30 Pryor St., Ste. 350, Atlanta, GA 30303 crim.education.gsu.edu
Spring 2016 Newsletter
COMMUNITY CALL
TEEMS members at Superhero Science Night at the Children's Museum of Atlanta (March 2016)
20 YEARS OF SERVICE! Throughout the 2016-2017 Celebrating this milestone on The Crim Center will host academic year, the Alonzo A. the Georgia State University special events throughout the Crim Center for Urban campus means looking back, year with prizes and giveaways, Educational Excellence is telling our story, and saluting guest speakers and events celebrating 20 years in the those who helped us get here. culminating in the 20th College of Education & Human It means being thankful for each Anniversary “Investing in Development. We will celebrate other and what we do every day. Excellence” gala in June 2017. all Jumpstart year long, is honoring ourearly past education It is a chance to reflect 20 Fortrains a list college of 20th students anniversary a national organization thatonrecruits and and two decades while also igniting a years of success in educational events and details, please visit community Corps members to serve preschool children in low-income neighborhoods. Our spark for the next 20 years excellence for all children, their crim.education.gsu.edu. proven curriculum helps children develop the language and literacy skills they need to be ready ahead. families and communities. for kindergarten, setting them on a path to close the achievement gaptake before it isinside too late. Now, a look to see what we’ve been up to this spring.
JUMPSTART
C R E AT I N G
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commUNITY of
BELIEVERS A VISION OF Dr. Alonzo A. Crim,
ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLs SUPERINTENDENT (1973-1988)
FACEBOOK.com/CRIMCENTER
@ALONZOACRIMCUEE
For full articles and please visit ourNational website: ***SUPPORTED BYtoA learn GRANTmore, FROM Jumpstart
crim.education.gsu.edu
UPDATE FROM JUMPSTART
JUMPSTART CELEBRATES WITH ADRIAN DOUGLAS, II The Alonzo A. Crim Center commends Adrian Douglas II, recent recipient of the Carl V. Patton Presidential Award for Community Service and Social Justice! This esteemed award, presented by Georgia State University officials, is one of the highest honors bestowed upon students for their positive contributions to community upliftment. On and off-campus, Adrian has served in a variety of impactful roles and leadership positions, which were acknowledged with the presentation of this award. continued on next page >>>
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Adrian participates as a core member, volunteer coordinator and team leader in the Jumpstart program, which operates out of Georgia State’s Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence. He also organized a Panther Breakaway initiative, as both site leader and facilitator for their community service-based New Orleans trips (2015-16). Panther Breakaway is hosted by representatives of the Office of Civic Engagement housed at Georgia State. Along with these positions, and consistent excellence in his own schoolwork, Adrian also serves as the director of communications for the Tighter Grip student organization. Tighter Grip is a campus resource for African-American males, providing opportunities for networking, solution-building and genuine connections for academic, business and life successes. In addition, Adrian also worked with local elementary school students on the Tiles for Social Justice Project. This initiative was led by Laura Meyers, clinical associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development. This interactive learning experience included an integration of art, research, social studies and current events analysis. In project workshops, participating youth created decorated/illustrated ceramic tiles with content based in on their discussions of both history and current community issues. Overall, Adrian’s consistent commitment and action, in a variety of campus and community arenas, is greatly appreciated and impactful. We asked him how he felt about receiving this award (and his time here at Georgia State in general). In response, he said he did not know how prestigious the Patton Presidential Award was, as the highest accolade a student can receive here at the university. He mentioned being extremely honored to have been given this prize, along with his appreciation for the support from the community of people who helped him along the way. Shout-outs include: Nishona Curry, Jumpstart director; Laura Meyers, Brian Williams, Eshe Collins, Georgia State’s Office of Civic Engagement, the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education and the Crim Center Family.
