Weekly Media Roundup - April 10, 2013

Children at Risk president and CEO Dr. Robert Sanborn wrote a column in the El Paso Times urging legislators to expand learning opportunities for students. He writes, “Expanded learning opportunities are nationally recognized as a key strategy to improve academic achievement and the overall success of youth. Texas has the opportunity during this 83rd legislative session to continue the dialogue on expanded learning opportunities for our students, following Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's interim charge from last session to study after-school and extended learning time programs.”  

Agricultural Corporation Monsanto has donated $500,000 to the National 4-H Council to expand the group’s National 4-H Volunteer Initiative, which provides the organization’s 540,000 volunteers with training, and will fund pilot volunteer-related programs in Illinois and Iowa, the St. Louis Business Journal reports.

 

This week the York Daily Record profiled the Mighty Dantz Team, an afterschool program that offers dance and life lessons to girls in fifth to eighth grade in York. The program was started after New Hope won a GoGirlGo! Pennsylvania Grant from the Women's Sport Foundation and The Hershey Co. in December. Three days a week, in addition to dance training, the girls get to talk about a range of issues from body image to family issues to peer pressure. Organizers are hoping to enroll about 20 more students before the end of the school year.

 

Afterschool students attending Modesto City School’s After School Education & Safety (ASES) programs are staying “on track and out of trouble, with statistics showing fewer juvenile crimes committed in afternoon hours where the programs are in place,” the Modesto Bee reports. Mark Twain Junior High Principal Mike Berhorst said he sees the afterschool program making a difference for students. “I do see a difference in the culture. Higher expectations, more support. This is something they cherish.”