Summer is once again upon us and we are gearing up for a busy couple of months at Springboard. Super Summer Camp has already started in our Mississippi and Alabama communities, and as the kids finish up their last few days of school in Maryland, they are preparing for a summer of fun and learning within their communities, too.
But even with all the excitement and energy surrounding the programs for our elementary school kids, we know there is another group that often gets left behind: middle school students. We often refer to this time in school as The Critical Middle. Academically, middle school can be a time where students’ progress can begin to slow and achievement gaps can widen, causing some children to be unprepared for high school, which can lead to higher drop out rates and low college readiness. Not to mention, middle school is a critical time for social and emotional development for students as they begin to discover who they are, grow more independent, and begin thinking about future goals and dreams for their lives.
That’s why we’re committed to making sure our middle school students are not forgotten this summer. In Maryland, our LitClub girls have been actively working on their Community Action Plan to revitalize Windsor Valley’s community garden that they created during the HerStory Summit this past fall. This past Saturday, they hosted their first ever Story Summit, a gathering of all the LitClubs within the area, to plant their garden and kick off the growing season.
Throughout the summer, they will be working with Springboard staff to maintain the garden and recruit volunteers to help care for the garden through weeding, watering, and picking vegetables as they start to grow. At the end of the summer, they will host a harvest party, celebrating their accomplishments and helping to cook some delicious food from the vegetables they grew. Not only is this project providing activities to help keep the middle school students active and engaged this summer, it is also helping them develop their leadership and critical thinking skills as they plan and run the events.
In other communities, we will be implementing our third year of PLAAY, a youth development program that uses sports as a platform to help minority youth utilize mindfulness practices and emotional honesty to deal with stressful or traumatic experiences in their own lives that can easily escalate into hostile and aggressive situations. The curriculum keeps the students academically engaged through writing prompts and discussions, while also helping students sort through social emotional development that comes during middle school and can often be even more intense for students from low-income families and students of color.
We are so excited to watch our middle school students continue to learn and develop this summer and cannot wait to share their stories and pictures with you. We are so proud of the young people they are becoming and believe they will make it through The Critical Middle years prepared and ready to achieve all of their wildest dreams.