Senior Spotlights for 2012

Karen — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:35:42 +0000

The class of 2012 is getting ready to graduate! We met up with 10 Crusade seniors to hear their latest news and find out what their plans are for next year. Which one is dreaming about becoming a Supreme Court Justice? Which one is trying to do something about the obesity problem? Which one is really into chemistry? Click our Spotlight on Seniors page to learn all about these inspiring young people (from top, left to right): Eduardo Garcia, Emily Teixeira, India Young, Jessica Pawlowski, Joana Delva, Joel Gutierrez, Malvin Herrera, Marylissa Barbosa, Mohammed Seck, and Tiffany Mencos.

Science Camp Was Cool – Video

Karen — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:24:13 +0000

Middle school Crusaders went to Science Camp during April school vacation 2012. What did they find there? Lots of demos and hands-on experiences with flying things and building things! They learned what Newton, Bernoulli, and Coanda discovered about the physics of flight, and they turned piles and piles of Citiblocs into competitive towers and creative cantilever bridges. Later in the day, all sorts of snakes, lizards, and other creatures came to visit. Thanks to Pow! Science! and Animal Experiences for all the fascinating activities. Watch the video here.

Career Questions & Answers at Calcutt

Karen — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:37:39 +0000

Crusaders at Calcutt Middle School had a visit from Alexis Garcia as an afterschool career speaker this week on April 3! Alexis is a Crusade alum who graduated from Hope High School and is currently pursing two degrees in Sociology and Communications at Rhode Island College. He is also serving as Crusade communications intern for the Crusade this semester. He talked about his own experiences as a Crusader in middle school and high school and answered a lot of questions from Crusaders about what college is like. He also offered everyone advice about how to get the most out of their education:

Find out what you love to do and see if there is a career in it
Talk to each other about your career ideas and share what you learn
Focus on your education and find ways to enjoy it
Choose good behavior and friends who will help you make good decisions
Build strong relationships with the people in your life

Thanks to Crusade Advisor Elsie Palmieri for inviting Alexis to visit, and thanks to all the Crusaders who asked great questions!

Above, in the front row, from left to right are: Igor DosSantos-Monteiro, Jasmyn Cartwright, Diana Soto, Dianna Jimenez, Diego Matamoros, Elizabeth Romero, and Elsie Palmieri. In the back row, from left to right, are: Alexis Garcia, Neliza Centeio, Selvin Marroquin, Eric Ochoa, and Jonathan Canel.

10 Big Questions About Your Career

Karen — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:00:58 +0000

Crusade alumni are going places in their careers! Check out our new Alumni Career Tracks interviews, where two Crusade alums answer 10 questions about their career fields in an interview format. Career Tracks interviews pair up Crusade alums who are out in the working world with alums who are just about to get their degrees. Find out how they answer their 10 big questions here:

Akshar Patel ’05 and Anthony Franco ‘08 on Biology
Bolanle Akinrimisi ’02 and Maribel Echeverry ‘06 on Law
Dereck Mendoza’05 and Emmanuel Cassion ‘08 on CIS
Renee Lavoie ‘04 and Andersen Deossa ‘09 on Sports Media

Stay tuned for more Career Tracks interviews to come, and get in touch if you’d like to participate!

Crusaders Cash In on Money 101

Karen — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:24:42 +0000

Crusaders in 12 middle schools are just getting started with our Money 101 afterschool financial literacy workshop. It’s a custom curriculum designed especially for them! They will be meeting with their Advisors once a week this spring to learn how to decipher between their needs and their wants and to grow their money smarts. Money 101 features lessons in making a budget, balancing a checkbook, reading a pay stub, and other financial topics for young students.

At left, Luis Guerrero, an 8th grade Crusader at Roger Williams Middle School, works on deciding which items he should start saving money for. It’s a new way of thinking for him. “Being an adult is going to be harder than I thought it was going to be,” he says. But he has a head start. Money 101 gives Luis and dozens of other middle school Crusaders valuable early skills in tackling the challenge of managing money.

