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Posts by Paul Costello1

Let’s tap into all students’ potential

July 26, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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  • 26 Jul 2021 The Washington Post Jay.mathews@washpost.com
Critical race theory or not, let's tap into all students' potential - Flipboard

To those battling over critical race theory, here is my plea: Don’t stop teachers from seeking the hidden potential of impoverished and minority children, the most important educational movement of the past 40 years.

I have gotten emotional over this because of a just-released University of Virginia doctoral dissertation by Beverly A. Knupp Rudolph: “The Relationship of School Leader Values and Practices to Participation of Black and Latinx Students in Advanced Placement Courses.”

There is some complicated academic verbiage in its 298 pages. But it provides a deep and moving description of how an average suburban high school conquered American education’s widespread bias against students whose families don’t have much money or education.

I have been writing about that problem since 1982. Some would call the issue racism, but it also applies to the inadequate teaching of poor White kids in rural America. A better term might be “classism,” a word I don’t hear or read often.

Rudolph is a North Carolina public high school principal who investigated the transformation of what she describes as “one racially diverse Mid-atlantic high school.” Following the standard academic approach to sourcing, she gives the school a pseudonym, Trailwood High. She uses madeup names for the educators who over 24 years significantly increased the enrollment in college-level Advanced Placement classes of what she calls “traditionally marginalized populations, including Black and Latinx students.”

According to my data, by 2018 Trailwood had risen to the top 2 percent of U.S. schools in AP and International Baccalaureate test participation despite half of its students being from low-income families. Its enrollment of more than 2,300 is about 44 percent Hispanic, 24 percent White, 19 percent Black and 8 percent Asian.

I stumbled across that school in 1997. I wrote about it often. I thought I had a good idea of what those educators were up to. Rudolph has gone deeper. She describes deft, sometimes ruthless, moves by three successive principals to nudge classists, if I may use that word, out of the way of student progress.

Trailwood students up to then had to pass a test or an interview and get a teacher recommendation to get into AP. Those are among many common barriers to AP participation that signal an emphasis on sorting, not teaching. Some teachers at the school would tell some students to their faces that they were incapable of learning enough to succeed in the class.

In 1987, a new principal arrived who was determined to change that. She was a fearless, shrewd former nun. Her first move was to make the campus disciplined and safe, and collect data on potentially capable students who weren’t being put in courses that led to AP. “When I first got there, I inherited all the assistant principals,” many of whom resisted her ideas, she told Rudolph. So she recruited teachers to help.

They found kids like Katrina Harpe, the real name of a student I knew then. Her parents hadn’t gone to college and did not press that option on their daughter. Her African American father was a computer technician. Her Korean American mother was a retail clerk. Harpe got okay grades in elementary and middle school but was not challenged until the Trailwood High people got hold of her. She took AP and went to Yale. If you are looking for a family physician in Fredericksburg, Va., you will find Dr. Harpe’s website on Google.

At the beginning of the school’s transformation, parents of children long designated gifted expressed fears that the lessadvantaged kids coming into AP would lower standards. One staffer told Rudolph that “the superintendent’s office called me and said, “We just want you to know that some people — parents — are saying this isn’t fair to other kids and therefore, they are seeking an attorney.”

There was pressure for teachers to spend more time with students who were already designated gifted than with children who had mere potential. Some parents feared the changes “would subsequently diminish Trailwood’s reputation as a good school,” Rudolph said in her paper.

Her dissertation emphasizes the risks in trying to change that attitude. A staffer told of skepticism “that these kids aren’t able to do the work, that this is all a numbers game, or that all you’re doing is putting kids [in AP classes] just to get higher enrollment — so you look better.”

The principal said at the beginning she didn’t care how the new students scored on the AP exams. “What we cared about is they would take a step into challenging coursework,” she told Rudolph. The difficult lessons produced results. By 2018, Trailwood’s percentage of graduating seniors passing AP tests was nearly three times the national average.

Low-income minority boys triggered even more skepticism than girls like Harpe. “The teacher would say, ‘Uh, I’m sorry, who are you? Why again are you in this class?’ ” a staffer said. A Black counselor organized a weekly lunch, with pizza, for underestimated boys seeking advice and encouragement from peers. A weekly lunch for girls was also organized.

