Attendance + Caring Adult = Positive Relationships That Matter!

In our May 2019 issue of Diving Deep in The Zone we mentioned our new collaboration with Global Kids and our first steps to work on school and community partnerships that extend past the school bell. For the past two months’ students in the 6th and 7th grade at IS 126Q have been meeting enthusiastically with Global Kids facilitators. Hearing all the buzz about their activities, the students invited me to sit in on a session and what I saw were teams of four engaged in cooperative leadership activities. Guided by discussions on what they perceive their community to be and how they aspire to change it students told me “I look forward to coming on Wednesdays to school because of the Global Kids program,” “the facilitators are supportive, and have taught us that some rules can be unfair but we can fight them by becoming leaders and being in control.”

Nurturing self-awareness, leadership abilities and communication skills has been the focus of the first part of the program which will continue over the summer. IS 126Q Principal, Mr. Alexander Angueira, is looking forward to seeing how these students develop through the summer and how they will exhibit their leadership skills amongst their classmates come the new school year. Ms. Niame, one of the facilitators in the group, is very optimistic about the leadership potential participants have demonstrated, and understands the crucial role the program plays in ensuring that: “students have a voice and feel empowered to become proponents of change within their community.” In a neighborhood that is rapidly changing, making space for our youth to have a voice in shaping its progress becomes of particular importance in the quest for social equality.