Why? Just Because Someone Is Different

Karen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:02:35 +0000

What is bullying, how does it hurt people, and how should you respond? On February 25, Crusaders from Roger Williams Middle School learned about these questions in the first of three Anti-Bullying Workshops held as part of our Saturday Cru Club program. They also watched the film Bullied, identified the four components of bullying, and shared their ideas with one another. Participating Crusaders returning for the second and third workshops on March 10 and March 24 will learn about conflict and conflict management and gain important tools for understanding and dealing with bullying. The workshop series is being taught by Lt. John Reis, a retired member of the Providence Police Department who now serves as Dean of Students for Times 2 Academy in Providence. Thank you. Lt. Reis!

Crusade Alumni Career Panel Presents…

Karen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:51:05 +0000

Crusaders attending Saturday Cru Club at J&W Harborside got a big treat this week when four Crusade alumni visited to speak about their careers. Gloria Benson ’03, Bobby Britto-Oliveira ’01, Lydel Hall ’03, and Dereck Mendoza ’05 talked with large groups of middle school and high school Crusaders about how important it is to graduate high school and college in order to get started on a good career. They also shared their own personal experiences as Crusaders and offered lots of great advice about how to take advantage of Crusade programs and resources. Thanks to Gloria, Bobby, Lydel, and Dereck for stopping by and for their inspiring comments!

Planning a Good City Together

Karen — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:47:28 +0000

The mayor of Exchange City, the Honorable Coura Fall (seated above), got her judicial and law enforcement staff together yesterday. They are (left to right) Devin Kwandranc, Talysha Silva, Auburn Barratt, Abner Rodriguez, Dianna Jimenez, and Leeanna Randall. Along with dozens of other 6th grade Crusaders participating in our Exchange City program during vacation week, they will all experience the excitement and challenge of running their own city today on the campus of Johnson & Wales University, Harborside. Crusaders will take over the Exchange City bank, newspaper, post office, radio station, pizza shop, toy store, tech center, and all other institutions that make a city run. They will make and sell products, establish and enforce laws, take out and repay loans, cash checks, broadcast the news, deliver the mail, and learn how to be good citizens.

Here are a few more photos taken yesterday while all the planning was going on. Meet the Crusaders in charge of the Business & Insurance Center, the Radio Station, and the Post Office, plus all the editors and reporters at the Exchange City Breaking News!

Who I Am + What I Choose

Karen — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:58:26 +0000

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”

Crusaders in our Choices program for grades 11 and 12 focused on this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt today as they discussed the options they have for shaping their own lives. In one activity, called “Factors Influencing Who I Am,” the group went through a list of 30 personal characteristics, asking whether they had control over each one or not. Your height? No. Your birth order? No. Your genetic inheritance? Probably not, they agreed. But your attitude? Your friends? Your interests and activities? Your appearance? Your motivation and self-discipline? Oh, yeah. They decided that more than half the list were characteristics they could control. More interactive activities that open Crusaders’ minds about making good choices continue tomorrow on the Brown University campus.

Above, Randy Gomez, Brittany Camargo, and Castella Camargo compare notes on the decisions involved in renting an apartment.

I Choose to Be Self-Disciplined

Karen — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:36:48 +0000

Can you make a choice to balance what you want with what you need? Are you able to make a hard choice now because it will pay off in the future? Can you be self-disciplined? These are the kinds of questions 9th and 10th grade Crusaders faced today at the start of our Choices program at Brown University. This challenging program immerses Crusaders in a two-day, interactive decision-making workshop. Creative, thought-provoking activities teach them how to make choices that lead to academic success in pursuit of their career and life aspirations. They learn how important it is to stay in school, manage money and time well, take charge of their lives, set priorities, and make a plan for the future. From right to left, Andrew Terrero, Mario Nestor, Passion Pereira, Jason Noriega, Moses Cruz, and Alexis Barera from Central Falls are all ready to take on the next assignment!