FALL 2016
LEARNING IS FUN AT PBC! Newsletter Date class where his group struggled to communicate better as they designed a raft using 50-gallon drums, wooden planks, and rope. They learned about design, buoyancy, and knot tying during the process. He talked excitedly about how they eventually began to listen to each other and the raft started coming together. Perhaps equally telling were the Post-it notes that students wrote near the end of the week during their Literacy class. We found the notes stuck to a poster outside the classroom in Danielson Lodge:
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e have been talking about our Summer Bridge Program for over a year and making the case for why it is a valuable program – combatting summer learning loss, building crucial 21st Century social-emotional and leadership skills, building positive relationships between teachers/chaperones and students and student-to-student, and so much more. When we designed this year’s Summer Bridge Program, we had some expectations of what the outcomes would be because we ran a pilot last year. We expected students would be most excited about the novel aspects of their five-day stay: swimming, testing their strength and agility on the climbing wall, and pushing past their fear on the high ropes course. When we asked students what they liked the best, however, their responses surprised us a bit. During one of our visits to the Blairstown Campus this summer we came upon two thirteen year-old boys talking with one of our Literacy Instructors and a Facilitator.
“What was your favorite part of Summer Bridge?” we asked. “Canoeing and S.T.E.M,” said one boy.
“I loved kayaking and Literacy,” the other said. What did we expect they would say? To be honest, we thought it would be rappelling, basketball, or games. When we asked them to elaborate, both students talked about the fact that they had never been canoeing or kayaking before, having grown up in Trenton. Their reasons for naming S.T.E.M. and Literacy goes to the core of what we do at PBC: They loved that the classes were hands-on (experiential) and fun! They also talked about how they really connected with our diverse, talented summer staff, many of whom come from similar backgrounds as the students we served.
I came with disbelief, and I’m leaving with courage. I came with fear, and I’m leaving with more confidence. I came with fear and no friends, and I’m leaving with happiness and six friends. I came with an empty stomach, and I’m leaving with a full stomach. I came with happiness. I’m leaving with faith and hope. I came with not wanting to be here, and I am leaving with not wanting to leave.
Clearly, their Summer Bridge experiences made a difference. Our ability to provide this program completely free of charge to our partners and their students is directly related to the support provided by our donors each year. Please give generously and allow the Princeton-Blairstown Center to continue helping the most vulnerable youth in our communities learn experientially!
Another student, who spoke recently at With gratitude, our annual fundraising event, talked fondly of his Summer Bridge experience three months later to a room full of people. He Sarah Tantillo, Ed.D. remembered his Project-Based Learning Board Chair
Pam Gregory President & CEO