Tag Archives: Burke Team

Alumni Spotlight: Nicole Yongue, 2004-2006

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Written by Tom Story, Team Leader serving on the Comcast Team at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Nicole Younge, Director of Community and School Partnerships and City Year Boston Alum

Nicole Yongue

The first time I met Nicole was when I was sitting on a bus on my way back into Boston from the corps’ Basic Training Retreat to Camp Wing. She was very warm with me and we talked about where I am from and how I enjoyed my retreat. During one of my next encounters with Nicole, she smacked a stack of papers out of my hands and walked away, laughing wildly. Such privileges come with being a Director of School and Community Partnerships. Needless to say, I did not know what to think of Nicole after such interactions, but throughout the year, I would watch alumni from years past come in and walk straight into her office with bright smiles on their faces. So who is this woman who has had such a profound effect on so many corps members over several years?

Nicole grew up in sunny Key West, Florida. She attended Florida Southern University as a fast track pre-med major, cross-cultural communications minor, hoping to pursue a career in international medicine. She participated in service trips around the world throughout her college education. After graduating, Nicole spent the next few years working different jobs. “I was trying to avoid medical school,” she told me unashamedly. When her father asked her what she wanted to do next, she told him that she wanted to join the Peace Corps. But her father told her no—she had served around the world, it was time to serve her country.

Nicole applied to several Americorps programs, including City Year, and was accepted to all of them. When I asked her why she chose City Year, she laughed. “I saw a commercial for it one day. I figured it was legit.” With that, Nicole began a new life in Boston in August 2004 as a City Year Boston corps member serving on the Young Heroes team, a service-learning leadership development program. Each Saturday, she would work with middle school students to plan service projects for the community throughout the city. Her year of service, she said, taught her that “everyone has something to offer, and that everyone’s perspective is important, regardless of [background].”

After successfully completing her corps year, she was offered the position of Team Leader for the Young Heroes team. “I came back because I saw the potential for Young Heroes, and I wanted to work on it.” But there was another reason she returned. Throughout her year on the Young Heroes team, she began developing her own similar program for Boston high school students called Lost Heroes. During her senior corps year, she launched her new program from scratch and apart from City Year. “I learned that I can do anything I put my mind to,” she told me confidently, “and that opportunities are limitless when there is energy and passion behind them.”

When she became a Program Manager the following year, Nicole finally officially started the Lost Heroes program. But she quickly discovered how difficult it is to launch a program with no previous foundation in Boston with little leadership experience and being personally responsible for 80 high school students. She discovered the need to be constantly creative and that everybody develops as a leader in his or her own individual way.

Now, as one of three Directors of School and Community Partnerships, she uses everything she has learned in the past to build relationships both within and outside of City Year Boston as well as ensuring the quality school-based service. “The best thing about Nicole is that we work as a leadership team to ensure the success of Diplomas Now, [a partnership between City Year, Johns Hopkins Talent Development, and Communities in Schools],” said Julia Leb, 27, Program Manager of the Comcast Team serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School.

So what could be next?

“I love City Year,” says Nicole. “I would like to stay with the organization and do further work with Diplomas Now.” And, if the opportunity arises, she would like to return home to Florida to continue work on City Year.

Recruiting Next Year’s Idealists

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Much of the work we do here at City Year is focused in the schools we serve in. But many of our senior corps members play A Role Outside the Schools that is essential to continue to produce results. From our Boston Civic Engagement team to our office based Project Leaders, every senior corps member works to improve our impact on the city. Recruitment Project Leader Molly Brown describes why she now serves to assemble the next year’s corps.