One staffer told Rudolph, “I had to spend a lot of time, not just with the students, but with the teachers, with the counselors, figuring out who my allies were.”

The principal gave the job of guidance head to a counselor from D.C. committed to the plan. That was a way to neutralize Trailwood counselors who were trying to keep students out of AP. Better counselors were recruited. The principal made the head counselor an assistant principal, and made sure that person replaced her as principal when she retired.

The staffers trying to help students into AP found many were reluctant. There were few people with their backgrounds in those classes. They were getting good grades in regular courses, so why make trouble?

The counselor would say, “Hey, the teacher has said you should be in AP English,” and then not take no for an answer. “Here’s the deal,” a counselor said. “We’re going to register you in AP English. And if you have a problem, I’m going to be checking up on you.” The new team provided tutoring and summer classes and persuaded recalcitrant teachers to change their minds or transfer to another school.

This is the heart of what our best schools are doing: showing students how to learn more than we have asked them to learn before.

The resistance to such change may deserve harsh labels such as racism. But in some cases it could be an excessive desire to be kind. Some teachers struggle with a fear that hard lessons hurt kids of all backgrounds.

However we define racism, we should recognize that children of every ethnicity have hidden potential that deserves encouragement. The story of Trailwood shows how difficult, but potentially liberating, that effort can be.P

The Anastasi Scholarships

July 23, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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When our Founder,  Dr Anastasi  passed away earlier this year, the family asked instead of flowers that friends send donations to Saturday School in his name. For many years, Bob worked closely with Dr. George Thomas who was a pioneer in education in the County. From the donations given in Bob’s name, Saturday School has created a scholarship fund.

We met with Bob’s family about how best to use it over the next three years, and they suggested 30% be given to Saturday school to be awarded to outstanding students and 70% to AmeriCorps Project CHANGE, the program Bob devoted the last years of his life. It will be divided into two types of awards.

First, the Fund will be used to give scholarships in the form of 2 “Members of the Year” awards each year ( $500 each) One award is to be nominated by the members themselves and the other to be awarded by the program.

Second, Project CHANGE members are invited to nominate one or two of their most outstanding students from their respective programs to give a Member generated award in Bob’s name. The criteria for the award is below, based on the legacy of Bob Anastasi:

The member of the year that you nominate to be awarded the Anastasi scholarship would have displayed some or all of the following traits that epitomized Bob:

1.Connects people to people to meet the needs of others

2-Treats people in a personable way, with respectful listening

3-Displays courage and resilience, not giving up in the hardest times

4-Humble and not ever wanting or doing it for credit, never seeking the limelight

5-The Disney factor, that we said was doing things with an infectious sense of joy and play


For the Member to Student awards, members will single out the most dedicated students they worked with and decide on one or two who have given outstanding service with little or no recognition.

The awards will be announced at each Graduation Ceremony that concludes each year’s program.

How family stories help children weather hard times

July 23, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Story image

By Carol Clark | eScienceCommons | April 29, 2020 Emory News Center

In times of great stress, stories sustain us, says Robyn Fivush, director of the Family Narratives Lab in Emory’s Department of Psychology.

Family reminiscing is especially important, says Fivush, who is also director of Emory’s Institute for the Liberal Arts. When children learn family stories it creates a shared history, strengthens emotional bonds and helps them make sense of their experiences when something senseless happens — like the current global pandemic.

“When we don’t know what to do, we look for stories about how people have coped in the past,” Fivush says. “You can see that happening in the media now, in articles comparing today to historical events, like the 1918 flu pandemic and 9/11.”

She sums up the 9/11 narrative in the United States: “A horrific event happened; we were attacked. But we came together as a nation, persevered and rose back up together.”

Such narratives help build a shared capacity for resilience. “That’s true for nations and it’s true for families,” Fivush says.

Over decades of research, Fivush and Emory psychologist Marshall Duke developed a scale to measure how much children know about their family histories. Using this scale, they conducted a study that began just before 9/11 and continued for two years. “We found that in families that talked in more coherent and emotionally open ways about challenging family events with 10- to 12-year-olds, the children coped better over the two-year period than in families telling less emotionally expressive and coherent stories about their challenges,” Fivush says.

The families in the study were all comparable, middle-class, two-parent households.

