CruBlog

This summer, a group of high school Crusaders are working together to analyze media imagery with the help of Victor Omoayo, a Crusade alum who is teaching in our Media Literacy program. Victor is a graduate of Mount Pleasant High School in Providence. He went on to earn a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Rhode Island and an M.A. in Visual Media Arts from Emerson College. With him are (left to right) Ranishia Jordan, Yer Yang, Sesamuel Batista, Ivan Parenteau, and Anyi Montalvo. Students in the two-week course learn how to interpret a broad spectrum of sophisticated media messages and engage in writing and class discussion in a computer-interactive environment. At the end of the course, they present final projects to the class.

Ways to A’s has started! Our summer study-skills program for students who are joining The College Crusade this fall is packed with up-and-coming 6th graders from Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket. Their coursework includes exercises in active listening, note taking, reading, and writing, memory improvement, test taking, learning styles, and time and classroom management.

Ways to A’s runs for six weeks at CCRI’s Providence campus. Nearly 400 students are expected to attend this year!

Above, program coordinator Adam Tarczuk talks to students before they head off to their next class. At left, Ways to A’s participants Rosalee Cruz, Aliyeh Halloway, and Thalia Pemberton prepare for a lesson on learning styles.

High school Crusaders attending our summer course in Media Literacy are showing their creative sides lately. The two-week course, taught by PAIS English teacher Demian Yattaw, gets students involved in analyzing how messages are delivered to audiences via print, broadcast, and electronic media. As a capstone project, the students work together to generate ideas for new products and then create media campaigns to communicate the product idea to an audience.

This week’s presenters, all new ninth graders who are just starting high school in the fall, focused their energy on creating ideas for high-tech products. They wrote sales pitches about the product features and benefits, drew posters, and presented their ideas to the class using PowerPoint slides:

• Crusaders Amado Tate, Jose Ruaro, Anthony Rezendes, and Carlos Romero invented a video game called Ultimate Gamer 1.0 that connects to the Internet.

• Roxanna Francisco, Darelle Speaks, and Crisanta Martins developed a device called the iPod Mix, which combines the best of the iPod Touch and the iPod Shuffle.

• Rosina Turner worked hard on her concept and poster for a product called the Hero, a solar-powered multifunction phone/wristwatch that could do pretty much anything you’d want. (Rosina chose Sonic Hedgehog as her product spokesperson because, like Sonic, it saves the day!)

• Luis Carrillo, Joely Garcia, and Darling Melgar invented the PL2SP, or “portable laptop 2-screen printer,” a very useful laptop with two screens and a built-in printer.

• Katherine Pena, Brianna Vega, and Francelly Brito developed a thoughtful product called the Deaf-Defying Mic, a microphone and earpiece with a special chip receiver in it that would allow hard-of-hearing people to listen to music.

Session 2 of Media Literacy starts up soon. What unexpected ideas will Crusaders come up with next?

Hundreds of new sixth-grade Crusaders are learning how to take notes, study for tests, manage their homework time, and handle many other challenges of middle school that they will face in the fall. It’s all part of our annual Ways to A’s study-skills course, which got underway at the Community College of Rhode Island this week. The best part is that all the instructors are former Crusaders - Tiffany Hooks, Rahja Laster, David Miya, Chanravy Proeung, Kathy Toro, and Sarah Vanover!

Additional members of the Ways to A’s teaching staff this year are College Crusade Advisors Javier Cabreja and Judith Taveras. The program coordinator for Ways to A’s is Adam Tarczuk, who also serves as a regular instructor at Saturday Cru Club, where he teaches financial literacy and creative writing during the school year. Many thanks to all our talented Instructors and Advisors, who do so much to help Crusaders succeed!

At top from left, the 2010 staff of Ways to A’s is: (front row) Chanravy Proeung, Kathy Toro, Tiffany Hooks, Judith Taveras, and Sarah Vanover; (back row) coordinator Adam Tarczuk, Rahja Laster, David Miya, and Javier Cabreja.

As school drew to a close and got busier than ever this spring, dozens of high school Crusaders dedicated their time and energy to creating successful community service projects. The Tomorrow Fund was one of the beneficiaries this year. Based at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, The Tomorrow Fund provides emotional and financial support to families and children in treatment for cancer.

