May 2016 Community Call

Throughout the 2016-2017 academic year, the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence is celebrating 20 years in the College of Education & Human Development. We will celebrate all year long, honoring our past two decades while also igniting a spark for the next 20 years ahead.

Celebrating this milestone on the Georgia State University campus means looking back, telling our story, and saluting those who helped us get here. It means being thankful for each other and what we do every day. It is a chance to reflect on 20 years of success in educational excellence for all children, their families and communities.

The Crim Center will host special events throughout the year with prizes and giveaways, guest speakers and events culminating in the 20th Anniversary “Investing in Excellence” gala in June 2017. For a list of 20th anniversary events and details, please visit crim.education.gsu.edu.

Now, take a look inside to see what we’ve been up to this spring.

20 YEARS OF SERVICE!

COMMUNITY CALL

BELIEVERSc o m m U N I TY o fC R E A T I N G a

30 Pryor St., Ste. 350, Atlanta, GA 30303crim.education.gsu.edu

A VISION OF Dr. Alonzo A. Crim, ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLs SUPERINTENDENT (1973-1988)

FACEBOOK.com/CRIMCENTER @ALONZOACRIMCUEE

JUMPSTARTJumpstart is a national early education organization that recruits and trains college students and

community Corps members to serve preschool children in low-income neighborhoods. Our proven curriculum helps children develop the language and literacy skills they need to be ready

for kindergarten, setting them on a path to close the achievement gap before it is too late.

***SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM Jumpstart National For full articles and to learn more, please visit our website:crim.education.gsu.edu

Spring 2016 Newsletter

TEEMS members at Superhero Science Night at the Children's Museum of Atlanta (March 2016)

UPDATE FROMJUMPSTART

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.

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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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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.

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, 20165p.m. & 6p.m.

College of Education & Human DevelopmentRoom 1025 (Deitz Conference Room)

Wednesday, June 1, 201612p.m. & 1p.m.

College of Education & Human DevelopmentRoom 1025 (Deitz Conference Room)

Thursday, June 2, 20165p.m. & 6p.m.

College of Education & Human DevelopmentRoom 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

[email protected], or 404-413-8430.

UPDATE FROMTEEMS AMERICORPS

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Vanessa Pérez-Topczewski

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.

early college

senior recognition ceremony

We want to wish all of the senior graduates (and all Early College students) a happy and fruitful summer.

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Breaking (The Neutral) Ground:Collaboration, Negotiation,and Celebration

in Urban Education

CONFERENCE DATESOctober 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. Noti�cation of acceptance will be emailed by July 8, 2016.

If you have questions, please contact Dana Salter at [email protected].

Pre-conference events will include a �lm 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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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.

AAMI SCREENS DOCUMENTARYON SCHOOL’S HISTORY

fall highlight:

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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.

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

MURAL PROJECT COMPLETED @ CARVER HIGH SCHOOL!

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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.

Destauni WilliamsDream McClintonChelsea MontfordAntrawn EdwardsJemeria McDanielTorre WilliamsTatianna JonesAntwanette GreenAdjah Moore

Khadijah BolesMariah CampbellQuincy DawsonVictoria DoctorRichard HackettMarkita HillKrystina LeverettChelsea MontfordAntoinette PinoAmanda TaylorDavonne TillmanSharita Underwood

Trevon Norman (Bachelor’s)Jihad Uhuru (Master’s)Kweku Vassall (Master’s)

JUMPSTART GRADUATES TEEMS AMERICORPS GRADUATES

CRIM CENTERINTERNS AND RESEARCH FELLOWS

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

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Alexis Friendly Albany State University

Alvan PriceGeorgia Institute of Technology

Amina GlassGeorgia State University

Angel AmourGeorgia State University

or Mercer UniversityAshley George

Fort Valley State UniversityAshley Sheats

The University of GeorgiaBrisha Jones

Spelman CollegeChances Zayas

University of West GeorgiaGloria Murray

The College of Wooster

Guadalupe PizanoKeiser University

Indya ArmstrongSpelman College

Jakayla MooreThe University of Alabama

Jarvious JonesUniversity of California (Santa Cruz)

Jasmyn CollierGeorgia State University

Jaylyn GillisJohns Hopkins University

Jazzmine QuarlesAlbany State University

Jennifer GarciaSpelman College

Jonathan ColeyGeorgia Southern University

Justus KeatonUniversity of Southern California

Kelsiuna WoodfordClark Atlanta University

Khalliday MuhammadMercer University

Kimberly McCrimmonJohnson and Wales University of

North MiamiKwesi Murphy

Georgia State UniversityRaven JohnsonWheaton College

Raven McQueenTuskegee University

Shantearia McCoyGeorgia State University

Treylon Wo�ordArizona State University

EARLY COLLEGE GRADUATESCarver High School Grads (and the colleges they will attend in the fall)

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Ciara JenkinsClark Atlanta University

Jhazzmyn JoinerGeorgia Institute of Technology

Labreshia WilliamsSavannah State UniversityMarquavious BanesGeorgia State University

Trakeyma BarberSavannah State University

Usiel HernandezGeorgia Institute of Technology

EARLY COLLEGE GRADUATESWashington High School Grads (and the colleges they will attend in the fall)

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The Crim Center is excited to celebrate the newest member of our team:

Kenley Davis7lbs 1oz 4/10/16

Please join us in congratulating Tene and Jarvis Davis on the blessed

addition to their family.

By Amber Mason, Graduate Research Assistant, Urban Child Study CenterDoctoral 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.

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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UPDATE FROM UETT(URBAN EDUCATION THINK TANK)

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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 o�er a free summer program for

metro-Atlanta rising 8th-11th grade students!

June 20 - July 1, 2016

@ 2 lo c ations l isted b elow :Brookhaven

Boys & Girls Club1330 North Druid Hills Road

Atlanta, GA 30319***Transportation to Brookhaven

will be provided for Jones & Carver BGCMA members.

John H. Harland Boys & Girls Club434 Peeples StreetAtlanta, GA 30315

***Transportation to John H. Harland will be provided for

Warren, Thomasville & Whitehead BGCMA members.

O ver the course of the t wo weeks, the institute wil l feature t wo excit ing �eldtrips as well as

fo cus on developing relationships and promoting so cial comp etenc y. Students wil l a lso

par ticipate in sessions on:

Strengthening STEM fundamentalsCultural awareness

Rob otics and engineeringCreative think ing and writ ing

Forming a cultural and so cial identit y

Deadline for applications is June 3, 2016. To request an application, please e-mail

Vanessa Pérez at [email protected] and provide your child’s name, grade, school and your preferred contact

information.

9a.m.-12p.m.

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4 - 7 p.m.

Undocumented StudentsGentrification

Privileges of PowerOppression

DiversityCommunity Building

Networking Stereotyping

Campus Safety and SecurityGender and Sexuality

And More!

Group Roundtable DiscussionsQ/A Dialogue between

Professors, Organizational Representatives and Students

Hands-on, Cooperative ActivitiesPrivilege Walk

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.

For more information email Rabiyah Abdus-Salaam at [email protected].

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.

Want to get involved? Contact Dana E. Salter at [email protected] or 404-413-8070.

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UPDATE FROM OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY GROUP

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