CruBlog

A record-breaking crowd of nearly 300 eighth-grade Crusaders attended our annual Step Up Conference on January 23! They all met at Jorge Alvarez High School in Providence for a day of workshops – and learned how to get ready for the high school experience next year.

Above, student educators from the Women’s Center of Rhode Island pose with Crusaders Anthony Townsand (third from left) and Franklin Jette (lower left).

Many thanks to all our workshop presenters, who provided our students with loads of useful information:

Bullying
Kobi Dennis, Partnership to Address Violence Through Education

Dealing with Difficult Teachers
Matt Sciotti, language arts teacher

Healthy Choices & Relationships
Sheila Johnson & James Lawrence, Women’s Center of Rhode Island, with JWU volunteers Tasheena Davey, Brittnee Countrymen, and Edgard Hunt

What You Need to Know About High School
Elizabeth Fasteson & Yadi Garcia, guidance counselors from Shea High School and Times2 Academy

Keepin’ It Real
College Crusade high school Advisors

World of Work
Erika Read, RI Department of Labor & Training

On January 31, hundreds of high school and college students from all over Rhode Island got their FAFSA financial aid form filled out and submitted online as part of College Goal Sunday RI 2010. The Rhode Island Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators sponsored the event at six sites across the state. College Crusade staff helped coordinate activities at Woonsocket High School and Central Falls High School. Plenty of Crusaders came by with their families to take advantage of the opportunity!

Thanks to Woonsocket site coordinator Maria Carvalho of The College Crusade, and team members Stacy Crooks, College Planning Center of RI; Jen Dutch, RI Student Loan Authority; Ed Maroney, Bryant University; Susan Moir, Bryant University; and Crusade Advisors Tanzeem Azmiri, Christopher Grant, Shelby Maldonado, Benjamin Ramos, and Ralph Toribio.

Thanks also to Central Falls site coordinator Gina Dimartino of The College Crusade, and team members Nelly Hoffens, RISD; Paul Langhammer, URI; Courtney McEntee, College Planning Center of RI; Linda Norton, Bryant University; Kathy Toro, National College Advising Corp, Brown University;  Enma Velasquez, College Crusade parent liaison; Gail Walker, RI Student Loan Authority; Shirley Wright, The College Crusade; and College Crusade Advisors Alexis Brown, Dwayne Clement, Jessica Rivera, and Stephanie Taveras.

Crusaders! If you missed College Goal Sunday RI, remember to file your FAFSA online by March 1 to qualify for federal financial aid and to see if you are eligible for a scholarship from the Rhode Island State Grant Program. Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov. Don’t miss out on free money!

From top, just a few of the Crusaders who attended College Goal Sunday: senior Tracy Mendes of the Met; senior Keavin Smith of Woonsocket High School, with his mother Ann Smith; senior Emerson Toloza of Tolman High School, with parents Virgila & Guillermo Toloza; and senior Nicole Pomfret of Woonsocket High School, with her father Matthew Pomfret.

It’s been a busy season of college visits for high school Crusaders this fall and winter. So far, more than 200 students have participated. We’ve been to Northeastern University, University of Rhode Island, Providence College, Roger Williams University, Pine Manor College, and Connecticut College, touring each campus and learning all about academic majors and college life. Visits to Brandeis University and New England Institute of Technology are coming up in February, with more on the way!

The Admissions information session we attended at Pine Manor College featured a nice surprise – two of the student speakers were graduates of The Met, and one was a graduate of Central Falls High School. They had a lot of useful advice for Crusaders who were interested in applying for admission!

Above, from left: Leslie Urizar, Jasmin Francisco Ortiz, Dulce Quezada, Alliyah Phin, Khunnay Voeul, and Selena Gonzalez (seated) pose for a photo during their campus visit to Pine Manor College on January 14.

Crusaders at Mount Pleasant High School have been building their skills in public speaking! On January 20, College Crusade Advisor Dwayne Clement held an afterschool workshop to give students practice in presenting ideas orally in an organized and interesting way.

Joana Delva (at left) described her interest in photography and her plan to pursue a career in real estate. Kevin Acevedo talked about his interest in drawing and graffiti art and his plan to become an artist. Kitzler Bissereth spoke on the earthquake calamity in Haiti and asked why more was not being done for the suffering population. Ty’esha Forbes discussed the topic of teen sexual assault, arguing for more awareness of the issue and more education about how young men and women can show respect for themselves and others.