In May, students from Providence Academy of International Studies and Cooley Health, Science & Technology High School held a movie night fundraiser in the school library to benefit the organization. A green Tomorrow Fund wristband for $2 admission, including popcorn and a drink, got you in to see the film Avatar! Also in May, students at Woonsocket High School held a coin drive as their benefit event. They meet weekly to develop their plan, set up a table in the cafeteria with posters and information about the mission of The Tomorrow Fund, and gathered contributions from classmates and school personnel. Together, these two projects raised over $320 for The Tomorrow Fund while providing Crusaders with valuable experience in project planning and teamwork.

At left, College Crusade Advisor Catalina Gomez presents a check from her team of students at PAIS and Cooley High to Tomorrow Fund Development Director Kathy Connolly. Below, Advisor Ralph Toribio presents a check from his team at Woonsocket High to Executive Director Barbara Ducharme.

Congratulations and thanks to all the Crusaders who made these projects happen. Participating students included Lailoni Clear, Cristopher Cohober, Francisco Cruz, Carolina Gomez, Yareliz Hernandez, Kelly Lopez, Genesis Maria, Alexis Nichols, Yaranys Nunez, Marilenis Perez, and Viviana Rosa from Cooley, and Francisco Almonte, Ines Diaz, Michael Ferreras, Berly Godinez, Marvic Gomez, Heidy Henderson, Danny Hernandez, Kevin Hernandez, Gisette Mancebo, Skye Nina, Josefa Nix, Paula Noriega, Francis Pena, Niurka Quinonez, Shaniqua Robertson, Stanley Theodore, Yer Vang, Jose Vinas, and Jimmy Ware from PAIS. Participating students from Woonsocket High School included Amanda Aubuchon, Richard Bressan, Hilary Fakhry, Amber Reyes, Karyna Ruiz, Idalis Santiago, and Emely Taveras.

We are thrilled to announce that Isamar Morales, a Crusader graduating from Hope High School this spring, received the prestigious Fibertech/Tech Collective Scholarship for 2010! Isamar was honored at the Tech Collective’s annual Tech Laureates Night, held at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet on June 3. Curtis Fox, regional sales manager for Fibertech Networks, congratulated Isamar for her high academic achievements (she graduated sixth in her class) and wide-ranging extracurricular activities (she captained her softball team and also served as editor of the school newspaper). JoAnn Johnson, manager of youth & education programs for the Tech Collective, was also on hand to celebrate Isamar’s success.

The $3000 scholarship was established for one female RI high school student planning to pursue a degree in information systems, computer science or other IT field. Isamar will attend the University of Rhode Island next year and plans to study computer engineering.

Congratulations Isamar!

Cruaders, it’s time to choose your books for summer reading and book reports! Here are some suggested books if you are entering 8th grade in the fall. Remember these are only a suggestion. You may read any book you would like as long as it is a chapter book, age appropriate, and one that you have not read before.

Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom
This is a true story of a young boy’s remarkable journey from a refugee camp in Sudan to an affluent Chicago suburb where his family survives on welfare. Mawi overcomes racial prejudice, language barriers and financial disadvantage, eventually realizing his dream of a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard University.

Numbering All the Bones by Ann Rinaldi
While most slaves are being freed now that the Civil War has ended, Eulinda’a younger brother has been sold after being falsely accused of stealing and her older brother has run away, leaving thirteen year old Eulinda alone in a household headed by a cruel mistress and a master that will not acknowledge that Eulinda is his daughter.

Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about Fast Food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
This book is a look at fast food: what’s in it, how it’s made and what it does to our bodies. Once you know what’s in the food you are eating you might never eat fast food again!

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
In 1869 while his father is away on a cattle drive, 15 year old Tommy takes over managing the family farm. Tommy gets irritated when his younger brother adopts a dog that he names Yeller. Soon Tommy becomes as fond of the dog as everyone else in his family as Yeller is an excellent watchdog. While fighting off a mad wolf, Yeller becomes infected with rabies. At first Yeller seems unaffected but then he starts to behave viciously and Tommy has to decide what to do.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
Kenny narrates this story about his middle class African American family and their 1963 trip from Michigan to Alabama. The purpose of the trip is two fold - to visit their grandmother and to get Kenny’s older brother away from the tough crowd he is running with. Sadly racism rears its ugly head as the family travels through the south.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, an innkeeper and her son find a treasure map that leads them to many adventures and a pirate’s fortune.

Notes From the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick
16 year old Alex decides to get even with his parents but instead of revenge he ends up in trouble with the law and has to do community service at a senior center. This is about an angry judge, Alex’s best friend Laurie and old man dying of emphysema and how the combination changes them all.