Standardized measures showed that children in the families that told the more coherent family narratives had better self-esteem, higher levels of social competence, higher quality friendships, and less anxiety and stress. They also had fewer behavioral problems, as reported by parents.

Tips for telling family stories

For families under quarantine together, opportunities abound to weave family stories into conversation, Fivush says. The stories need to be tailored to different ages, she adds, so that children are emotionally and cognitively able to understand them.

Elementary school children, for example, are not ready to digest complex family stories. “With younger kids, it’s really more about helping them structure their own experiences into stories that help them process their feelings,” Fivush says. “You want to start by asking them non-judgmental, open-ended questions like: ‘Why do you think you were upset yesterday? What could you have done to make yourself feel better? What can we do about this?'”

She uses an example of a little girl who left her favorite storybook at her school and was worried that it wasn’t going to be there when she went back. A mother could tell a story about how she left a favorite toy somewhere when she was little but later her father took her back and they found it.

“Tell them a story from your own life that provides a model for how everybody forgets things, but you can get them back,” Fivush says. “Or, ‘My brother used to tease me a lot, too. But now he’s your Uncle Bill and we love each other.’ Parents are identity figures. Little kids are fascinated by stories about their parents when they were little.”

Ultimately, the goal is to help children construct a coherent story that validates their feelings while helping them think of resolutions.

“Particularly with very young kids, don’t make assumptions about what they may be upset or sad about,” Fivush says. “You may be surprised. Stay open to what your children of all ages may be experiencing.”

Middle school children are starting to have more of an ability to understand the bigger picture. “By the age of 10, children are thinking in the abstract and because of that, they are likely to be anxious about the future,” Fivush says.

By this stage, children begin to understand stories on a deeper level. It’s not that every story needs a happy ending or a silver lining, Fivush stresses. “You can explain to your child, ‘We don’t know yet how this story is going to end but let me tell you about some challenging times I got through, or your grandparents got through.’”

Examples of family members — who preserved by simply putting one foot in front of the other and by maintaining loving bonds — reassure children that their family will also find a way to get through a situation.

When they reach adolescence, children are especially vulnerable. “High school is a time when children start to really think about themselves as a person and what their life is going to be like,” Fivush says. “They are mulling big questions, like ‘Who am I? What are my passions?’ And now the pandemic has pulled the rug out from under them.”

By the age of 16, parents can start talking to a teen-ager about their own vulnerabilities as people and as parents. “Emphasize how you can build strength together, as a family,” Fivush says. She suggests finding ways of giving teen-agers a role in supporting younger children in positive ways.

“Human beings are really altruistic and empathetic. We feel good when we help other people, particularly people that we love,” Fivush says. “That’s going to make every family member feel better about themselves and about each other.”

Silly, funny family stories are also valuable, along with small touchpoints about the past that emerge spontaneously, Fivush says. “When you’re cooking together with your children it’s a perfect time to say, ‘When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to cook this dish. We used to have post roast every Friday and I would peel the carrots.’”

Adolescents are especially hungry for these kinds of stories, she adds. “If they roll their eyes, so be it, they’re still listening,” Fivush says. “It’s the really mundane, everyday stories that reassure them that life is stable. It provides a sense of continuity, of enduring relationships and values. They need to know that they come from a long line of people who are strong, who are resilient, who are brave. And who can cook. The definition of who they are is not just something independent and autonomous, spun from nowhere. It’s embedded in a long, intergenerational family story.”

The Importance of Offering Children an Intergenerational Identity

July 23, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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Intergenerational Identity

by Parent Co. January 29, 2018

grew up in a family of story tellers and talkers. They’re known for chatting, for saying goodbye, and then taking 45 minutes to make it out the door. It’s what they’ve always done, tales of triumph and failure the narrative patches holding the pieces of the family quilt together. This skill, then, should come naturally to me. That’s why an exchange with my daughter over a game of Uno unsettled me. “I used to play Uno with my Papa,” I told Wren. “He’s the one who taught me how to play.” “Who’s Papa?” “Like your Pappy. He was my grandfather.” “Why have I never met him?” she asked. “He died when I was your age.” She looked sad, and I felt my stomach drop like an elevator on free fall. My grandfather was one of the biggest characters in my life, one of the most important people who played a role in my formative years and beyond. His death leveled me, and my nine-year-old daughter had no idea who he was. I’d never shown her pictures or told her stories. His death was followed closely by the collapse of my parents’ marriage and the rearranging of family members that felt like tectonic plates shifting without end. I buried the pain, and in the process, I buried the memories. I did exactly the opposite of what I should have done if my goal was to raise emotionally healthy children.