After each presentation, the students got feedback from Dwayne and critiqued each other. In past Life Skills workshops at Mount Pleasant, Crusaders have explored the messages in popular music, shared ideas on the topic of “you are where you live,” and created role-playing skits about conflict resolution. Congratulations to all the speakers!

Congratulations to middle school Crusader Cristian Estrada, who was featured in the Providence Journal today in a story about promising young chess players! Cristian is in the eighth grade at Central Falls Middle School. To read the story, click here.

A great article for parents written by College Crusade high school manager Maria Carvalho was recently published by the Center for Student Opportunity! The article, called “Be a Safety Net: How to Support Your Child During the College Application Process,” is currently featured on the CSO’s website in their “Ask the Experts” column. The article will also appear in print in the next edition of the CSO’s College Access & Opportunity Guide.

Congratulations, Maria!

So you want to be a DJ? Middle school Crusaders at Saturday Cru Club got a treat last weekend when professional DJ and award-winning science teacher Ulysses Gallman came to visit. He brought all his DJ gear – mixers, turntables, CD players, speakers, and microphones – and he even set up a light show in the classroom! He explained the difference between club jocks, street jocks, and radio jocks and described how DJs learn their craft over long years of practice.

Mr. Gallman’s main message to Crusaders was to always make options for yourself. He talked about discovering his interest in math and science as a youth and the years he spent teaching science in the Narragansett schools. (He earned two Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and was honored with a national Milken Educator Award in 2001.) He shared with Crusaders how he combined his love for teaching with his love for music by setting priorities and striving for success in everything he did. Then he showed them how to scratch records!

Thanks to Mr. Gallman for bringing all his cool equipment and talking with Crusaders about his two careers!

Are you the parent of a Crusader? Come to our 2010 family engagement workshops and get expert advice about how to support your school-aged child. Through a special grant project, we are partnering with child and family experts from the University of Rhode Island to offer you a great learning experience. Our instructor is Marilyn Martin, an accomplished specialist from URI’s USDA Cooperative Extension Children, Youth & Family at Risk program.

Crusade parents who wish to sign up for workshops should contact Claudia Cordon, our Family Engagement Coordinator, at (401) 854-5506 ext 109 or ccordon@thecollegecrusade.org. All workshops are held on Tuesday nights from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The College Crusade office. Here is the schedule for 2010:

January 26: Parenting Strategies for Middle & High School
February 23: Challenges of Parenthood for Middle & High School
March 23: Understanding Your Teen
April 20: Self-Esteem in Middle School & High School
May 25: Structure Versus Nurturance

What’s the best way to help your child stay on the path to college? Get your questions answered. Join with other Crusade families and learn together!

A highlight of our Saturday Cru Club program is the ongoing financial literacy class we offer for high school Crusaders. Want to learn how to make, save, and manage money wisely? Sign up today! Here are some of our upcoming topics:

Jan 9: Make money while you sleep – Savings and investment
Jan 23: “You can’t take it with you” – Earning, saving, investing
Jan 30: Time, gas and money – How to value and conserve these
Feb 6: The $100,000 mistake – Managing, multiplying and protecting your money
Feb 27: Movin’ out – Challenges of living on your own
March 13: Big bucks and big buckets – Earning and handling money
March 27: You’ve got mail – Credit cards and credit card debt

Call us at 854-5500 to reserve your spot at Saturday Cru Club!

Crusaders, it’s a new year, and you have a lot to look forward to on Saturdays. Come to Johnson & Wales University Harborside Campus to see why!

Our 2010 Saturday Cru Club program is packed with interesting skill-building activities in writing, time management, learning styles, studying and test taking, and active listening. Visiting career speakers will be sharing their professional experiences in fields that range from finance to entertainment. (At left, Yoelvis Colon, a 6th-grade Crusader, signals that he has the answer in a recent Cru Club class.)

Meet your friends, have fun, and spend time with our College Crusade Advisors! It all happens from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on these dates:

January 9, 23, 30
February 6, 27
March 13, 27
April 10, 17
May 1, 15, 22
June 5

Sign up today!