City Year is a great program to help public school students succeed

City Year is a special program for kids that is presented through AmeriCorps. The program members go into New York City public schools for grades three to eight to provide extra academic, social and emotional support to students and staff.

Grant Avenue has been working with City Year AmeriCorps for four years now. In addition to giving classroom support, City Year members work with students during intake, recess, lunch, parent engagement/outreach and after-school tutoring/homework help. We love our City Year members at Grant!

The City Year members help students with homework, reading, math and writing. These lucky students are carefully selected by the principal to get extra practice in math and writing. There are about 50 kids in the City Year program at our school. They learn new things along the way. Sometimes the students learn more things than teachers can show them in a regular classroom. Not everyone can attend this program because it’s only for the kids who need the most help, and also for helpful and smart kids to help others.

Ms. Shavonne Ward, one of the City Year managers, doesn’t live far from here. She’s in the South Bronx, and she loves City Year. She thinks that it’s important to help kids who need the most help. Her parents told her to work hard, and it was important for her household. So she thinks that it’s important for students, too, and that’s what inspired her to be in City Year. Ms. Shavonne went to City Year because someone from her college told her about it at a fair. She thinks it’s a really good cause, and she wanted to help her city.

Info: cityyear.org

Lauren Shea Buckridge, John Ferraro, Laticia Robinson’s  students, Grant Avenue Elementary School, Bronx