Tag: Summer

Newport students keep ‘active minds’ during the summer of STEM

By Ready WA

Check out this great blog post written by our partners at Ready WA featuring one of our Feed Your Brain grantees in Newport!  Ready WA is a statewide coalition that believes every Washington student should graduate high school prepared for a successful future, on the education and career path they choose. The recipe for summer learning in Newport, Wash., looks like one part science lab, one part reading room, and two parts fun. The 80 students participating in The Summer of STEM program are building roller coasters, creating cars out of pasta, engineering popsicle stick bridges, constructing elaborate towers for marbles to run through, … [ ]

Summer Learning Week

By SOWA

National Summer Learning Week is a celebration dedicated to elevating the importance of keeping kids learning, safe, and healthy every summer, ensuring they return to school ready to succeed in the year. 

Life Enrichment Group cultivates scholars and leaders in Rainier Beach

By Lex Gavin

“I have something I want to say,” a middle school boy in the back row said unexpectedly. He stood in front of family and friends, who had gathered for Parent’s Night in the Rainier Beach Community Center to celebrate the accomplishments of their kids in The Scholars Project. “Before this program, I used to have a bad attitude. But I got here and I was inspired. I connected so much with these guys. I really changed as a person.” It seemed like something out of a marketing campaign, but it was straight from the heart– and his parents nodded in … [ ]

Summer Leadership Academy promotes education, entrepreneurship, and empathy

By Lex Gavin

When I arrive at the basement of the Holly Park Community Church where Empowering Youth and Families Outreach (EYFO) runs their Summer Leadership Academy summer camp, I happen upon a rare moment of quiet–all of the campers are across the street enjoying the newly renovated Othello Park. Director and Founder Charlett Shoecraft is still bustling around in preparation for their next activity, tidying the supplies on the sea of tables. When we sit down and start talking about the summer program’s highlights, she pulls out her phone and scrolls through dozens of photos to help her keep track of what all they’ve done. It … [ ]

WAPI Community Services uses hip hop to keep kids safe in summer

By Lex Gavin

The kids file out of the van and into WAPI Community Services’ Federal Way studio. They’ve just arrived from the Seola Gardens site of Neighborhood House, which, like WAPI, is a cohort member of the Best Starts for Kids Out-of-School Time initiative. They sit down in front of iPads, drum pads, and production-quality headphones that absolutely dwarf the middle schoolers, and are barely able to contain their excitement. They’ve here to learn hip hop music production, and within 15 minutes they’re engrossed in the creation of their songs. “Mr. Karrie, listen to this,” they excitedly shout, trying to get WAPI’s Prevention Coordinator and Lead … [ ]

Feed Your Brain with summer learning

By Sierra Wagner

During the school year, youth have access to structured learning and consistent meals. However, when school ends and summer begins, that structure disappears. In summer, all children can be impacted by summer learning loss, but in-particular low-income children can lose “two to three months of reading and math, while their higher-income peers make slight gains.”1 These disparities increase over time with each summer slide deepening on the achievement gap for young people. Summer is a unique opportunity to explore learning in exciting ways. Benjamin Baird, SOWA’s Spokane County Program Quality Manager, explained that “during the school year, kids touch on many subjects but rarely … [ ]