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UPDATE FROM TEEMS AMERICORPS My name is Vanessa and I serve as the program director for T.E.E.M.S. AmeriCorps at Georgia State University, housed in the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence. It is our mission at the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence to optimize the life opportunities of children and families in urban communities by ensuring the availability of a prosperous and equitable school environment. We believe that through our work we can create a world where all children have equal access to educational opportunities that prepare them to be academically excellent, culturally competent, and critically conscious. Vanessa Pérez-Topczewski
The Alonzo A. Crim Center and AmeriCorps have collaborated to develop the T.E.E.M.S. (Technology, Engineering, Environment, Math and Science) AmeriCorps program, a comprehensive STEM-based day and after school program for middle and high schools. AmeriCorps members recruited for this program are mathematics and science majors/degrees and are trained in “Best Practices in Urban Education,” including effective tutoring and mentoring strategies. If you're interested in learning more about T.E.E.M.S., AmeriCorps service and how to get involved, please join us at one of our upcoming informational sessions listed below:
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
5p.m. & 6p.m. College of Education & Human Development Room 1025 (Deitz Conference Room)
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
12p.m. & 1p.m. College of Education & Human Development Room 1025 (Deitz Conference Room)
Thursday, June 2, 2016
5p.m. & 6p.m. College of Education & Human Development Room 1025 (Deitz Conference Room)
If you have any questions, or would like additional information, I can be reached via e-mail or by phone at vperez@gsu.edu, or 404-413-8430.
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early college
senior recognition ceremony We want to wish all of the senior graduates (and all Early College students) a happy and fruitful summer.
The Early College Initiative closed this school year with a celebration of its participating senior high-school graduates. This Senior Recognition Ceremony occurred on Tuesday, May 3. Led by the current head study coach, Leesi Barinem, the event was a relaxed, fun opportunity for Early College students to enjoy each other’s company, as well as review the highlights of their eventful school year at Georgia State University. Activities included a college fun facts game, food and a video featuring seniors’ accounts of their experiences in the program. With advice for juniors and future participants, seniors in the short film shared the aspects they felt were most meaningful from their process. From her collection of senior interviews, Leesi shared how proud she was of the Early College participants. In their responses, the senior graduates related how they connected to the information shared and activities conducted, and also how they could apply what they learned in their lives going forward. Please check out our graduates section in this newsletter, and see what colleges they will attend in the fall! The following page features images from various Early College events and workshops this school year.
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Breaking (The Neutral) Ground: Collaboration, Negotiation,and Celebration in Urban Education
CONFERENCE DATES October 21-23, 2016 Pre-conference Dates: October 17-21, 2016
We are currently accepting proposals for this year’s Sources Conference. Proposals are due on June 3, 2016 by 11:59p.m. EST. All proposals must be submitted electronically at www.surveymonkey.com/r/Sources2016. Notification of acceptance will be emailed by July 8, 2016. If you have questions, please contact Dana Salter at dsalter@gsu.edu.
Pre-conference events will include a film festival, evening of music, poetry and art, the Power of Students event and the ‘Hack What You Have” Urban Education hackathon!
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fall highlight: AAMI SCREENS DOCUMENTARY ON SCHOOL’S HISTORY
by Claire Miller, Georgia State University It’s not hard to find signs of Booker T. Washington High School’s past as you walk through its campus. Benches donated by the Class of 1967, an engraved plaque from the Class of 1930 and a statue of the school’s namesake are all visible from its front doors on Whitehouse Drive. Students in Booker T. Washington’s African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) took time to consider their school’s history and legacy in a documentary they’ve created over the last few months, which they screened to students, teachers and guests on Jan. 27. In the documentary, AAMI students highlighted Booker T. Washington’s life and work, the school’s founding in 1924, some of its famous alumni and its impact on the local community and the students who walk its halls today. “I couldn’t imagine going to any other high school,” one student says at the end of the film. Booker T. Washington’s AAMI chapter received a State Farm Youth Advisory Board Service- Learning Grant to help cover the costs of creating this documentary – the first of three they plan to make – and spoke about their experiences creating the film in a panel discussion following the screening. “In AAMI, we go on college tours and we always hear about Booker T. Washington and how much of an impact he had not only in Georgia, but across the country,” said Rufus Hunter, AAMI’s vice president.
“I wanted to share the knowledge I gained about Booker T. Washington with my fellow students.” AAMI students will soon start work on the next installment in the series. “It was definitely a labor of love,” said Tene Davis, director of the African-American Male Initiative at Georgia State, about the students’ work on the project. “These young men showed ingenuity, a stick-to-it attitude and a sense of pride in their work.”
