See It: The Community being helped

When children do not move and exercise, a variety of long-term problems arise. Obesity, lack of attention span during class, lack of ability to work as a team, lack of want to take risks. All research shows that without play, children grow up to be non-productive adults.

We could not let our students be in this position, just because our playground was 12 years old, rotting, too small and as the kids say "too boring".

We will ensure after this playground build that all of students are moving around during recess and after-school getting all of the benefits of PLAY!

See It: The Community being helped

In a six week long summer experience, Georgetown students would act as coaches, empowering and inspiring students from Southeast DC to identify and tackle the problems in their community. The undergraduate participants would also work to change the problems that they perceive on Georgetown’s campus. The goals of the program are:

1. To improve the experience of Georgetown students by increasing connectedness within the student body and between students and university administration
2. To encourage and facilitate student work for change on campus
3. To allow Georgetown and DCPS students to develop an appreciation for experiences very different from their own
4. To highlight the positive and break down the stereotype of the disengaged student

This project would build upon the framework and success of Civic Engagement and Education, a community based learning course at Georgetown University. The original focus of the class was to work with students from under-preforming Frank W. Ballou High School, and encourage and help them to tackle problems in their school or area. These ranged from demanding administrative transparency to developing a proposal for reduced school transportation costs.

As the semester progressed, and in light of racial tensions on Georgetown’s campus, the class expanded its focus so that students could identify and address challenges facing the Georgetown student body as well. From this grew a student-led movement to combat prejudice and build community amongst undergraduates.

The theory behind a class or program such as this is that change needs to come from within. Given the proper resources, youth can become their own advocates, and act to change what they see as the most urgent problems.

A summer program would allow both DCPS and Georgetown students to work intensively towards cohesion and community change. We envision DCPS high school students getting picked up and brought to Georgetown five mornings a week, and spending 5-6 hours working and bonding with their undergraduate students “coaches.” Then, the DC students are transported back, the Georgetown students will reserve 2-3 hours each day to work on the issue (or issues) that they have identified within the campus community. The project would culminate in a conference involving DC government and education officials, as well as Georgetown administrators, in which students could present their accomplishments and explain the changes they have implemented.

The grant money would go towards transporting the students from Southeast DC to and from the university, lunch for students, and classroom or other meeting space on campus.

See It: The Community being helped

The Leadership Academy is a catalyst for the revival of economic development using the benefits of the new generation's techniques. The Academy will convey innovative tools for empowerment of young people in the econmomically hard-hit Mississippi Delta. Through the relating of the most crucial for success in the 21st century world, the Leadership Academy provides the tools necessary for our community to grow its own leaders.

See It: The Community being helped

In grade school, my most important lessons were not from textbooks. The Magnet programs I attended were housed in schools predominately representing socioeconomically disadvantaged districts. Through sports, I got to know people from very diverse backgrounds. Broken homes and incarcerated father-figures went from being stories in the news to reality. Through their eyes, I saw the unseen hardships, unfair labeling, and lack of opportunities many of these “underprivileged” kids face. They were just as intelligent and hardworking, but faced bleak futures, unable to relate what they learned in school with their lives. Moreover, I was keenly aware that the country is on a collision course with a major shortfall of STEM-trained youth, which congressional leaders are calling a national crisis. Not only are disadvantaged groups underrepresented in STEM, but this whole population segment that could be contributing cannot because of a lack of opportunities. While organizing high school things my freshman year in college, a yearbook note from a close track teammate caught my eye. He was one of the most hard-working and genuine persons I knew, but because he hung out with the wrong crowd, he was held back several years and was on parole throughout high school. He had few role models and even fewer opportunities; thinking of him suddenly sparked in me a burning desire to do something—something to help others like him. Education is the key to the future. Extracurricular educational programs have changed, reshaped, and motivated me in amazing ways, helping me focus and see new and exciting possibilities. These programs are often out of reach for the underprivileged children that need them the most. I wanted to change that. I wanted to help them overcome their obstacles and share my passion for learning with them. InnoWorks (www.innoworks.org) was born. InnoWorks is an innovative science and engineering initiative “By Students, For Students,” designed by volunteer college undergraduates for grade-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The flagship program of the non-profit United InnoWorks Academy (UIA), it is intended to inspire lifelong enthusiasm towards learning in general and science in particular. InnoWorks is organized to leverage the grass-roots energy of university students to benefit local communities. It is unique among extracurricular educational programs for several reasons. First, InnoWorks programs are offered entirely free of charge for all underprivileged students nominated by local school systems, including program materials, books, transportation, food, and awards. Second, InnoWorks programs are developed and conducted by passionate college volunteers from around the country. Students bond well with their mentors and staff, looking up to them as older brothers and sisters.

The mentors also felt InnoWorks helped them develop significantly as leaders, mentors, and communicators. Third, InnoWorks curricula are created and tested by the volunteer leaders to “turn-on” middle-school students to learning and the “scientific” mindset. They are exceptionally modular, scalable, portable, and interdisciplinary, enabling students to understand connections among different scientific fields and how they relate to their own lives. We have captured these curricula in two sets of books (separate mentor and student versions) and are developing a third. Finally, to optimize and personalize pedagogical methods, InnoWorks develops and evaluates novel adaptations of cutting-edge research by cognitive neuroscientists and educational psychologists as the foundation for creating versatile curricula and mentoring techniques that allow mentors to accommodate and challenge the specific learning preferences of each and every student. By helping students harness their learning strengths to overcome difficulties, learning becomes more profound and enjoyable. In the low-stress, collaborative InnoWorks environment, students are very willing to take intellectual risks and open their minds.

The exciting experience of being on a college campus with their mentors and the can-do learning attitude generated by InnoWorks inspired many to enthusiastically express a new desire to go to college—remarkable considering their family backgrounds. Our vision is for InnoWorks to provide exciting educational opportunities for all students across the world. We intend to maintain relationships with InnoWorkers for life, inviting them to join as junior and then full mentors.

If our mission is achieved, InnoWorks communities everywhere will be self-perpetuating, with each generation nurturing the next, connected by a common goal to improve society. The year 2007 marks the fourth year of InnoWorks. We have successfully conducted five summer programs for over 200 students and benefited from the contributions of over 250 volunteers. We currently have seven chapters: Duke University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Univerisity of Michigan, and College of the Bahamas (Nassau, Bahamas). We anticipate having well over 200 students at our programs in the summer of 2007. We are constantly receiving inquiries from people interested in starting new chapters from as far away as Effat College, Saudi Arabia. InnoWorks has been profiled by CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, Duke News & Communication, The Herald Sun, Duke Chronicle, UANews, Duke Dialogue, Maryland Gazette, Arizona Daily Star, DukEngineer Magazine, and was featured on the 2005-2006 Duke Basketball Halftime TV Spot.