Weekly Media Roundup: March 11, 2020

IPlay Gives San Antonio Kids a Safe Place to Play and Learn After School, KENS 5 (Texas)

At iPlay afterschool programs in San Antonio, Texas, students can play basketball, tennis, soccer, volleyball, run track, get academic support and more. Fifty-eight elementary schools in and around San Antonio offer the program, which focuses on life skills and teamwork. “I get out of work at 5:30pm and they are here and taken care of, and fed their snack, and they are doing homework,” parent Maria Lozano told KENS 5. “They are taking care of everything. Educational, physically, mentally, and all that good stuff. My favorite part is they get to do homework and I don’t have to do it at home with them.”

As STEAM Students Apply Skills, They Learn They Are Part of Something Bigger, The Sharon Herald (Pennsylvania)

Last week, about 150 middle schoolers from eight afterschool STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) academies in Mercer County, Pennsylvania displayed their projects at a Mardi Gras celebration. Funded through a 21^st Century Community Learning Centers grant, these programs offer a wide variety of activities with an emphasis on STEAM, including robotics, sewing, cooking, coding and more. “I think it helps students think about what they want to be when they grow up,” instructor Lexi Banic told the Sharon Herald.

Supporting the Children of Local Farm Workers, Fox 4 Now (Florida)

At the Gargiulo Education Center afterschool program in Naples, Florida, nearly 70 students access academic support, theater, music, arts education, mental health services and more. Staff members use a social-emotional learning program called “SMART (Serenity, Meditation, Awareness, Respect and Trust): Building Emotional Intelligence” to embed mental health education into all program activities, which range from financial literacy to entrepreneurship to character development. Many of the program’s students are children of farmworkers whose parents must travel long distances to their jobs. “Their parents are working in the fields and in the factory. They’re bussed out to Immokalee every day. So the kids come here as opposed to going to an empty house,” Executive Director Mary Asta told Fox 4 Now.

Reclaiming Our Resettlement, Chicago Reader (Illinois)

Through homework help, play, English as a second language education, and art, the Syrian Community Network afterschool program in Chicago, Illinois helps Syrian refugee students in kindergarten through sixth grade develop their voices, explore their identities, and cope with the challenges of resettlement. The program offers art education using watercolor, drawing, flower cutouts, salt and more. “The Chicago chapter’s afterschool program supports students in overcoming the barriers that come with the experience of refugee resettlement, including language, social isolation, poverty, acculturation, and navigating a new school system,” the Chicago Reader reported.