UPDATE! From Cedric Dortch of AAMI:
It is my pleasure to announce the Washington High School's African American Male Initiative's (AAMI) student-led documentary on Washington High has been accepted and scheduled to be televised by the AIB Network next month. Details on the air times are below. We are proud of the hard work and time these guys put in to their documentary. Even now, they are working to produce more video content that we hope many others will get to see and enjoy. The program will air during these times for a two week period: Tuesday, June 14 @ 7p.m. Thursday, June 16 @ 9:30a.m. Saturday, June 18 @ 11p.m. Sunday, June 19 @ 9:30a.m. The program will air on Comcast Channel 295 and AT&T U-Verse 6 and is streamed live on aibtv.com.
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MURAL PROJECT COMPLETED @ CARVER HIGH SCHOOL! Kweku Vassall, Crim Center GRA, Mural Project Coordinator: I can not say enough how thankful I am to have been invited to work on this project. This mural, funded by Girls Who Code, was designed and painted by the participants of the Girls Who Code program, which works to educate, inspire and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields. Current participants are from the Early College program. For more information on this program, please contact Tene Davis, Early College associate director at 404-413-8074. The photos below are from the mural project – we started in March and concluded May 3, 2016. To read more about this project, please visit this link:
http://bit.ly/1UD33Mb
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CONGRATULATIONS!!!
The Crim Center is proud of the role we have in making Georgia State University a model for student support, civic engagement and research excellence. As noted in a recent NYTimes article, helping all students succeed is both a practical and moral imperative. Utilizing Dr. Crim’s philosophy of the Community of Believers (which combines the practical and the moral), the Crim Center is excited to celebrate our 2016 graduates and honor them as they continue their journeys. Congratulations to all graduates, their families and their friends.
JUMPSTART GRADUATES Destauni Williams Dream McClinton Chelsea Montford Antrawn Edwards Jemeria McDaniel Torre Williams Tatianna Jones Antwanette Green Adjah Moore
CRIM CENTER
INTERNS AND RESEARCH FELLOWS Trevon Norman (Bachelor’s) Jihad Uhuru (Master’s) Kweku Vassall (Master’s)
TEEMS AMERICORPS GRADUATES Khadijah Boles Mariah Campbell Quincy Dawson Victoria Doctor Richard Hackett Markita Hill Krystina Leverett Chelsea Montford Antoinette Pino Amanda Taylor Davonne Tillman Sharita Underwood
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EARLY COLLEGE GRADUATES Carver High School Grads (and the colleges they will attend in the fall) Alexis Friendly
Guadalupe Pizano
Alvan Price
Indya Armstrong
Kelsiuna Woodford
Jakayla Moore
Khalliday Muhammad
Albany State University Georgia Institute of Technology
Amina Glass
University of Southern California
Spelman College
Clark Atlanta University
Georgia State University
The University of Alabama
Georgia State University or Mercer University
University of California (Santa Cruz)
Angel Amour
Justus Keaton
Keiser University
Jarvious Jones
Mercer University
Kimberly McCrimmon
Jasmyn Collier
Johnson and Wales University of North Miami
Jaylyn Gillis
Georgia State University
Jazzmine Quarles
Wheaton College
Kwesi Murphy
Ashley George
Georgia State University
Ashley Sheats
Johns Hopkins University
Raven Johnson
Brisha Jones
Albany State University
Raven McQueen
Fort Valley State University The University of Georgia Spelman College
Chances Zayas
University of West Georgia
Gloria Murray
The College of Wooster
Jennifer Garcia Spelman College
Jonathan Coley
Georgia Southern University
Tuskegee University
Shantearia McCoy
Georgia State University
Treylon Wofford
Arizona State University
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EARLY COLLEGE GRADUATES Washington High School Grads (and the colleges they will attend in the fall)
Ciara Jenkins
Clark Atlanta University
Jhazzmyn Joiner
Georgia Institute of Technology
Labreshia Williams
Savannah State University
Marquavious Banes
Georgia State University
Trakeyma Barber
Savannah State University
Usiel Hernandez
Georgia Institute of Technology
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UPDATE FROM UETT
(URBAN EDUCATION THINK TANK) By Amber Mason, Graduate Research Assistant, Urban Child Study Center Doctoral Student, Educational Policy Studies Department, Georgia State University
In an effort to promote scholarship which focuses on questions and solutions related to urban education, the Urban Education Think Tank (UETT) collaborated with Multi-level Interventions for Non-Responders (MINRS) on April 15, 2016. The UETT, housed in the Crim Center, is a graduate student think tank which produces rigorous research publications on issues in urban education. MINRS, a group of scholars from the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services program, has a mission to recruit and prepare high quality school psychologists to provide effective behavioral and mental health services to diverse high-need students who are not responding to current instruction and interventions. The goal of the collaborative session was to share ideas and perspectives related to urban education and clinical psychology.