The importance of the narrative

My motive for keeping my family’s history quiet might have been to protect my kids from the hurt and confusion of death and divorce, or it might have been to avoid sharing my own mistakes and missteps from the past. Whatever the reason, it was the wrong choice. Researchers agree that children need to know that they have a place in a bigger story than their own. Children who have what is called an intergenerational identity feel more in control of their lives, according to research by Dr. Marshall Duke and Dr. Robyn Fivush from Emory University. Knowing where they fit in a story also seems to paint a rosier view of the family overall, since children in the study who knew the most about their families viewed their family units in a more positive light. Telling our kids family stories may even lower the chances of anxiety and depression, even when world events stand to trigger a negative response. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Duke and Dr. Fivush followed up with the kids who had participated in their study only months before. Those who knew they had a place in a larger family story were more resilient than those who scored low on what they knew about their families. An intergenerational identity helped serve as a shield between these kids and catastrophe. There’s also the benefit of having kids who are less likely to become narcissist. Being a part of a bigger story means not being the center of the universe, a fact we want to instill in our children. We can give them both self-confidence and humility by sharing family stories, helping them develop a sense of self-worth and resilience without losing empathy and becoming solely self-focused. Author A.J. Jacobs, organizer of the Global Family Reunion, points out another advantage of children knowing their family history: they may become interested in going even further back, looking deeper into genealogy. Their interests can create opportunities for them to find out that we live on a very interconnected planet. “It’s eye-opening,” Jacobs said during an interview. “It’s much harder to be racist and narrow-minded when you see how closely linked all the races are.”

How to tell the story

Not every narrative form is equal. Researchers recommend the oscillating family narrative when sharing family history with children. This style deals with both positive and negative events and enforces the strength of family and perseverance throughout. It avoids sharing only the ups or only the downs, instead presenting a more realistic view of life. Family life, like life in general, has good and bad. I can use the oscillating family narrative to tell my kids about my younger years and all the memories I have with my parents and grandparents. That will eventually lead to divorce and death, obvious setbacks, but we can then move to stories about how we found ways to heal and move on. This leads to the family they have now, full of both biological and step-grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles who are focused on making a family environment for them. Good can come from hard times, and that’s the point of the oscillating family narrative. Children will know not to expect everything to be perfect when raised on these types of stories, but they will know that even during trials, people persevere. Mistakes from our families’ pasts can serve as road maps for others, even if they are just evidence of what not to do. Considering a child’s maturity level is key when sharing family tales. Being honest is always a win, but giving details that are appropriate to a child’s age and understanding is important. Dr. Alisha Griffith recommends parents “meet them on their level, be direct and honest, and use simple language that they would understand. It’s also important to listen to their concerns … and answer their questions.” The point of a family narrative isn’t to overwhelm kids with TMI but to allow them to see where they fit in the big picture.

Getting started

Dr. Fivush created a “Do You Know?” questionnaire that asked children in the study to answer 20 questions about their family stories. It contains questions like: Do you know how your parents met? Do you know the source of your name? Do you know where some of your grandparents grew up? These questions are a great way to start the conversation. When it’s time to share, there’s no one way to go about it. Family reunions are a place my late uncle entertained generations with his elaborate tales. Any meal or gathering where the family is together can be a time for sharing. One friend I have even videotaped her grandparents telling family stories from their lives. Those videos are now in the hands of younger generations, preserving family stories that can continue to be passed down. Regular occurrences, like a game of Uno, can even spark memories and offer a time to share. Family stories can take the place of books during bedtime a couple of times a week. The reaction when I finally started unearthing some memories to pass to my kids was priceless. They winced when they heard the one about how I accidentally hit my sister in the face with a bat, laughed at my Papa mistaking poop that had fallen from my sister’s diaper for chocolate (family stopped him before he ate it), and begged for more stories as bedtime approached. It wasn’t difficult for me to see the immediate benefits of these stories. My kids laughed, they were engaged, and they seemed to feel they were growing in the knowledge they possessed about their family members. They are learning with each knew story that they are connected to people who succeed, fail, and find ways to overcome, and that’s a gift that can be passed down for generations to come.

