2016: Eating more ice cream, praying, and getting good grades… Want to join us?
Here are the new year resolutions our second graders have this year:
- “Eat more ice cream” x 3
- “Drink more water”
- “Eat healthy foods”
- “Learn more”
- “Do more at school”
- “Eat more”
- “Get smarter”
- “Get good grades” x2
- “Pray more” x 2
- “Go on trips more”
- “Do more flips”
- “Eat more cake”
It looks like our second graders are looking forward to a year of ice cream, good grades, prayer, and lots more. Sounds good to me! As I read through these resolutions our students shared I couldn’t help but think about how much of a privilege it is to be able to help our students reach their goals. While I don’t think we’ll be serving ice cream for snack every day, we will be encouraging our students to continue to grow in their academics and their faith. We’ll keep praying with our students. And we might eat ice cream once in a while, for a special occasion :-).
As we dive into 2016 we have plenty of things to be excited about. We have had lots of students who joined us last fall, and right now have about 25 core students who we can count on to come most days. The exciting thing about this group? We know each and everyone one of these 25 students quite well. We’ve reached the point in our program where we’ve “been through some things” together. We’ve shared a lot of laughs, we have overcome challenges, and we have gotten into some routines together. I am excited about the growth I see in our students and our staff.
Our goal has always been to have 30 students who come regularly, and we will keep working hard to meet it. So, this month we are announcing an expansion to include first grade students into the New City Afterschool community. We will now be serving first-fifth graders! We are excited to meet our new students who we hope will join us in the next few days and weeks ahead.
What happened to the sixth-eighth graders? I’m glad you asked and are paying attention! We’ve created a Middle School Leadership Team that students must apply to be a part of and has up to 10 available positions. Right now we have 9 students on the team. One of our goals is for each of these students to have their own individual mentor who will work with them on goal setting, leadership, and academics. We also encourage fun :-). Mentors will meet with their students from 3:30 to 4:30 on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
So, as you look ahead to 2016- What are your new year’s resolutions? If one of them is helping give back to the community, or participating in more service- I would encourage you to consider checking out our volunteer opportunities. Our students need you in order to reach their goals! We are in need of tutors/homework helpers, another small group leader, club leaders, as well as middle school mentors. We’ve been blessed with amazing volunteers our first few months, and with a new year also comes new schedules. Check out our volunteer opportunities to get more details, and of course, send me an email or give me a call!
-Alaina Dobkowski
(267) 275-7252
alainad@newcityneighbors.org
