Summer Academy Report 2014

New Heights Summer Academy REPORT

New Heights Summer Academy Leadership Directors, Academic Instructors, Team Leaders

DIRECTORS Roshard Bryant Academy Director New Heights ’09 Mark York Academy Assistant Director New Heights ’10 Rodney Frazier Co-Athletic Director Rahme Anderson Co-Athletic Director

ACADEMIC INSTRUCTORS Clarence Smith Inside the Numbers 5th - 8th grade

Phellix Rodriguez Inside the Numbers 5th - 8th grade

Jesse Pritchard New Heights Live 5th - 8th grade

Laura Hoffman Fueling Success 5th - 8th grade

Ellen Schoninger Fueling Success 5th - 8th grade

Sekou Hamer Outside the Lines 5th - 8th grade

Ted Smith Next Level 8th grade

Mark York Chalk Talk 5th - 7th grade

Adam Berkowitz Next Level 8th grade

Charish Anderson New Heights ’10 Lincoln University ’14

Chelsea Baez New Heights ’11 Rutgers University ’16

Staci Barrett New Heights ’13 St. Rose ’17

Ramiel Coleman New Heights ’13 Dowling College ’17

Ashley Gomez New Heights ’11 Adelphi College ’15

Khalil Hamer New Heights ’13 City College ’17

Sade Jackson New Heights ’10 Adelphi College ’14

Jai Kellman New Heights ’10 Brooklyn College ’15

Tyliek Kimbrough New Heights ’12 Mercer College ’15

Dominique Pagan New Heights ’10 LIU-Post ’15

Desiree Simmons New Heights ’10 St. Rose ’15

Tarik Smith New Heights ’13 Tufts College ’17

TEAM LEADERS

2014

Summer Academy Summer Success As we celebrate ten years of refining and enhancing our summer enrichment program, I am honored to have been the first New Heights alum to serve as the Director of Summer Academy.

Since I joined the organization in 2006, New Heights has helped me to develop the leadership skills necessary to oversee the Academy. After only three months of being enrolled at New Heights, the staff was able to identify my strengths and weaknesses as a leader and use this information to match me with Suffield Academy, the boarding school that helped prepare me for an outstanding liberal arts education at Amherst College. Later, when I took a semester off from Amherst following two major knee surgeries, New Heights opened its doors again so that I could work alongside my coaches and mentors.

Three years later, with a degree in hand from Amherst College, I returned to New Heights with a commitment to enhancing the leadership development program used at Summer Academy. I worked with the Summer Academy staff to refine the curriculum and approach used to teach our core values—Teamwork, Respect, Effort and Excellence. The success of this initiative had a lot to do with our unique staff structure, which included 14 New Heights’ alumni who were all familiar with and passionate about contributing to the enhancement of the organization’s core values.

Our staff consists of experienced educators and coaches who are committed to achieving our program goals and who work diligently to create and maintain an exciting, effective, and fun learning environment. This program serves as an effective way to address summer learning loss and to empower young people to flourish in the classroom, on the court and in their community.

At New Heights, we use organized basketball as a way to educate and empower inner-city youth to be leaders, champions and student-athletes. The summer months present an optimal time for New Heights to work more in depth with our student-athletes.

“Summer Academy serves as an effective way to address summer learning Research has shown that young people experience learning loss and empower young losses when they do not engage in educational activities during people to flourish” the summer. With this in mind, New Heights piloted the Summer Academy in 2005 for middle school boys and girls.

Now in its tenth year, the New Heights Summer Academy has expanded to offer its comprehensive program to student-athletes from all over New York City. Through our six-week Summer Academy, including our High School Transition Program, we served 94 rising 5th through 9th grade students this summer. Student-athletes were given opportunities to practice literacy and math skills, participate in activities that promote critical thinking, socialize with peers, develop skills on the basketball court and build self-confidence. Students also had the opportunity to participate in weekly field trips, including visits to Rocking the Boat and The Museum of Natural History.

New Heights would like to especially thank the staff at the Loyola School for their generous support of this core component of the New Heights College Bound Program.

Sincerely, Roshard Bryant Summer Academy Director New Heights Class of 2009

Summer Academy 90 hours in the classroom

86%

Maintained or improved knowledge in MATH

New Heights Live: Provides basic grammar, vocabulary and essay-writing instruction aimed at improving fundamental literacy skills Inside the Numbers: Instructors use basketball themes to help students develop basic math skills Next Level: Rising eighth graders work on test preparation, the high school application process and their exploration of high school options Fueling Success: Nutrition course that is designed to help our student-athletes develop healthy eating habits and lifestyles

62%

Maintained or improved knowledge in ENGLISH

Outside the Lines: Addresses relevant social issues affecting the lives of our student-athletes

90 hours on the court Basketball Fundamentals: Studentathletes participate in a fundamental skill development program, which includes drills, small group workouts and scrimmages. New Heights’ Team Leaders serve as coaches and mentors for the young student-athletes.

Leadership Skills: Focuses on building character, work ethic and learning New Heights’ culture, all while strengthening ball handling, passing and shooting skills, and mastering overall team concepts.

78%

Maintained or improved knowledge of NUTRITION

Performance TraiNing: New Heights partners with E3Sports, a sports performance and training company, for the third year in a row. E3Sports works directly with New Heights’ staff and student-athletes to develop strength and conditioning programs.

2014 At a Glance Enrollment

94

student-athletes

34 female participants

29%

60 male participants

of participants had perfect attendance

by Ethnicity

71% 19% 7%

AfricanAmerican

Latino

Bi-Racial

2% 1% Asian

White

12

New Heights Alumni employed as Summer Academy Team Leaders

2

By Grade

New Heights Alumni employed in Summer Academy Leadership Positions as Academy Director and Asst.

Director

15 rising 9th grade students

79 rising 5th to 8th grade students

By School Type

1:4

Staff to Student Ratio

By Location

60

40

20

0

Public

Catholic

Private

Manhattan Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island

Other

Summer Academy Values

Teamwork, Respect, Excellence, Effort The New Heights student-athlete Summer Academy is based on four core values that represent the ideals we wish to instill in our student-athletes. These values are known as the TREE of Success, and are an essential part of creating and sustaining a productive learning community.

100%

The TREE of Success is also used in program evaluation. At the end of each day, students reflect on the day in grade level groups. Guided

by Team Leaders, our student-athletes discuss what they learned, how successful they were in achieving the goals they set and what they will seek to improve upon. A variety of assessments, including discussion, oral presentations and self evaluations are given at the beginning and the end of the five-week period. Student-athletes are also asked to fill out a survey to determine the effectiveness of the Summer Academy experience.

of students experience summer learning loss if they do not engage in educational activities* *National Summer Learning Association (NSLA)

Students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of the summer than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer (NSLA).

The majority of studentathletes that participate in Summer Academy improve their scores on evaluations at the end of Summer Academy.

Student-athletes were also exposed to community service through our New Heights GIVES program pairing youth with community programs in need of volunteers.

Student Voices “Tyler thinks of other people before himself.”

-Gabriella, Grade 5 “We communicated by sharing ideas.”

-Kiara, Grade 7 “Messiah is always pushing me to play my best.”

- Mark, Grade 7

Teamwork Respect Exellence Effort Our Bedrock:

BUILD

academic, athletic & leadership skills

90%

of teachers say that if kids keep learning over the summer, they’ll be more successful in the long run.* *Carson-Dellosa

ENSURE

access to high quality education

DEVELOP

healthy fitness & nutritional habits

SHAPE

identities as studentathletes & leaders

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