It’s Time To Consider Mandatory National Service To Help Heal Our Broken Country

July 15, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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NEIL PATELCO-FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER, THE DAILY CALLER

Our country is broken — it’s coming apart at the seams — and it is not going to fix itself. Repairing it will take effort from all of us. It may require consideration of some big national changes. Too many of us are just sitting back and watching America’s decline. It’s time to consider any idea that holds some promise for national renewal, any idea that could universally bring us all together and teach us a shared cause.

Perhaps even mandatory national service.

Mandatory service would require every 18-year-old to serve for a year or more. It is not a radical or new idea. Seventy-five countries have some form of national service requirement, and we’ve already required service at times in American history. It can also be broader than just military service. Other options include the Peace Corps, community service, cleaning up public lands and rebuilding aging infrastructure.

Construction workers at a Miami, Florida job site on April 13. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

MIAMI, FLORIDA – APRIL 13: Construction workers build the “Signature Bridge,” replacing and improving a busy highway intersection at I-95 and I-395 on April 13, 2021 in Miami, Florida. U.S. President Joe Biden introduced a $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs package to repair aging roads and bridges, jump-start transit projects, among other projects. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

As a society, we are growing increasingly self-interested. Citizenship brings responsibility beyond self-interest. The concept of civic responsibility — as enunciated so eloquently by President John Kennedy — is eroding. A national service requirement can help reinvigorate a shared sense of citizenship in everyday Americans.

America is also becoming increasingly polarized and siloed along economic and racial lines. We no longer interact with those outside our own cohort. A rich kid growing up with parents in the New York City finance world likely has zero idea what it’s like in an aging Ohio steel town. The kid in the steel town can’t even imagine New York. They are two different worlds. Throw in racial division, and the whole thing is magnified. For a multiethnic, multiracial country with as many new immigrants as we have, this sort of polarization is deadly to national culture and unity. None of these dynamics is brand-new, but they are getting worse.

The social and cultural segregation in our country is directly contributing to the coarseness of our national culture and politics. We no longer just disagree in America; we vilify those who don’t share our views. Democrats think Republicans are Klansmen without the hoods. Republicans think Democrats are Joseph Stalin before the purges. Rural people think city people are snobby, materialistic and out of touch. Cosmopolitan urbanites think country people are stupid, fat and lazy.

When you have little interaction with those who don’t share your background or beliefs, it’s easy to view them as caricatures. It becomes easier to demonize or marginalize them. This results in the sort of fissures we have in America today and the normalization of summary political violence; we’ve all seen it. Left to fester, these dynamics lead to the downfall of societies. (

We need to break down racial, class and geographic barriers to help create a stronger sense of national community. Doing that is not easy, but mandatory service can help rekindle a sense of civic pride and begin to erode some of the extreme polarization in America. A year’s service requirement will bring together Americans from all walks of life, which will help young people understand one another. Contact reduces intolerance and promotes cohesion. And we are definitely short on national cohesion. We need it now more than we have at any time since at least the 1960s and maybe since the 1860s.

The main argument against mandatory national service comes from the military. America did have mandatory military conscription until 1973. Since then, we have had an all-volunteer force. Our professional voluntary military has served us well. Bringing in recruits who don’t want to serve can cause problems with morale and discipline. We experienced this in Vietnam. We did, however, fight World War II with a system of mandatory conscripts based on registration and a lottery system. That seemed to work pretty well.