Recruitment Project Leader Molly Brown

Last year, I was a corps member proudly serving on the Comcast team at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School.  Along with my cohort

partner, I remained with the same core group of ninth graders throughout each day.  I developed relationships with several of my students, and had the opportunity to witness their immense growth throughout the academic year.  It was the most difficult year of my life, but the end results were more than worth the long hours and stress-filled days.  The year culminated in a message I received from one particular student upon returning from Summer Academy in July.  This student, my Starfish, had failed both first and second term.  The message she sent me in July informed me that she had received the letter in the mail telling her she was moving on to the tenth grade.  When I saw that message, containing an appropriate “:-)” at the end of that one wonderful sentence, I could hardly contain the immense amount of emotion flooding through me.  It solidified what I had already known–that I had made a difference.  By the end of my corps year I had the realization that I not only made a difference to my students, I changed fundamentally as a teammate, as a leader, and as a human being.

As a Project Leader in the Recruitment Department, I have the incredible opportunity to discover the next generation of idealists.  Working for recruitment, I am able to share my incredible experience with countless individuals, in the hope that I can inspire them to serve.  I had spent the majority of my corps year serving on the Open House Crew as part of the A-Team (a recruitment-based leadership opportunity) and really enjoyed meeting prospective corps members.  I discovered something that I had a knack for, and also something that would allow me to hone in on one of my most challenging areas: public speaking.  Despite the fact that I will no longer be serving in a school, I understand that my role is just as important because the next generation of young, motivated and idealistic leaders need to be found, so City Year can continue making an impact on the students and communities in which we serve.

Alumni Profile: David Jones, 2010-2011

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This is the first blog post of a series I hope to create of City Year alumni stories. If you have your own story or if you know someone who has one, please comment so that I can get in touch with you! Note: I conducted this interview as David prepared pizza for himself.

 

Last year, I met David where most people meet lifelong friends—in the boys’ bathroom of an elementary school. It was our first day of City Year, and we were painting a boys’ bathroom at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School during a service day where the new 140 corps members redecorated and beautified the school. We first bonded over a common interest in music. I told him that I had a Bon Iver song stuck in my head, he invited me to a Local Natives concert. And then we talked about which grade we wanted to serve. We had both heard about the City Year Boston’s first high school team, and we both wanted it, but there was a limit of ten corps members. Only a week later, we were both accepted to serve together on the Comcast Team at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School.

After a year of service, David is continuing with more.

David was born in Omaha, Nebraska and grew up in Kansas. After graduating from University of Kansas with a degree in political science, David decided to join City Year. “I wanted to do something in the realm of social justice,” he said, “and I believe social justice really starts with the citizens.”

When David first began his year of service, his plans were to attend law school afterward. He had taken the LSATs and even scored well on them. But throughout the year, as he worked with three different teachers from Boston Teacher Residency, his aspirations began to change. “I realized the types of changes I could make in the classroom,” he said of his new focus on teaching. He believes his new hopes of teaching are more direct and effective than working to change the system using the “top-down approach.”

Boston Teacher Residency is a program that trains and educates people of all ages in order to earn their masters in education and their teaching license in one year. After earning their credentials within their first year, the newly qualified teachers go on to complete three years of teaching in Boston Public Schools before graduating from the program. As David begins his first year of Boston Teacher Residency at Boston Latin Academy in Roxbury, he feels that his experience with City Year gave him an advantage with his new line of work. “Having that insight on what a school day looks like, what a school day feels like, I feel like I’m in a better position to assist [the students],” he told me. “City Year has made me a more responsible, professional person and really equipped me with the skills to communicate my thoughts and listen to the thoughts of others—to sort of work around a focus that’s not about you.” He paused, and then punctuated his statement with, “This job isn’t about me, this job is about the students we serve.”

Jack Looking Back: Part of a Service Movement

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By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

As a team of citizens – City Year corps members, Boston Public Schools staff, and corporate sponsors, and individual donors – we must rely on each other to serve our youth and deliver on our promise to equity, social justice, and the right to an excellent and fair education for all children.

