COLUMBUSMONTHLY NEWSLETTEROCTOBER, 2015

New AmeriCorps MembersReady to Serve

53

On Friday, October 16, City Year Columbus’s 53 AmeriCorps members took the oath during the National AmeriCorps member swearing-in ceremony, held at the Ohio History Connection.

The corps was joined by other AmeriCorps members and organizations from across the state, and heard from the Corporation for National and Community Service’s CEO Wendy Spencer. As a special treat, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty made a surprise appearance to recite the oath with the corps, and to thank them for their service.

Spencer also brought a message from President Obama, who welcomed the AmeriCorps members to the beginning of their service year. “Since the creation of AmeriCorps more than two decades ago, each class has made powerful strides in the work of bridging our reality and our ideals,” the President said. “By dedicating yourselves to expanding opportunity and helping make our country more equal and more just, you are carrying forward a proud legacy of service—one that will echo across America for generations to come.”

We couldn’t do this work without the idealism and dedication of our corps members. We are thankful for the 53 young people in Columbus that answered the call to service to help with students of Columbus City Schools. •

In the Classroom:

Last year, I worked with a student who was held back and was very angry and sad. She really struggled academically and exhibited her frustration with behavioral challenges. She refused to do work, picked on other students, wouldn’t talk to adults, and got into fights almost daily. When tested on our behavior rating scale she scored in the high-needs category and she was selected for my behavior focus list.

We had lunch together at least once a week and worked on proper responses to tough situations. She was given monthly behavior goals and by the spring she was meeting them with ease. She was doing so well that she was invited to speak at our Red Jacket Ball and told the crowd that City Year taught her not to give up and to make sure she always talked through her problems.

In the spring, she began the SAIL process, which means we started implementing reading interventions to see if she was in need of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). We read together every day and she made great strides with her fluency. As a held back third grader she was reading an average of 47 words per minute, the equivalent of a first grade reading level. At the beginning of this year as a fourth grader she is up to 60 words per a minute. At the end of the year when she was tested on our behavior rating scale and scored in the typical range and labeled as “significant improvement.” She is slowly progressing and taking great pride in her education. •

A Starfish Success Story

In the Classroom: pening Day & Near East Side ExpansionO

For the 2015-2016 school year, City Year Columbus has expanded our reach into the Near East Side, now serving in Trevitt Elementary and Champion Middle School.

We are thrilled to be a part of this vibrant community, in the middle of an important revitalization. To celebrate, City Year Columbus joined Champion on the first day of school, along with Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Mayor Michael Coleman, Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Good, and OSU’s Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT). The event spotlighted the new Health Sciences Academies, a program that focuses on the seven east side schools’ emphasis on healthy lifestyles and health career readiness.

Trevitt and Champion make six Columbus City Schools with a City Year presence, along with Livingston Elementary, Mifflin High School, South High School, and Linden McKinley STEM Academy. Across these schools, City Year Columbus AmeriCorps members will provide intensive academic and behavior interventions to more than 3,465 of the city’s students. •

Top Left: A Student is greeting by corps membersTop Right: CYCO Corps Members stand in formation

Bottom Left: Team Leader Dymonica Hurdle Addresses the crowdBottom Right: Corps Member Kristin Miller power greets a student

Tools for Success:City Year’s core values represent the deepest beliefs of our service. One of our many values is that “it takes a village” to raise a child. Likewise, it takes a village to support the mission of City Year, and the work of our AmeriCorps members.

Luckily, we have a group of generous champions, who give their time to build this village. Most recently, we have hosted a number of professionals who helped our corps members with their professional development. First, our Board Chair Tanya Crawford and her colleagues at Deloitte came to City Year to kick off our first ever mentorship program. Each was paired with a second year or team leader corps member, and will continue to meet at least once a month to talk about their professional plans post service year. Nicole Walker, City Year Board Member and Director of External Affairs for AT&T Ohio, talked with the corps about the “It Can Wait” no texting and driving campaign, along with going over important strategies for time management and organization. Suzanne Brunicardi of Fifth Third Bank offered her expertise on building an effective cover letter and resume, and Emily Stephen of Global Builders led a helpful workshop on personal brand and social media as a professional tool.

We take great pride in preparing our corps for life after City Year, providing them the tools they need for their professional development. We are grateful to our network of supporters for helping us in these efforts! •

Nicole Walker with AT&T

Deloitte Meet and Greet

City Year Columbus with Emily Stephen of Global Builders

City Year Columbus withSuzanne Brunicardi of Fifth Third

Bryan Stevenson

Preparing Corps Members for the Future

City Year ColumbusWelcomes Bryan Stevenson at the2016 Red Jacket Ball!

We are pleased to announce our 2016 Red Jacket Ball Keynote Speaker, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy! He joins our event with Presenting Sponsor Nationwide, held at the Hilton Columbus Downtown on April 23, 2016.

Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults. Mr. Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards including the ABA Wisdom Award for Public Service, the MacArthur

Foundation Fellowship Award Prize, the Olaf Palme International Prize, the ACLU National Medal Of Liberty, the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award, the Gruber Prize for International Justice and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award. He is the recent author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Just Mercy, which was named by Time Magazine as one of the 10 best books of nonfiction for 2014 and has been awarded several honors including the Carnegie Medal by the American Library Association for the best nonfiction book of 2014 and a 2015 NAACP Image Award.

Stevenson is an ardent supporter of City Year, and his life’s work mimics that of our organization—service to a cause greater than self, and a dedication to addressing our nation’s most pressing challenges. •

Bryan Stevenson

City Year Columbus

35 N. 4th St. Lower Level Columbus, Ohio 43215

phone: (614) 586-4520 web: cityyear.org/columbusfacebook: CityYearCbus twitter: @CityYearCbus

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