Fall 2021
SUMMER BRIDGE: ON THE ROAD AND ON CAMPUS
Participants spend time canoeing and learning together on Bass Lake during a beautiful Friday session of our 2021 Summer Bridge Program.
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ecause of COVID-19, the PrincetonBlairstown Center’s (PBC) Program team was once again called upon to reimagine the Center’s award-winning Summer Bridge Program. Since most of the students PBC serves were not yet eligible for vaccinations and our cabins are small with limited ventilation, our Board and staff reached the difficult decision that we could not responsibly hold Summer Bridge at our Blairstown Campus. Instead, PBC created a hybrid version, and our summer staff took Summer Bridge directly to our students’ communities – to parks and school yards in Newark and Trenton, with great success.
During the 2020-2021 school year, both Trenton and Newark Public School students spent almost the entire time learning remotely. When school reopened in Newark in April and in
Trenton in May of 2021, less than 40% of students returned to the classroom. Aware of the projected negative effects on students’ overall learning due to COVID-19 school disruptions, our team created a program that was laser focused on socialemotional learning through portable initiatives that encouraged interpersonal student interactions, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills. To help address the learning shortfall and traumas that so many young people have experienced, Dr. Mark DeBiasse, our Director of Programs, revised the Summer Bridge academic curriculum to include hands-on STEM and literacy instruction with a food and social justice theme, that could be taught in school yards and parks rather than at our Blairstown Campus. Students analyzed and tested soil and water samples from their own communities and compared the results with samples from
Blairstown. For many, it had been a long time since they “played” in the dirt, and it was a rewarding experience. They also read the book Seedfolks and focused on character analysis, Venn diagrams, food justice, and environmental advocacy. While logistically the hybrid program was very challenging, our Summer Bridge leaders Holly Lynn and Handy Pierre rose to the occasion and each day organized and expertly packed two vehicles with food, program and first aid supplies, and summer staff. During Newark-based weeks, nine staff members left our Blairstown Campus at 7 a.m. to drive an hour and a half to various outdoor sites, unpack, set up supplies, and deliver exceptional, enriching programming to our students, returning to Blairstown each evening to restock and prepare for the next day. During Trenton-based weeks, Christina Seix Academy, a Summer Bridge (Continues on Page 3)