A major challenge I experienced this year personally and professionally was losing my Cohort Partner and City Year Boston teammate mid-year. We had worked very well together and our unity stemmed from similar experiences in life that have challenged us as people. We bonded over our life experiences and our past struggles. As teammates and as Cohort partners, we had to deal with a lot. We had to deal with students who challenged us every day in our positions. Through it all, we learned a lot about working with high school students and I personally learned behavior management tools that I will keep forever as real life experience, to say the least. Even though she did not complete the service year as part of the team, I am glad that I had the rest of the team to support me.

In true City Year spirit, I have to think back on a “ripple” – a story about one action that rippled out to others to create change. These stories and gems keep me running through the year, even as cheesy as the lingo may sound, no one can deny the power of sharing stories with others about service. A major ripple I can share is that I love video editing, and for our team’s Community Meeting, I put together a documentary to show the reality of the Burke and positive direction the school is heading.

After screening the video at the City Year Community Meeting, teachers,  students and Headmaster McIntyre from the Burke took notice. After a final edit, I created a documentary project that shows the work and “adult force” behind turning around the Burke High School. Because of my work and love for sharing stories through video, the Burke High School now has a real piece of collateral that can be used to recruit students, share the story of the Burke to externals and serves as a small but powerful legacy that I have left. Now, the school can spread the single video as a tiny ripple of hope that old perceptions of the Burke will go away and the real positive community can shine through it all.

This ripple is so much more than the documentary itself. The ripple is my service at the Burke High School with my team. Our team served as pioneers this year, forging a path and developing a legacy of service at the high school level here in Boston. Because of our success this year, our school has invested in us and wants us back. They want our team to expand into a Sophomore Academy. Because of the entire team’s leadership and professionalism that the experience of City Yeas has helped cultivate, a true successful partnership has been forged. Knowing that I have been able to be a part of this has been truly an amazing thing.

When I chose to do City Year, I wanted to be part of the national service movement, one that would show me the impact that I can have on my community and my country. The success of this year has truly shown me the importance of the work we do as corps members and that “everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

Being part of not only the Burke Team, but the City Year Boston corps, has made me feel part of a true Beloved Community. The support of my roommates who serve on different City Year Boston teams has given me perspective. They remind me that service at my school is not where things end, but that we are an entire corps of change-makers. Like Headmaster McIntyre of the Burke says, “This work cannot be done alone.” As a team of citizens – City Year corps members, Boston Public School staff, and corporate sponsors, and individual donors – we must rely on each other to serve our youth and deliver on our promise to equity, social justice, and the right to an excellent and fair education for all children.

With these thoughts all in mind, I’m ready to come back and serve another year as a team leader in the City Year Boston senior corps.

Jack Looking Back: Coming to City Year

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By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

The Burke Team's last picture (photo by Jack Korpob)

In the last 10 months, I have gained so much more than I ever thought I would have gained from this City Year Boston experience. Stepping into a corps member role – one that is dependent on being part of team rather than simply leading a team – was different from the last few years of my life. In my selection interview for City Year, I remember my interviewer both praising and warning me of the level of leadership experience I would bring to the corps if accepted. When I confirmed my position, I knew that I would be on a road to using my existing skills in a new experience, but I did not know how this year would play out in reality. Looking back at the last 10 months, I can see the path I already traveled toward becoming an idealist, and I see the path extending out toward becoming an active citizen. I can say that this year was one that was challenging, physically and emotionally exhausting and completely new. It was full of great memories, heartfelt moments, and days with high school students who I have gained the respect of and have developed true “friend-tor” relationships with.

The Burke Team at the canoe races during BTR (photo by Yaa Acheampong)

When I step back and attempt a reflection on my City Year experience, I first think of the identity formation of my team. I think of the excitement and anxiety of being the first high school team in City Year Boston. I remember the end of Basic Training Retreat (BTR), when Charlie Rose led the closing and asked us to hold onto our memories from the retreat and use them to take us through the year. I still remember the moment my team stepped into our canoe for the canoe races, and I remember us – not for beating the Orchard Gardens Team – but for being so in tune with each other and for trusting one another’s leadership. It was the first time we had to listen to each other and work as a team to accomplish a goal. Every major success of our team after that moment can be linked to that early team success of communication and leadership experience.

