ATA:: Advanced Training Academy

ATA stands for our Advanced Training Academy. This always happens at the mid-year point, and serves as a point of re-unification for our corps members. This year, we had a full day of professional development with out side facilitators on topics like resume writing, creating your personal statement, and credit counseling.

We also did an 18 minute networking event, featuring corps members mingling with City Year alumni and other professionals working throughout Philadelphia and the area.

Ragina, 24, ProServe senior corps member

Real Sports with Chris

Sports are my life, passion and first love. I had nothing else but football and friends when I grew up. My friends and I played nothing but football during my teenage years. The game played a major role in my life and carried me to bigger and better things. I had dreams of playing professionally for the Philadelphia Eagles but remember it was only a dream.
During the summer time, we played football almost every day on our block. It was the best feeling when we played and practiced to make each other better by the time we got to high school. I was considered very talented by my friends and of course I fed off that. When we played football games against other teams, there was a lot of emotion put into it. I was known as a dangerous receiver and I was very proud of it. I scored most of my teams’ points and won us plenty of nail-biting games.
When I got to high school, it was very hard for me to adjust to the official way of playing football. I had to learn the game all over and it took me a while to fit into the format. My freshman year helped me realize that I had a lot to learn. I took time off away from football to run track, which I got really good at by my junior year. In my senior year, I was officially on my high school football team roster. I had a chance to play defense for my team and my coaches called me a “playmaker”. At that time I was happy with myself and it fueled me to push for more.
Chris W., 19, corps member, Wolf Block team at Creighton K-8

CY 101: Power Greeting

Hello! Good Morning! Glad you’re here!

These are all good ways to start your average day. But a City Year event is not an average day. Power Greeting is a tool used to set the town at City Year events like Serve-A-Thon, Opening Day, and Legacy Projects. It is designed to make guests feel more welcome and quickly get them to where they need to be.

There may be just a couple of Power Greeters or a couple dozen. The cheers can be intricate with verses or something as straightforward as clapping. The most important thing about Power Greeting is that it be welcoming, sincere, and enthusiastic.

City Year makes kids feel safe

So this is going to be a weird joy and a weird quote but one of our 6th graders here at Feltonville said this about our City Year classroom:

"If there were zombies, this would be the room to be in. It feels safe here." -Rachel 6th grade.

Ashley A., 24, service leader, CSX team at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences.

George Mason Alternative Spring Break Reflection

To City Year Philly:

There are times when I lose hope. I get discouraged, even resentful. Sometimes, in the end I’m left feeling burnt out. However, it is organizations like City Year that make me believe, believe that change is possible. All of you have reinforced the idea that Impossible? Is nothing. Thank you for caring, believing, respecting, recognizing, then acting to inspire. I AM INSPIRED, WE ARE INSPIRED.

Ultimately generations are inspired by your work. They say change happens in generations. Well, I am seeing it take place right here, right now. The Unity Rally, the murals, the debriefs and strong circles, the friendships, the laughter and tears, the energy and effortless motivation to love those we know and those we pass by in West Philly, Feltonville, and 52nd Street. Thank you for being visible. Thank you for testing our comfort zones, creating conversation and making Philly a home away from home for a week. I may be leaving with more questions than answers, but I do know one thing for sure--City Year has it--although not my application (yet).”

Justin Fogata, George Mason University ‘09, Alternative Spring Break Participant





Photos by Robyn Lorfink, CYGP

Day to Day Service, an Update from Meg

A typical day of service means that I arrive at the school around 8:15, unless it is a Wednesday when I need to be at school at 7:30. My team always circles in our office at 8:30 and runs through readiness check, joys and ripples, and our agenda for the day. Our first class starts at 9:30, so for the next 45 minutes we have a different theme for each day. On Monday we write down all the students we worked with the week before, on Tuesdays we work on our Life After City Year plans, on Wednesdays we write in our Starfish logs, and on Thursdays we make sure everything is organized for the next week. At 9:27 the bell rings and everyone on my team heads to their first class.

My first class is a 10th grade African American history class. I take two students out of that class and we go back to the City Year office and work on worksheets or read passages out of the book. After 2nd period I go to Ms. LeeHim’s class, which is a 10th grade English class with most of the same students as my second period. I work in-class there, usually working with a few students on the book they are reading at the time. Right now they are reading The Giver, and filling out a packet as they read. When that class ends I head to my period 4/5 class, a freshmen physical science class. For this class I walk around and make sure that everyone stays on task and is copying down notes. After that class ends, I have a half hour to work on different tasks, like planning the Book Club that we are starting at Overbrook soon. Then it’s lunch and I finish the school day in another freshmen physical science class, working with one student who has trouble seeing the board.

