Hands-on Technology Experience for Low-Income Kids

Citizen Schools continues to work towards its mission of helping all children discover and achieve their dreams. This year, Citizen Schools expects to serve 5,300 middle school students in 32 schools around the country. Citizen Schools’ student population reflects the diverse urban communities that we serve. 95% of Citizen Schools students are members of minority groups, 85% qualify for free-and-reduced lunch (a primary indicator of child poverty), and 35% are English language learners. With the support of the GlobalGiving Fund, Citizen Schools continues to offer its students hands-on technology experiences through apprenticeships, an element of the Citizen Schools expanded learning time (ELT) model that engages professional volunteers (called Citizen Teachers) from the community to lead engaging sessions in the field of their expertise.

Citizen Schools has maintained a strong partnership with the employees of Google since 2006. Throughout the 2013 fall semester, 80 Google Citizen Teachers are leading 33 apprenticeships around the country, serving 539 students. 

Increasingly, Citizen Schools’ apprenticeships engage students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in order to prepare them for success in college and career. Almost 60% of the apprenticeships being led by Google employees this semester focus on STEM subjects. Some recent and upcoming highlights from the Citizen Schools and Google partnership include:

• Students from Boston's Edwards Middle School are visiting Google's Cambridge headquarters for an apprenticeship called Mindstorm Lego Robotics, taught by Google Citizen Teachers Biren Roy, Tay Karim, and Robbie Shade. Students have been learning how to build and program robots using Mindstorm Lego Robotics kits and picking up the logic of computer programming along the way. At the December WOW!, students will demonstrate how the robots they’ve designed can draw, dance, pick up a cup, or even navigate a maze.  
• Google volunteers are currently leading apprenticeships in a diverse range of content areas, including: Android App Design, Branding, Business, Cooking Chemistry, Cryptography, Journalism, Making a PSA, Public Speaking, Robotics, and Video Game Design.
• At the end of every semester, students and Citizen Teachers host a WOW!, an event that showcases the work done in the apprenticeships to the community and special guests. WOW!s will be happening around the country this December. To attend a WOW! near you visit Citizenschools.org/events. 

Citizen Schools looks forward to continuing its partnership with the employees of Google throughout this school year and beyond. The passion, perspective, and expertise that Google’s Citizen Teachers bring to the classroom are preparing Citizen Schools’s students for success in high school, college, and careers.

Links:

• Google's partnership with Citizen Schools in Huffington Post
• Google Volunteers Among Presidential Service Award Winners