Throughout this year, our team has been at the forefront of innovation. We had to create a lot of things from scratch, build a relationship with the Jeremiah E. Burke High School administration and staff, and cultivate real tutor and mentor relationships with a new group of students who had never seen City Year before. It goes without saying that the beginning of the service year for our team was rough.

The turnaround status of the Burke was announced late in the game and our school did not necessarily know how our City Year team could integrate into the school community. Through the resilience and perseverance of our team, we were able to do everything we needed to do to ensure our service was high quality and that we exceeded expectations. Now, the teachers are glad to have us in their classrooms, the students see us as resources, and administrators have said that they do not know how they would have done all that they have done without our support in the school this year.

Leaving a Legacy at the Burke

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By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Going through the City Year experience this year on City Year Boston’s first high school team presented many challenges, especially because we had to create completely new initiatives and events aimed at the high school level. However, our team has been able to come through with many successes.

Jasmin Lopez works on one of the Graffiti Wall projects (photo by Tom Story)

Our most recent success was this past Saturday, May 21st, 2011. The Burke Team and Community came together for our team’s Legacy Day Event called appropriately “A Day at the Burke.” Students, Staff, Community Members, and City Year corps members and staff spent an entire day together beautifying the inside of the school.

The entire service day consisted of countless panel murals, that will soon be hung up in classrooms and hallways on all four floors, two beautifully inspired graffiti walls, and portrait panel murals of inspirational leaders that will be placed in hallway archways above lockers on different floor.

The Art Class paints an inspired version of the Burke (photo by Tom Story)

The day culminated in a Community Potluck, where many of our attendees brought a taste of their own culture to share with everyone. The food was absolutely delicious! It was great to see students bring in their own cultural foods from Jamaica, Nigeria, and Cape Verde, to name a few.

As a team, we revered in the success of our Legacy Day. From the beginning planning process to the end of the actual event, our team worked as a cohesive unit.

The best part of our Legacy Day was that it truly met the goals we set out to meet: beautify the school, create a more positive school climate, and engage students, staff, administration, and the local community.

Volunteers painted many panel murals that will help beautiful the entire school (photo by Tom Story)

I truly appreciate my team for all the work that we have done this year. However, the Legacy Day showed me that this work truly couldn’t be done alone. I would like to appreciate Comcast for the generous support of our team, the City Year corps members and staff who spent a day with us, everyone at the Burke for making this day possible and for supporting us since the beginning of the year, and last but not least, the students and staff who we see everyday and who attended the Legacy Day.

Seeing the amount of change we made not only on this single day, but the entire year, has been truly inspiring. In reflection, being part of an organization like City Year Boston has made me realize the important of this kind of work and the impact we truly can make in a community.

As a community, we came together to show our love for the Burke (photo by Tom Story)

The City Year Grammys

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By Tom Story, corps member from the Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

There aren’t many jobs in this lifetime that would keep you in an office building late at night, rapping with your superiors. That’s part of what makes my work at City Year Boston unforgettable.

Tom Story rapping about the students at the Burke (photo by Elliot Haney)

For the Freshmen Academy Talent Show at Jeremiah E. Burke High School, a few members of the Comcast Burke Team decided to create a skit called “the City Year Grammys.” I was cast as the rapper Drake, and my Team Leader Kayla Faust as sensation Nikki Minaj. We spent hours at City Year Headquarters practicing the lyrics she wrote. I practiced on the train ride home, as I prepared a late dinner, and even right before bed.

My sleep that night was interrupted by fitful nightmares of blaring lights beaming down on me as I stood on stage at a complete loss for the words to the song. The faceless students in the audience laughed at me.