American assault troops in a landing craft huddle behind the shield 06 June 1944 approaching Utah Beach while Allied forces are storming the Normandy beaches on D-Day. D-Day, 06 June 1944 is still one of the world's most gut-wrenching and consequential battles, as the Allied landing in Normandy led to the liberation of France which marked the turning point in the Western theater of World War II. (Photo by - / US ARMY PHOTO / AFP)

American assault troops in a landing craft huddle behind the shield 06 June 1944 approaching Utah Beach while Allied forces are storming the Normandy beaches on D-Day. D-Day, 06 June 1944 is still one of the world’s most gut-wrenching and consequential battles, as the Allied landing in Normandy led to the liberation of France which marked the turning point in the Western theater of World War II. (Photo by – / US ARMY PHOTO / AFP)

Mandatory service on the military side brings another benefit. Twenty years of fighting in the Middle East has contributed significantly to the erosion of support and trust in our national leaders. One reason may be that the brunt of the pain was endured by American working-class families. Working class kids were enticed to join the military by ever-increasing bonuses and retention programs. This brought a sense in much of America that our leaders were out of touch and not feeling the pain that can come with extended military engagements. There are, of course, prominent exceptions to this — including even the president’s son, who served in the National Guard — but as a general matter, it’s true that wealthier citizens don’t often serve in the military. Mandatory service would put an end to this dynamic. (

The concept of a national service requirement is surprisingly popular nationally, considering nobody has been out making the case for it in a prominent way. In the 2020 election, Pete Buttigieg and John Delaney argued for some form of national service in the Democratic primary, but it was not a major talking point. Still, according to a Gallup poll in 2017, half of all Americans are in favor of a one-year mandatory national service requirement. Interestingly, the support is relatively bipartisan; 44% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans are in favor.

National service is complicated. It must be presented properly, or it could be a loser politically, and there are downsides we should explore fully. If you agree, however, that Americans are too self-absorbed and no longer as civic-minded, and especially if you think we are lacking in national cohesion, a national service requirement could be just the answer.

Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America’s fastest-growing online news outlets, which regularly breaks news and distributes it to over 15 million monthly readers. Patel also co-founded The Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit news company that trains journalists, produces fact-checks and conducts longer-term investigative reporting. The Daily Caller News Foundation licenses its content free of charge to over 300 news outlets, reaching potentially hundreds of millions of people per month. To find out more about Neil Patel and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com

AmeriCorps Awards $600 Million in National Service Grants

July 9, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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An AmeriCorps member demonstrates a STEM project in a classroom to two surprised students.

More than 300 grants awarded to nonprofit and community-based organizations to support nearly 40,000 national service members

May 26, 2021 16:01 ET | Source: AmeriCorps

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and national service, today announced more than $600 million in AmeriCorps funding, including grants and education awards, has been conferred to hundreds of nonprofit and community-based organizations across the country.

The federal investment includes $295 million in competitive awards to fund living allowances and program resources for nearly 40,000 AmeriCorps members, and provide up to $152 million in formula funding to governor-appointed state service commissions, which will make awards to support additional AmeriCorps members in those states.

“AmeriCorps is dedicated to creating a more united and equitable future for all Americans,” said Sonali Nijhawan, director of AmeriCorps State and National. “I’m proud to announce new funding that will elevate this work by AmeriCorps members across the country. I appreciate all our AmeriCorps members – past, present, and future – for their dedication. As an AmeriCorps alumna myself, I know tomorrow looks a little brighter because they pledge to “get things done for America.”

The total announced today includes up to $160 million in education awards for AmeriCorps members serving as a result of these grants. After completing a full term of service, members receive a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award of approximately $6,500 to help pay for college or pay back student loans.

This year’s grant competition, broadly focused on programs and initiatives spanning COVID-19 recovery, racial equity, conservation, public health, and education loss replacement, was highly competitive with requests for funding far exceeding funds available. Below are some examples of organizations selected for funding through this grant process, within the agency’s six key focus areas.