Then it’s time for tutoring in the library. This is my favorite time of the day, since we have a few students who come regularly and it’s just more relaxed atmosphere than being in class. This is the time when students talk to you about stuff unrelated to school, and they really begin to open up. The students never like to leave tutoring, but around 4:30 we finish up and they leave. For the next hour and fifteen minutes my team takes care of different tasks. For example, every month we publish a newsletter to give to students and parents, so everyone has a different article that they have to write. This is also the time to have team meetings once a week and plan our next 90% Club event. 90% Club is an initiative with our sponsor, Villa, that rewards students who come to school 9 out of 10 days. We collect attendance once every two weeks and have different prizes for the students who were present. It’s a great program but requires a lot of planning. At 5:45 my team will break and everyone goes home. And that is a day in the life of a City Year corps member serving on the Villa team at Overbrook High School. J

Meg, 19, corps member, Villa team at Overbrook High School

A great work out to go along with a great year of service

Recently, we began playing football on Sunday’s with a lot of random people. We organized the games by telling a few corps members that we were going to play at Clark Park (43rd to 45th on either side of Chester Ave.). Then, they told people. Then those people told people, and it turned into a big recruitment process.

Corps members began playing in January with college, high school and neighborhood teens. Football was a hit (literally). It began to progress every week, which is funny, because we just made up a random place to play.

As a group, we noticed most of the players lived in West Philly. We started telling all the West Philly people to tell their friends and we made announcements at Unity Rally for City Year people to come out.

The games kept getting bigger and bigger and we have a full team that includes linemen, wide receivers, running backs, and a quarterback. It’s a good way to play around with the people that we work with.

Marque, 19, corps member, Eagles Youth Partnership team at Jones Middle School

Basic Training Retreat (BTR)

BTR stands for our Basic Training Retreat. This generally happens during the second week of BTA, and we use this time to really bond as a corps.

We typically leave the city, in true retreat style, and are able to focus on our teams, and the service ahead. Leaving the city allows for a more peaceful, focused reflection.

Ragina, 24, ProServe senior corps member

CY 101: Power Courtesy

Simple courtesy includes being polite in behavior and speech. City Year amps up regular courtesy and turns it into Power Courtesy. Power Courtesy is a great way to engage people unfamiliar with City Year. It also goes a long way in changing people’s view of young adults. Never underestimate the power of small, daily interactions.

Power Courtesy includes, but is not limited to:
• Holding doors open for others
• Saying “Please,” “Thank you,” and “You’re Welcome”
• Making eye contact when you shake someone’s hand
• Standing up on public transportation to let someone else sit down
• Greeting people in the hallways and walking down the street
• Introducing yourself
• Standing up to speak to a group
• Being aware of your surroundings at all times.

These simple, straight forward gestures can transform the way people view you and others like you. You will be taken more seriously. You will impress those around you with your courtesy. You will make people readier to follow you as a leader. You may even notice a change in yourself.

Deloitte: Sponsors and mentors

The Deloitte Mentoring Partnership brings together 20 City Year corps members with 20 Deloitte employees from December-June for a unique mentoring opportunity. Deloitte employees provide City Year corps members with an extended network of support and guidance by:

-Providing extra support, guidance, and motivation needed to help them complete their year of service;
-Providing resources for professional and personal development;
-Helping develop a solid LACY (Life After City Year) Plan; and
-Developing an engaged network of City Year alumni, City Year staff and external partners.

Mentors/megntee partners meet at least once a month both on their own and at structured events.

Dana Martin, Development Director, City Year Greater Philadelphia

Camp City Year

Every year during the School District's Spring Break, City Year runs a day camp to provide a safe place to play and learn while school is out. Preparations for Camp City Year are well underway, because Spring Break is creeping up on us (April 6-9).

Camps are put together over the course of several weeks leading up to spring break. The camps leadership team--corps members who have applied to take on (over and above their day-to-day, in-class time) the challenges of finding places for, planning curricula for, and coordinating the food for 1,000 Kindergarten through 5th grade students.

This year's theme is "Adventures through Time" and will be hosted at four Recreation Centers throughout the city (Myers in Southwest, Marian Anderson in Center City, Murphy in South, and Rivera in Northeast Philadelphia).

Each camper must pay a $10 fee for the week. It's pretty cheap daycare. Each day, students will get to learn about different times and cultures, be fed breakfast, lunch and snack, and be supervised while playing and learning.

Philly Food: Water Ice

Philadelphia is a city well known for specific foods. After all, it’s not a Toledo cheese steak sandwich and it’s not like Denver is known for its soft pretzels. That being said, my favorite Philly specific food is water ice. Now that Daylight Savings Time is upon us and it’s still gorgeous and sunny out, I’m thinking about water ice.

Probably the most common chain to offer water ice is Rita’s. I particularly enjoy their lemon water ice as a refreshing late afternoon treat in muggy July and August. But the best water ice is the kind that comes from the corner store. It’s cheap, it’s plentiful and it comes in a ton of flavors. My particular favorite is to get a small (medium and large are actually humongous) cup of watermelon and pineapple from New Harvest Chinese-American Takeout between 48th and 49th on Spruce Street. It’s $1.50 and the best thing to enjoy on an afternoon in the park. The only caveat: as summer winds down, the owners don’t restock all the flavors, so I found myself limited to only cherry and lemon as options in September. As we gear up for spring, though, I’m pretty amped to see what’s available.