Hoops by Walter Dean Meyers
A teenage basketball player from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of point shaving, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The orphan Bod, short for Nobody, is taken in by the inhabitants of a graveyard as a toddler after his family is murdered and is raised lovingly and carefully to the age of 18 by the community of ghosts and underworldly creatures.

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
This book is about a group of teenagers who plan to kidnap Mr. Griffin, their strict English teacher. They bring Mr. Griffin to a cemetery and want him to beg them to let him go. Mr. Griffin won’t beg and they leave him there only to come back and find him dead.

Red Kayak by Pricilla Cummings
After a young boy is killed in a kayaking accident, 13 year old Brady struggles with whether he should divulge the prank that caused the accident or keep silent to protect the pranksters.

Heat by Mike Lupica
Pitching prodigy Michael Aroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only 12 years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Percy learns that he has special powers after he makes his pre-algebra teacher disappear. Further investigation reveals that he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon. To save humankind Percy embarks on an adventure to return a lightning bolt his father stole from Zeus.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
When a twelve year old genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology and a particularly nasty troll.

House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Matt, a clone, lives in Opium, a futuristic country carved out between the US and Mexico specifically for the world’s drug lords. Clones are despised but Matt has special status because he is the clone of El Patron, the ruling drug Lord. As Matt begins to understand who he is he refuses to accept his fate, and the injustices he uncovers around him.

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Georgia Nicholson is fourteen years old and like most fourteen year olds she has a lot on her mind: clothes, boys, the size of her nose and so much more. In this, the first of her diaries, readers will laugh out loud at the events in her life. By turns crazy, kooky and poignant, this book despite being fiction is very real.

Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes
Mr. Ward, an English teacher at Bronx high school has an open mike in his classroom on Fridays so students can read their poetry aloud. Eighteen diverse voices take the mike to express their feelings about themselves, each other, their families, troubles, hopes and fears. Through the poetry they share the stories they tell, their words and lives show what lies beneath the skin, behind the eyes and beyond the masquerade.

Crusaders, ready to get started on your summer reading and book reports? Here are some suggested books if you are entering 7th grade in the fall. Remember these are only a suggestion. You may read any book you would like as long as it is a chapter book, age appropriate, and one that you have not read before.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
By 6th grade Miranda and her best friend Sal know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go and who to avoid like the crazy guy on the corner. Then things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid and shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key her mother keeps hidden is stolen and Miranda keeps getting mysterious notes. She realizes that whoever is leaving the notes for her knows all about her including things that have not yet happened.

The Schwa Was Here by Neal Schusterman
When Anthony “Antsy” Bonano and his friends meet Calvin Schwa, they are impressed and puzzled by his ability to appear and disappear before their very eyes. Antsy concocts a moneymaking scheme based on Schwa’s invisibility that seems promising until he and his money-making friends overreach and are caught by the town’s legendary millionaire, Mr. Crawley.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater
The unexpected delivery of a large crate containing an Antarctic penguin changes the life of Mr. Popper and his family. What will Mr. Popper, a poor house painter, do when more penguins arrive?

Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story
After ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand, 13 year old Mai Yang travels to Providence, Rhode Island, where her Americanized cousins introduce her to pizza and shopping while her grandmother and her new friends keep her connected to her Hmong heritage.

The Kid Who Invented the Popsicle & Other Extraordinary Stories Behind Everyday Things by Don Wulffson
Brief, factual stories of how various familiar things were invented, many by accident.

The Biography of Mohammed Ali by Walter Dean Meyers
A biography of one of the world’s greatest boxers chronicles his childhood, his rise as a champion, his politics and his battle against Parkinson’s disease.

The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott
It’s 2004 and the Red Sox haven’t won a world series in 86 years. What if you knew they were cursed and why? What if you and you alone could break the curse but you would have to go into the past and outsmart some curious creatures and take a midnight ride on a monster? Would you do it? Could you?

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Although Opal lives in Friendly Corners Trailer Park she has no friends. She and her preacher father recently moved there for his new job. On an errand to the grocery store Opal finds a stray dog that she names for the store Winn Dixie. Winn Dixie charms his way into everyone’s heart.

Black Duck by Janet Taylor Lisle
When Ruben and Jed find a dead body on a Rhode Island beach they inadvertently become involved in a turf war between two rival liquor smuggling gangs during the prohibition era.