  • Disaster Response – Nearly 150 SBP AmeriCorps members will provide disaster recovery, home rebuilding, and opportunity housing services in seven states and territories. Through an AmeriCorps investment of $4,672,498, SBP will return more disaster survivors to safe, sanitary, and secure housing.
  • Economic Opportunity – 20 AmeriCorps members with the Utica Public Housing AmeriCorps program will help the long-term unemployed enter the workforce by providing job readiness training and placement services. An AmeriCorps grant of $281,740 will enable the AmeriCorps members to provide financial literacy education and help place those facing homelessness in quality, affordable housing by using an evidence-based, comprehensive case management approach to poverty reduction.
  • Education – With an investment of $4,319,500, College Advising Corps will place AmeriCorps members in 265 underserved high schools in 11 states in areas that include Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Kansas City. AmeriCorps members will provide college advising to low-income, first-generation, underrepresented students, increasing the college enrollment rates at the schools the serve.
  • Environmental Stewardship – Green Iowa AmeriCorps mobilizes AmeriCorps members to engage communities in environmental stewardship, neighborhood revitalization, and boots-on-the-ground resources for energy efficiency services. Their grant of $1,134,069 will support 114 AmeriCorps members to empower Iowa’s communities and school districts to make environmental, conservation-minded decisions and improvements.
  • Healthy Futures – Boston Health Care for the Homeless will receive a grant of $211,900 to support 13 AmeriCorps members who will provide care coordination and health education services to people experiencing homelessness in the greater Boston area. Their service will provide homeless individuals and families with improved access to health care, connects to health-supporting resources and social services, health education, and education to prevent overdoses and support substance misuse disorders.
  • Veterans and Military Families – Sponsored by the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, the Washington Vet Corps will place 50 AmeriCorps members to serve as culturally-competent peer mentors at veteran-focused organizations throughout the state. Through their service, supported by an AmeriCorps grant of $636,600, they will provide direct services to hundreds of individual veterans and their family members and deliver training to community members, while recruiting additional volunteers to increase veterans utilization of veteran services and decrease suicide among Washington state veterans.

A complete list of this year’s competitive awards can be found online.

Today’s announcement builds on AmeriCorps’ continued investments in the nation’s COVID-19 recovery. With existing programs in more than 40,000 locations across the country, AmeriCorps is uniquely positioned to bolster community response efforts. For the past year, thousands of AmeriCorps members across all 50 states and U.S. territories have continued their service, quickly adapting to meet the changing needs caused by the pandemic and have provided vital support, community response, and recovery efforts, providing support to more than 11 million Americans, including 2.3 million people at vaccination sites.

This funding is in addition to the $1 billion for AmeriCorps in the recently passed American Rescue Plan. The agency will use this investment to expand national service programs and increase the opportunity for all Americans to serve their country.

A growing body of research shows that service has an effect on more than just the communities served, but also on the members themselves. AmeriCorps alumni credit their year of service for developing leadership skills that bridges divides, solves problems, and opens doors to opportunities that advance their careers and education. In addition, research shows that alumni gain skills and are exposed to experiences that communities and employers find valuable.

This class of AmeriCorps members will prepare students for college, revitalize cities, connect veterans to jobs, fight the opioid epidemic, rebuild communities following disasters, preserve public lands, strengthen education, foster economic opportunity, and more. They will join the more than 1.1 million AmeriCorps members who have served since the program’s inception in 1994, earning nearly $4 billion in education awards.

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AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteering, brings people together to tackle the country’s most pressing challenges. AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers serve with organizations dedicated to the improvement of communities. AmeriCorps helps make service to others a cornerstone of our national culture. Learn more at AmeriCorps.gov.

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Checklist of Documents

July 8, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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filling in forms cartoon with shopping and the caption Buy on-line - Fill in form, Fill in form again, And again, Lose form, Fill-in form a few more times, Give up and go to shop... by Grizelda

CHECKLIST TO COMPLETE PROJECT CHANGE MEMBER FILE FOR 2025-6

1)-Proof of Citizenship as in- Copy of Birth Certificate, Passport, Green Card,
2- Driver License, or some official Government ID with your picture
3- Copy of Social Security Card/ Pay Stub
4- Copy of High School Diploma/ College Transcript
5- Application Form –Answer 1-15: Sections where Resume material called for, write “See Resume” Plus, just add names and contacts of two referees.
6- Official Enrollment form
7-Resume
8. Background Checks- FBI. State of residence, State of service,
9. Signed consent form NATIONAL SERVICE CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECK (NSCHC) CONSENT FORM
10. PAYCE Financial Forms with voided check or letter from your bank- Schedule A and D
11. IRS and MD Tax forms- W507 and W4 and Homeland Security I-9
12. If you are not taking the AmeriCorps Health Insurance, Sign the form that asks that question or say Yes, if you need insurance
13. A copy of your own health insurance card.( if you are not taking AmeriCorps insurance)
14. If you need child care or not, sign that form.
15. Sign Photograph and Story release form
16. Sign the Confidentiality agreement
17. Certificate of completion of the Child Abuse and Neglect Course from MCPS
18-Student Loan Forbearance Form
19. A good portrait photo of you
20. A 100 word bio to go up public on the web site

Add-ons: Draft Training Timetable, Summary of Health Insurance, Copy of member Agreement to initial and review before signing.

