A Powerful Resource for City Schools

Last week, Brian Guggenheimer, Corps Member on the Alcoa Team serving at PS 48 was featured in the The Scarsdale Inquirer. Carrie Gilpin, reported on City Year in two articles; A day in the life of a City Year New York corps member and A powerful resource for city schools.

Brian shares his experiences thus far serving with City Year, from applying to the program to living on the City Year stipend, and his work with students helping them with their attendance, behavior, and course performance in English.

Guggenheimer places calls home or elsewhere to report the students who are not in school. “It is important for the students and the parents to know there are people watching over their kids. Just making the calls makes a difference.

“At lunch I lead a behavior club. I meet with students who have behavior issues. We work in small groups. This is the most challenging part of my day, because I am in charge. I come up with what we are doing and I manage the behavior of the students.”

Scarsdale is also the hometown of City Year Vice President and Regional Director, Pete November, who was also interviewed for this story.

“Whether a corps member is pre or post- college, City Year can be a career and education accelerator,” said November. “City Year alumni are eligible for scholarships to dozens of graduate schools and colleges, and have access to employers and fellowship programs that recruit directly from City Year.”

To read the full article please click here.

Wordless Wednesday: 12 Days of Service Recap

For the past “12 Day of Service”, corps members have been posting pictures on the wall of the City Year New York Facebook Group. In case you have not visited the group or if you missed a day, we wanted to share all of the pictures as today’s Wordless Wednesday. Enjoy!

P.S. 149ers hard at work decorating their office for the holidays!

At IS 126 Long Island City, we performed PT at a school open house for incoming 5th graders!

MS 424 Alcoa Team hard at work inputting data and prepping for tutoring sessions!

The P.S. 75 Citizens Team after a successful breakfast for our teachers and administrators!

P.S. 13 team’s 3rd grade Starfish House Building Competition using tape, construction paper and straws!

The PS 83 Bain & Co Team begins every morning with their signature break!

Sheepshead Bay High School team getting ready to circle up before our first (of many) AMAZING assemblies!

P.S. 48 Alcoa Team is excited for Winter Wonderland, an event in January celebrating students who’ve had perfect attendance in November and December!

The MS 45 East Harlem team being silly after a day of After School Heroes!

Project Leaders take a quick break from work to pose for a team pic at the CYNY office!

The PS 345 Citizens Team works hard on personalize letters to our behavior focus list students.

JHS 13 with Plaxico Burress of the New York Jets!

‎120 students aboard the Polar Express at PS 130′s Winter Wonderland for perfect attendance! ♥

I.S. 204 HSBC Team breaks after a long day of service ! By your powers combined…

PS 57 Credit Suisse Team and their Starfish break after a powerful team builder!

Holiday Greetings from P.S. 13!

Corps Members from the Diplomas Now Microsoft Team at Newtown High School power greet students as they enter the school building.

And The Winner Is…

In November, we invited all of our followers to enter in a twitter contest to win a pair of City Year J Brand Jeans. Celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Eva Mendes, and Kristen Bell have all been spotted rocking their City Year J Brands and today, we’re excited to add Syracuse University student, Emily Kowalczyk to that list.

With over 30 submissions, Emily was our lucky winner and on Saturday, she drove 4+ hours into the city to pick up her jeans. When we asked her how she found out about City Year, she told us that her best friend served in the corps last year. Now, Emily can continue spreading the word in her new City Year jeans! Congratulations, Emily!

Family Movie Night at PS 213

Today’s guest blogger is Sarah Shutt. Sarah serves as a senior corps member and City Year New York’s Events and Alumni Project Leader. In addition to supporting our Alumni, she has the privilege of working with 49 corps members and Positive School Climate coordinators that represent each of our 22 teams. During monthly meetings, she trains those corps members to plan and execute events that focus on City Year’s ABCs as well as parent and community engagement.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit the PS 213 National Grid team in East New York, Brooklyn. I love visiting this community because I served there last year as a corps member at PS 149. Last night, the PS 213 team invited me to their Family Movie Night event. This event was a Positive School Climate event that the team planned for students and their families. Upon entering the school for the team’s first parent engagement event of the year, I was greeted by a glowing ticket booth and two smiling corps members. Over 55 parents and students gathered in the auditorium for a special viewing of Toy Story 3. Price for admission? A can of food to support to the school’s City Harvest canned food drive.

Corps members Jenani Ambersley and Tashawnee Guarriello pose with Principal Bernard by the ticket booth.

Having served at PS 213 last year as a corps member and knowing how popular the event was, Team Leader, Stephen Grodski said, “It was very exciting to see this event’s legacy continue and be built upon and improved.” On continuing the legacy of this event, Chris Hamm, one of the team’s Positive School Climate coordinators, stated, “We knew last year’s event was very successful and we wanted to continue that success.”

To enhance the overall experience for their guests, the team created 7 giant movie posters and filled 120 paper bags with movie theater popcorn that was donated to the event. By the end of the night, over 45 cans of food were collected and when I asked a student what his favorite part was, he exclaimed, “ALL OF IT!”

Christopher Hamm, Jelani Ambersley, and Phillip Landicho greeted the students and their families into the school. Check out Woody in the background!

Sounds like this event will be around for many years to come. Great job PS 213!