Our United Way Donor Choice Number is 14963.
News
10/28/10: First Shot
by Steve Baumann, President
Recently released research compiled by the Philadelphia School District reports that just 10% of students who entered a Philadelphia public high school in 1999 earned a two or four-year college degree by 2009. The numbers show that 48 percent of the 12,230 students reviewed in the cohort graduated high school in four years, another 10 percent attained diplomas in five or six years. But only 24 percent of the total cohort - fewer than half of those who had completed high school - enrolled in college within a year after graduation. And then fewer than half of those who matriculated actually earned a degree by 2009. The figures don't include students in charter, private, or parochial schools (1).
This dire reality is a call to action for all organizations serving the needs of Philadelphia's youth. Over the past year, Starfinder has totally revamped its offerings for high school students. The Senior Leaders Program combines a variety of structured experiences that help teens improve on the field, succeed in the classroom, contribute to their communities, and keep them on track for high school graduation and matriculation at a two or four-year college. The program includes enrichment activities that strengthen leadership development, media literacy, test taking and application completion skills, community service, health and wellness, and soccer training.
In June 2009, all seven of our seniors graduated high school and six went on to post-secondary matriculation. In June 2010, all seventeen of our seniors graduated and thirteen are presently enrolled in college. We expect 100% of our 25 current senior class participants to graduate and 90% to continue to higher education next fall.
A key component of the Senior Leaders Program is the opportunity for our high school students to have a paid work experience. This past summer, twenty-one teens trained for, helped prepare, and were hired to help run Starfinder's summer programs. Training and preparation started in May and included twelve hours of leadership training. They learned facilitation skills, how to communicate constructively with each other, and how to work with a group. They practiced their public presentation skills to increase their comfort level speaking in front of a group. In June they took a two-day coaching course to earn a Youth Module coach's license, administered (for free) by Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association (EPYSA). Starfinder staff also provided training for the Senior Leaders in various aspects of the Starfinder curriculum, to prepare them for teaching the younger children in the camps. Elsewhere in this newsletter you can read some of the students' written reflections that describe the impact of their summer work. To read all of the reflections click here.
Starfinder continues to adapt and grow so that we can better support the aspirations of all of our participants. Through learning activities that engage, inspire, and motivate we provide support for our high school students so that they can build the skills to overcome the statistics that present a very bleak picture of their future.
(1) Dale Mezzacappa, Philadelphia Public School Notebook (http://www.thenotebook.org)
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