Kenley Davis 7lbs 1oz 4/10/16 Please join us in congratulating Tene and Jarvis Davis on the blessed addition to their family.
NEW ADDITION!
The Crim Center is excited to celebrate the newest member of our team:
CRIM CENTER FAM
Scholars from both UETT and MINRS presented “vexations� related to their work as graduate level students, educators and community-based engaged scholars. The interdisciplinary synthesis of the groups generated a high-quality discussion of ideas with a goal to lead to critical research and scholarship. UETT and MINRS plan to continue these collective sessions in an effort to engage scholars in research that embraces cultural consciousness, social justice, community development, transformation and ultimately sustainable solutions in urban education.
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The Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence’s annual DREAMS Summer Institute has partnered with the Boys and Girls Club, to offer a free summer program for metro-Atlanta rising 8th-11th grade students!
June 20 - 9a.m.July 1, 2016 12p.m. @ 2 lo c at io ns listed b elow : Brookhaven Boys & Girls Club 1330 North Druid Hills Road Atlanta, GA 30319
John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club 434 Peeples Street Atlanta, GA 30315
***Transportation to Brookhaven will be provided for Jones & Carver BGCMA members.
***Transportation to John H. Harland will be provided for Warren, Thomasville & Whitehead BGCMA members.
O ve r t he co urs e o f t he t wo we e k s, t he in s ti tu te w il l fe at ure t wo excit ing fi e l d t rip s a s we l l a s fo cus o n d eve l o p ing re l at io ns hip s a n d p ro m o t ing s o cia l co m p e te nc y. St ud e nt s wi l l a l s o p a r t icip ate in s e s s io ns o n:
Stren g th en in g STEM fu ndamental s Cu ltu ral awaren ess Ro b o tic s an d en g in eerin g Creative thin k ing an d writin g Fo rming a c u ltu ral and so c ial ident it y Deadline for applications is June 3, 2016. To request an application, please e-mail Vanessa Pérez at vperez@gsu.edu and provide your child’s name, grade, school and your preferred contact information.
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4 - 7 p.m. Undocumented Students Gentrification Privileges of Power Oppression Diversity Community Building Networking Stereotyping Campus Safety and Security Gender and Sexuality And More!
Group Roundtable Discussions Q/A Dialogue between Professors, Organizational Representatives and Students Hands-on, Cooperative Activities Privilege Walk
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UPDATE FROM OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY GROUP By Rabiyah Abdus-Salaam, Organizer, Educational Policy Group Program Evaluator,The Good Neighbor Program
The Crim Center Education Policy group discusses current and proposed legislation that affects stakeholders in urban education. We strive to provide public access to relevant information relating to policy making. For the community, this information can be used to make informed and effective decisions regarding public education in urban communities. We inform the public about research currently framing reform, legislation, practice and assessment in urban education. Our current focus is making the community aware of the Opportunity School District legislation, which will be voted on this November. Our group consists of community members, education students and professionals. It is an open group and convenes every three weeks, synthesizing applicable resources for the public.
Want to get involved? Contact Dana E. Salter at dsalter@gsu.edu or 404-413-8070.
ABOUT THE
It is the mission of the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence (CUEE) to extend Crim’s vision by optimizing the life opportunities of children and families in urban communities by ensuring the availability of a prosperous and equitable school environment. We believe that through our work we can create a world where all children have equal access to educational opportunities that prepare them to be academically excellent, culturally competent and critically conscious.
CRIM CENTER
For more information email Rabiyah Abdus-Salaam at rabdussalaam1@student.gsu.edu.
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