When morning finally came, I practiced again and again. My memorization and rhythm were flawless. I was almost confident that nothing could go wrong.

Before I knew it, I found myself backstage in the Burke’s auditorium. When a freshman MC announced that City Year would be performing a skit called “the City Year Grammys,” there was an eruption of roaring applause and screams. It was louder than I ever would have expected in my wildest dreams (or nightmares). I anxiously rehearsed my lyrics over and over again, as fast as I could. I still had them nailed.

Then Katy Perry (teammate Raina Hall) announced a special guest performance by Drake and Nikki Minaj. I saw Kayla march out from behind the curtains in a ridiculous get-up across the stage as the music began, and I followed in suit. The cheers were deafening—so loud that neither the music nor our own voices could be heard.

I began rapping without fully realizing it, which was only met by more applause. I had made it through half my lyrics before I completely forgot the rest of the song. I stood awkwardly on stage, thinking that my nightmare had come true.

But it didn’t. Cheers crashed throughout the auditorium.

Kayla picked up where I had left off, and we finished the rap to raucous screams. I even heard an “I love you, Drake!” Afterward, the students approached us for pictures, patting us on the back, and calling us by our celebrity aliases.

The show at the Burke had raised so much hype at Headquarters, that the team performed the skit again for City Year Boston’s own Advanced Training Academy talent show. The performance garnered the same reaction from City Year corps members and staff as it had from our students at the Burke.

Even though I forgot my lyrics again.

The Burke Team performing "City Year Dreams" during Advanced Training Academy, a song re-written to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" (photo by Elliot Haney)

Bringing Shakespeare to Life at the Burke

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By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

At the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Ms. Crocker’s English Language Arts (ELA) class recently wrapped up an approximate 3-month unit on Romeo and Juliet.

ELA teacher, Ms. Crocker, and one of her students learning the "hair pull" during stage combat training.

At first, students found reading the play extremely challenging. Their struggles made me think about when I was in 9th grade reading Romeo and Juliet. It was difficult for me as well. Reading things in English can already be a challenge, but reading Elizabethan English is a whole other story. They did not want to continue reading the play at first glance, but eventually, the lines that were difficult became easier to understand over weeks of reading and analyzing text.

Eventually, students were assigned “Acting Company” groups to truly bring Shakespeare to life. They worked on the delivery of their lines for approximately two weeks and coupled that with stage acting tips and stage combat training from a real seasoned stage actress.

With these new tools, select acting companies were able to rehearse for a Student Showcase and Talent Show on February 17, 2011. This was a culmination of all the hard work put into learning about the characters and analyzing the themes within the play. I had the chance to perform as Romeo in a scene with my students for the entire Freshmen Academy. Sharing in this experience with them has only helped to show me the amazing connection to students I have gained from my experience through City Year Boston.

At the start of the year, seeing my 9th graders struggle with challenges like reading Romeo and Juliet made me wonder how I could assist them. I looked back to my own experience in my ELA class years ago and offered tips to my students on how to make Shakespeare clearer. With time, my students learned to critically analyze, and now perform, this literary classic.

With this shared learning experience, I am confident their skills in ELA will only grow, and I’m excited to continue the next few months of service and see my students succeed.

Tutoring For a Change

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By Molly Brown, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Tutoring students at the Burke in the B.A.R.K. Room. Photo by Jack Korpob

As of September of the current academic year, City Year after school programming did not exist at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, City Year Boston’s first ever high school partnership. When the final bell rang at 2:40pm, both the students and corps members were exiting the building soon after. The Comcast Team serving at the Burke, however, knew something needed to change. Thus the B.A.R.K. Room was created.

Originally a tutoring/mentoring/homework help space, the B.A.R.K. Room was the Burke team’s first step towards extended day programming at the high school as well as providing future high school teams with a model for their own programming.

