opportunity to give back to a community before she heads off to medical school in the fall.

Many corps members are drawn to City Year because of a passion for education.  The achievement gap is a very real and very daunting phenomenon, and as enthusiastic and educated young adults, we have the responsibility to attempt to close this.  While trying to make a difference in the realm of education unites our entire site, I chose to join City Year for a very different reason.  I became a corps member because of my passion for healthcare.

The connection between health issues and education reform may seem distant.  However, as a future physician, I believe that I could not have picked a better gap year opportunity than City Year.  Corps members must be compassionate and empathetic, forging personal relationships with youth and their families each day.  They must be hardworking and persistent amidst seemingly insurmountable obstacles, constantly honing the skills that will one day turn them into both competent and caring physicians.

Recently, my teammates and I were able to pass on my passion for healthcare to our students at Horace Cureton Elementary School through our first-ever Health Fair.  The Health Fair was the culminating event of a Starfish Corps unit, our version of service learning curriculum, on healthy choices.  For the past two months, students in our afterschool program have been learning about a wide range of topics—from the food groups to the dangers of smoking.

The Health Fair provided a unique experience for our students, whose education largely centers on literacy and mathematics skills.  In low-performing schools such as ours, science and health education are severely reduced.  Extracurricular opportunities are one of the few ways that our students learn about important health issues that will greatly impact their futures.

Each of our seven afterschool classes spent over a month becoming experts on a specific topic and planning a booth and activities for the other students and their families to experience.  The Health Fair engaged over 120 students and 75 parents and family members, and was attended by representatives from the University of California Cooperative Extension Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program and the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health.

One booth focused on hand washing, where students put glitter on their hands to see the length of time needed to scrub off all of the “germs.”  Another showed posters on dental hygiene and gave away toothbrush and toothpaste supply kits to each attendee.  Students exercised and attempted to breathe through straws at a third booth, modeling the difficulties associated with emphysema as one of the dangers of smoking.

My class presented on the food groups and healthy eating, and students were invited to spin a fruit-and-vegetable prize wheel and make their own healthy trail mix.  Parent literacy materials, including healthy recipes written in both English and Spanish, were also provided.  After collecting a stamp from each booth, students and families received a recipe book and were entered into a raffle for prizes, from sports equipment to extra afterschool privileges.

As someone who hopes to one day become a pediatrician, the results of the Health Fair were truly inspiring.  Not only did our students learn about very important health issues, they also greatly enjoyed the day.

After the Health Fair, one of my second grade students came to me at snack time to show me the food he had brought from home.  He pointed to the box and said, “Look Ms. Alex, whole grains!”  While this occurrence may seem unimportant, these little bits of knowledge will help inform our students to make healthy choices for the rest of their lives.  And even if this event only spared a few students from the dangers of obesity or smoking, we still have made a world of difference and truly helped our community.

Alex Mihalek, Corps Member CYSJ

Enriching student’s lives in after school program

Corps Member Alex Mihalek spots one of her cheerleaders during her cheer enrichment. Alex was a cheerleader at Harvard.

Exactly nine months ago, I ended my eight-year cheerleading career. This sport had always been my biggest extracurricular commitment in high school and college, and as much as my parents would hate to hear it, I often spent more time cheering than studying.

Cheerleading was crucial to my personal development—in addition to developing healthy fitness habits, being a member of a team sport taught me much about responsibility, leadership and most importantly, how to be confident in myself.

As I moved across the country to serve with City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley, I thought my cheerleading shoes had been retired once and for all.

Then, we started running enrichments at Cureton Elementary School.  In addition to homework help, Starfish Corps and snack time, students in the Cureton after school program also have the option of choosing a special club.  Each enrichment meets three times a week for a month and a half, and have ranged from the Around the World club to the American Sign Language enrichment.  The enrichment program gives students the opportunity to find success outside of academics and to explore a topic about which they are truly passionate.  It also gave me the ability to dust off my cheer shoes.

For the past six weeks, I’ve had the privilege to work with a talented group of cheerleaders-to-be, practicing everything from general conditioning to motion and jump drills.  We also spent countless hours working on the crème de la crème of any good cheerleading routine: stunting, or in non-cheer lingo, putting people up in the air.

Two Fridays ago, my cheerleaders—and the entire Cureton after school program—showed off their hard work to their families and the community as a part of the Enrichment Showcase.  The Enrichment Showcase highlighted the accomplishments made by each club during their six-week cycle, and was a great way to give students the ability to speak and perform in public.

Students had the opportunity to show off their art, participate in a debate, perform songs and dances, present a model of the solar system and play a highlight reel of their athletic pursuits.

Our students left the Enrichment Showcase beaming as they spoke about their accomplishments.  And while we may have only created a few future scientists or dance team captains, that sense of self pride that our students displayed is something that we should seek to create every day.  By the smiles on our students’ faces as they left the cafeteria on that Friday night, I knew we succeeded.

Alex Mihalek, Corps Member CYSJ