Megan, 24, Recruitment Senior Corps Member

Basic Training Academy

BTA stands for our Basic Training Academy. This is when the bulk of Corps Members’ training happens. BTA lasts for approximately three weeks, and includes a variety of trainings on different topics including: City Year Culture, academic support tutoring, and behavior management tools. During this period, we also do a lot of team building so that we can really come together as a corps, and start our year on a unified note!

Ragina, 24, ProServe senior corps member

It took a village to raise this child

I am from the East Falls section of Philadelphia. Growing up, I was involved in various activities, including student council, basketball and softball in my neighborhood. I truly feel that my hometown is one of a kind. I am proud to have been raised in such a wonderful community. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child and I am very grateful for all of the love and support I have felt throughout my life.

I serve on the Eagles Youth Partnership team at John Paul Jones Middle School in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia. Every day my team and I come to Jones with passion and a can-do attitude ready to serve. Each day, every member of my team follows a section of middle school students through their classes offering in-class support and guidance. We also target students that are below basic reading and math levels for one on one tutoring. Aside from academic support, we also run numerous after-school enrichment programs and participate in large and small scale service projects.

I know that I am making a difference because the children I work with are happy every single day I step into their classrooms. Simply knowing that I have the ability to improve the attitude, confidence and grades of a child keeps me focused. This experience is meaningful to me because I know I am an important part of amazing movement. I am honored to give back to my city.

Next year, I plan to return for a second City Year. I want to continue to give back to my city and the youth who shape the future of our community.

Rachel, 19, corps member, Eagles Youth Partnership team at Jones Middle School

Why I returned to City Year

My name is Dave and I'ma 2007 grad of TCNJ. After spending my freshman and sophomore years going to class, having fun with friends and working the occasional shift at the Tutoring Center, I decided I was interested in becoming more active on campus, trying to leave my own mark upon the school.

I began to get involved in a bunch of political organizations and campaigns. Eventually, I was involved in bringing fair trade coffee to the library café and eventually the student center, hosting a lecture by Howard Zinn and working on an environmental campaign to improve the school’s recycling. However, I knew that the extracurricular work I did at TCNJ wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my appetite for change.

Luckily, I stumbled across City Year, which gave me the opportunity to continue working not just for myself, but for others as well. Last year I served with a team of fellow idealists at Kensington High School in Philadelphia. I spent my days tutoring and mentoring students, running after-school programs, engaging parents and teachers, setting up college fairs and fashion shows, and everything else my team and I could do to improve the academics and climate of a struggling urban high school.

I decided to come back to serve a second year largely because of both my successes and regrets from last year. My team and I ran an evening college fair that a third of the entire student body attended—after our principal told us the school wouldn’t have had the resources to host one without us. More personally, I worked directly with a number of students whose lives I was able to impact through tutoring and mentoring. For some, I was able to help them get into colleges like Penn State and Temple after spending the year working on their writing skills. Despite these successes, I knew I could do more. I needed to return to City Year for a second year of service.

The experience has been nothing short of life-changing. A few years ago, I certainly couldn’t have imagined that I’d be living in Philadelphia and making an impact in some of the city’s toughest—also, most inspiring—schools and communities. As much as I’ve expanded upon my professional and leadership skills, the impact I’ve been able to make is what I’ll always take away from these two years. If you’re interested in spending a year working to improve the lives of students in this country, I strongly recommend that you think about a year of service with City Year.

Dave, 23, service leader, DVHS Volunteer Management Team

The Mummers

Mummers tradition dates back to 400 BC and the Roman Festival of Saturnalias where Latin laborers marched in masks throughout the day of satire and gift exchange. This included Celtic variations of “trick-or-treat” and Druidic noise-making to drive away demons for the new year. Reports of rowdy groups “parading” on New Years day in Philadelphia date back before the revolution. Prizes were offered by merchants in the late 1800’s. January 1, 1901 was the first “official” parade offered about $1,725 in prize money from the city.

The Mummers parade is a celebration of the New Year but is serious business in Philadelphia. Clubs work on the costumes and practice all year for their one day in the sun (…wind, rain or snow). There are many lively discussions over the scoring by the judges and adherence to the complicated set of rules the marchers must follow when being judged. String Bands are judged on their musical presentation as well as the costumes. Seeing and hearing a String Band performing live in the parade is a one-of-a-kind experience.

Comic clubs tradition from ancient Greek god Momus who was the personification of mockery, blame, ridicule, scorn, raillery and stinging criticism. Momus was expelled from heaven for his/her criticisms and ridicule of the gods. The comic clubs continue to raise controversy over these themes they use in the parade that make fun of current issues and news stories such as issues involving religion, ethnicity, and feminism. Many Mummers parade controversies over polices, such as the exclusion of women and the use of black-face, lasted many years.
From www.mummers.com

Also, visit www.mummersmuseum.com