Cleverly named the “Bulldog Afterschool Resource for Knowledge” by our own Team Leader Kayla Faust, the B.A.R.K. Room’s early stages were not exactly encouraging. The average number of students that attended the B.A.R.K. Room was around 1-3, and that was only on a good day. The biggest challenge we faced was the fact that we could not require students to attend, unlike programs like Starfish implemented at the elementary schools. Not discouraged in the least, the Burke team set out to increase afterschool attendance through posters, initiatives, and reinforcement of the importance of the B.A.R.K. Room by the Burke teaching staff.

Eventually the numbers began to change when Mr. Arvelo, the U.S. History teacher, assigned students their first real writing assignment. The panic in the students’ voices was apparent as some finally realized how useful this afterschool help could really be to them. For the first time, we had more than ten students in our extended day (present by choice), and our hope for the future of the B.A.R.K. was solidified. Over the next several weeks numbers improved, and the average attendance slowly began to increase.

Currently, we have commenced the third academic term. Not only has our daily average skyrocketed to nearly 15 students per day, but also we have had to extend our hours in addition to implementing new rules and policies for the room, due to the space being more crowded. The Burke team is greatly encouraged by the gradual success of our extended day programming, and we are all extremely excited that we will have created a sturdy set of shoulders for future high school teams to stand on.

Serving Close To Home

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By Ashlene Brown, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Ashlene Brown graduating from East Boston High School in 2006.

As a Boston Public Schools graduate from East Boston High School, I feel obligated to serve in my own community because this is where I came from.

The notion of “getting out” was always common for me growing up. Through hard work and positive role models, namely my Aunt Gerry who was also my kindergarten teacher, I succeeded in my education. When I graduated high school, I was awarded a full tuition scholarship from the Posse Foundation to attend Denison University. Because of this, I want to be a support system for high school students.

The Grove Hall area of Roxbury and Dorchester has a rich history, and the Jeremiah E. Burke High School is part of that history. For as long as I can remember, the Burke has been plagued with a less than perfect reputation.

Today, if you were to visit the Burke and sit with the students, you would see that they are no different from any other high school students in BPS. They’re there trying to get an education and move forward in life despite the harsh realities they face outside of school.

Growing up in Boston I know first hand the powerful presence that City Year has with BPS. City Year does great work in challenging circumstances. I believe that our team has the power to begin the process of evolution for both the Grove Hall community as well as the Burke. I have some incredible people on my team who are willing to put in the work necessary to counteract the negative perceptions of the Burke.

Ashlene Brown tutors and mentors students at the Burke High School (photo by Elliot Haney)

My experience so far serving at the Burke has been challenging, knowing that I am serving so close to home, but the last few weeks have been inspiring. I have come to a realization that my team is starting something big and we are setting the ground work for even more change to come.

My goal is to make a difference in the lives of others, and serving close to home at the Burke has been a joy.

Thanksgiving in Boston!

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By Jack Korpob, Comcast Team, serving at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School

Being away from home to do City Year Boston is hard for many people because it means being away from loved ones for extended periods of times. For me, living in Boston and the transition to a new locale has been easier then I had expected. But, seeing everyone go home was hard because I didn’t have that option. I could not fly home to California to visit friends and family for the holidays, so I spent the Thanksgiving holidays cooking a large feast and enjoying the company with two of my teammates on the Burke Team.

Thanksgiving with Burke Teammates: Tom, Raina, and Jack

What was really great about spending Thanksgiving with two of my teammates was sharing our favorite foods we would usually have back home. I cooked the traditional fare my family usually has during Thanksgiving, including turkey and ham. My teammate Raina Hall cooked a deliciously sweet carrot soufflé and an array of side dishes, and Tom Story brought over pumpkin and banana cream pie.

After a night of incredible bonding over amazing food that took about 7 hours to prepare, we performed the usual Thanksgiving tradition that the three of us share, which was napping.

I can look back and realize that we are more than just teammates or friends, but we are true family away from our real families back home.

That is something that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving.

What are you thankful for?