CruBlog

College Crusade CEO Todd Flaherty shared his philosophy of leadership with Johnson & Wales University students in Professor Laurie Lapane’s Foundations of Leadership course last week. His talk was part of a presentation on community leaders that a group of students prepared for the class. Among the members of the student project team was Geraldine Barclay-King, who also serves as a Family Liaison for The College Crusade!

Geraldine is pursuing a B.A. in Hospitality Management with a concentration in Travel & Tourism from JWU. The other members of her project team were Joseph Centazzo, Ann Denner, Lori D’Errico, and Peter Giammarco. In their presentation on The College Crusade, they discussed the attributes of good leaders and described how The College Crusade addresses its mission to increase educational and career success for youth in Rhode Island’s low-income urban communities. Here they all are in their College Crusade tshirts!

Our 2010 Crusade Adventure & Academic Program, which started in mid-July, is winding up this week! Over 100 middle school Crusaders participated in summer CAAP this year. Each group of students met at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence for 10 jam-packed days of team building, life skills, conflict resolution exercises, and leadership activities. They read and discussed the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers, in a class lead by language arts teacher Matt Sciotti. They explored the Brown University campus in an all-day scavenger hunt. And they took field trips to Purgatory Chasm, the Newport Cliff Walk, and the ropes course at Harmony Hill in Chepachet.

As always, we salute our great CAAP staff for helping so many Crusaders have a tremendous learning experience this summer. Thanks to Rob Gonzalez, program facilitator; David Small, site manager; and College Crusade Advisors Ama Akoto, James Diossa, Harry Moore, Kristina Moyet, Rich Norris, and Jenniffer Rivera.

Above, a group of middle school Crusaders takes a quick break from CAAP for a photo on the front steps of Roger Williams Middle School.

We just sent out our 2010 Summer News Digest. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can find links to all the articles here!

Alumni Success Stories
Melissa Amaral graduated from Brown University with a double major in Anthropology and Archaeology in 2008. She currently is employed as a College Advisor for the Phipps Community Education Center in the Bronx. In the fall, she will begin a master’s program in College Student Affairs at Rutgers University. Read more…

Celebrating 20 Years of The College Crusade!
Governor Donald Carcieri and many other friends and supporters helped us celebrate our 20th anniversary at the state house in June. Read more…

A Major Funder Comes to Visit
The College Crusade was delighted to welcome TG Public Benefit for a visit this spring. Kristin Boyer, Director of Public Benefit Grants, met Crusade alums, staff, and board members - plus a whole roomful of Crusaders. Read more…

Over $1 Million in Scholarships Awarded This Year
In the past year, 349 students pursued a postsecondary degree with the help of a College Crusade Scholarship. Since 2001, we have awarded over $22 million in college scholarships to more than 2,800 Crusaders. Read more…

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We have a Facebook fan page! Join today for updates about what Crusaders are learning lately plus important news from the cutting edge of college readiness.

McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket was the place to be on Saturday, August 7. College Crusade families and staff gathered for a recognition ceremony to honor 24 graduating 8th graders who have the highest participation in our programs in their schools. CEO Todd Flaherty congratulated all the top 8th-grade Crusaders who were able to attend and presented each one with a certificate of accomplishment.

Everyone also took a tour of the stadium’s famous “one-eighth mile of history,” an extensive archive of framed pictures and baseball memorabilia displayed in a long corridor underneath the stands. The tour guide was Cookie Rojas, general sales manager for the team, who offered a steady stream of bilingual commentary on McCoy lore and legends. At the end of the tour, Mr. Rojas described his own education and career path and encouraged Crusaders to think big. “It’s never too late to dream,” he said. “My parents always told me if you can dream it, you can do it. Find what you love and do it.”

The College Crusade’s top 8th graders for 2010 are: Jacqueline Aguilera, Jason Aguilera, Ivy Barclay, Kenneth Batista, Juan Bravo, Francelly Brito, Raven Cannon, Estefania Clavijo, Rolando Clavijo, Amilcar DaRosa, Heckerly Flores, Henry Flores, Daniella Garcia, Kayla Hazard, Christian Hernandez, Doris Lopez, Vanessa Nieves, Ayomide Olugbemi, Keira Pierre, David Roberts, Chavelin Romero, Estelle Tapia, Ana Zabala, and Kassandra Zarzuela.

Above, CEO Todd Flaherty congratulates top 8th grader Ayomide Olugbemi and his mother Olabise Olugbemi.

Michele Cinquegrano of Verizon Foundation visited a classroom of Ways to A’s students today and presented us with a check for $5,000! The grant goes to support our Adventures in Literacy program during the school year.

Before posing with College Crusade CEO Todd Flaherty for a photo, Ms. Cinquegrano spoke with the sixth graders. “The Verizon Foundation is proud to support you in your academic efforts,” she told them. “If you work hard and stay in school, you will achieve success. Focusing in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math will lead you to that success and jobs that pay well; you are our future scientists, engineers and leaders.”

Thank you, Verizon Foundation, for believing in our youth!

Warwick business owner Leonard Martin presented The College Crusade with a $5,000 check on August 4! The grant is from the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation, an organization for financial services professionals that gives grants to charities all over the world. Mr. Martin, who owns Leonard Martin & Associates, Inc., is a member of MDRT and also a strong supporter of The College Crusade. He visited our Ways to A’s study-skills program and met a class of sixth graders for this photo together.

The MDRT Foundation was created in 1959 to provide MDRT members with a means to give back to their communities. Since its inception, the Foundation has donated more than $23 million in 67 countries around the world and all 50 U.S. states. The majority of these funds were raised by MDRT members from MDRT members. This year, the MDRT Foundation will award more than $1 million in grants to more than 100 charities.

We are very grateful for the support!

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.