Something Upstairs by Avi
When he moves from Los Angeles to Providence, Rhode Island, Kenny discovers that his new house is haunted by the spirit of a Black slave boy who asks Kenny to return with him to the early nineteenth century and prevent his murder by slave traders.

The Twits by Roald Dahl
In this very funny book Mr. and Mrs. Twit are two old people who enjoy playing practical jokes and are finally outwitted by a family of monkeys.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong
In August 1914, Ernst Shackleton sails from London with 27 men in an attempt to become the first team of explorers to cross the Antarctic from one side to the other. Five months later their ship, the Endurance, became trapped in an ice pack. This is an extraordinary true adventure story about how the men survived.

The Color of My Words by Joseph Lynn
When life gets hard for Ana Rosa, living in a small village in the Dominican Republic, she can depend on her older brother to make her feel better until life-changing events occur on her 13th birthday

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Learning disabled Max and his friend Freak, whose birth defect has affected his body but not his mind, combine forces to make a powerful team.

Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street by Sharon Flake
A spoiled and charming girl named Queen doesn’t like her new neighbor, a humble, broken bike-riding boy named Leroy. He claims he’s been to Africa but how can she take this raggedy, smelly boy seriously especially when he starts to move in on dinner time with her family. Ultimately Queen learns some important life  lessons from Leroy about the words we say to people do matter and that friendship can be found where you least expect it.

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill
The pushcarts have declared war! New York City’s streets are clogged with huge, rude trucks that park where they want, hold up traffic and bulldoze into anything that is in their way. The pushcart peddlers are determined to get rid of them and the trucks are as determined to get rid of the pushcarts. The pushcarts have come up with a brilliant strategy. Armed with a secret weapon, they win the battle, but can they win the war against the corrupt mayor?

Rules by Cynthia Lord
Twelve year old Catherine just wants a normal life which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She has spent years trying to teach David the rules from “a peach is not a funny apple” to “keep your pants on in public” in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next door friend she has always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?

“I believe that Peace and Respect must first exist within myself and it is then my personal responsibility to help create a school and community safe from abuse and oppression.”
(The Peace Pledge)

This spring a team of Crusaders from Feinstein High School and Jorge Alvarez High School joined together to lead workshops on nonviolence. They designed and painted a unique mural for the Alvarez cafeteria that served as a focal point for their “Take the Pledge” Day, when students pledged to support nonviolence in their schools. The capstone event was a Non-Violence Cabaret, held at Alvarez on June 4 as a benefit for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence. Through skits, songs, dance, spoken word, and rap, the cabaret performers inspired the audience of students to think deeply about ways to spread peace and positive action.

Performers at the cabaret were the Peace Crew, Tacuma Vanterpool, Ashley Escobedo, Anibal “Jr.” Ramirez, Brian Cap B-Boys, Daeshon Jett, Chuck Oddih, The Krumpers, Rudy Cabrera & Tory Bullock of ARTiculation, and Christopher Johnson.

Students in the Feinstein-Alvarez Peace Crew are Carmen Braxton, Ashley Dominguez, Eduardo Garcia, Angela Gonzalez, Dashanell Harris, Roxanne Hines, Chinda Khamtheang, Alex Lach, Tony Lach, Judson Laurent, Jamaree Lopes, Stephanie Mieses, Hector Rivera, Emily Santos, Norely Santos, Leslie Tallo, Travissa Tallo, Kevin Vega, and Julio Vega.

Special thanks to all those who came to support the performers, and to those who contributed in many other ways, especially Alicia Capellan from URI, Brother Ray Smith from the Young Leaders Fellowship, Christopher Johnson, Rudy Cabrera & Tory Bullock, Kedrin Frias and Mike Phenglee from New Urban Arts, Sarah Cappelli of Alvarez High School, Reuben Tillman, Sean Mooney from the Pawtucket Fire Department, and Patrolman Jesse Ferrell from the Providence Police Department. Thanks also to Lowe’s, Quality Rental, and Utrecht for donating equipment and supplies. Let’s keep creating peace!

For their service learning project this spring, Crusaders at Hope High School led a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. A team of 30 Crusaders and friends created a 16-foot banner to exhibit in the school cafeteria during prom season. Dozens of fellow students added tracings of their hands to the banner and pledged to drive safe. The idea for the project arose in response to the tragic deaths of two former Hope students in a car crash in December 2009. Thank you to all the Crusaders who contributed their time and creativity!