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Enlist the Young

July 7, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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By Jonathan Holloway

Dr. Holloway is the president of Rutgers University, a historian and the author, most recently, of “The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans.” July 2, 2021 New York Times

This essay is part of a series exploring bold ideas to revitalize and renew the American experiment. Read more about this project in a note from Ezekiel Kweku, Opinion’s politics editor.

If we Americans listened to one another, perhaps we would recognize how absurd our discourse has become. It is our own fault that political discussions today are hotheaded arguments over whether the hooligans storming the halls of the Capitol were taking a tour or fomenting an insurrection; if we broadened our audiences, perhaps we would see the fallacy of claims that all Republicans are committed to voter suppression and that all Democrats are committed to voter fraud.

It seems like an easy challenge to address, but we lack the incentives to change our behavior. We are all, regardless of where we sit on the political spectrum, caught in a vortex of intoxication. We have fooled ourselves into thinking that our followers on social media are our friends. They aren’t. They are our mirrors, recordings of our own thoughts and images played back to us, by us and for us. We feel good about ourselves, sure, but do we feel good as citizens? Do we feel good as Americans? Are we better off? Is America?

There are many problems in America, but fundamental to so many of them is our unwillingness to learn from one another, to see and respect one another, to become familiar with people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and who hold different political views. It will take work to repair this problem, but building blocks exist. A good foundation would be a one-year mandatory national service program.

Nearly 90 years ago, in response to the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps, what was then America’s largest organized nationwide civilian service program. About 30 years later, President Lyndon Johnson brought to fruition President John Kennedy’s “domestic Peace Corps” initiative, the Volunteers in Service to America program, known as VISTA. Today, domestic civilian service is dominated by AmeriCorps and nongovernmental programs like Teach for America.

Taken together, these programs have been enormously successful at putting people to work, broadening the reach of basic social services related to education, health and welfare. Most important, they have helped citizens see the crucial role that they can play in strengthening our democracy. Given that we know service programs can be so effective in shoring up the nation in moments of crisis, the time has come for a broader initiative, with higher aspirations and goals. The time has come for compulsory national service for all young people — with no exceptions.

Universal national service would include one year of civilian service or military service for all adults to be completed before they reach the age of 25, with responsibilities met domestically or around the world. It would channel the conscience of the Civilian Conservation Corps and put young people in the wilderness repairing the ravages of environmental destruction. It would draw on the lessons of the Peace Corps and dispatch young Americans to distant lands where they would understand the challenges of poor countries and of people for whom basic health and nutrition are aspirational goals. It would draw on the success of our military programs that in the past created pathways toward financial stability and educational progress for those with limited resources, while also serving as great unifiers among America’s races, religions and social classes.

These are but three examples. A one-year universal national service program could take many other forms, but it is easy to imagine that it could be a vehicle to provide necessary support to underserved urban and rural communities, help eliminate food deserts, contribute to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, enrich our arts and culture, and bolster our community health clinics, classrooms and preschools.

Furthermore, because service would be mandatory, it would force all of our young people to better know one another, creating the opportunities to learn about and appreciate our differences. Speaking as an educator, I know that we get better answers to complex problems when we assemble teams from a wide range of backgrounds. Once these teams realize that they share a common purpose, their collective differences and diversity in race, gender, expertise, faith, sexual orientation and political orientation start to emerge as a strength. If you look at the state of our civic culture, it is clear that we have a long way to go before we can claim that we are doing the best that we can. The kind of experiential education I am advocating could change a life, could open a mind and could save a democracy.

A sensible system of compulsory national service would build bridges between people and turn them into citizens. It would shore up our fragile communities and strengthen us as individuals and as a nation. Compulsory national service would make us more self-reliant and at the same time more interdependent. It would help us to realize our remarkable individual strengths and would reveal the enormous collective possibilities when we pull together instead of rip apart.

At its core, we need to heed the call for citizenship. We need to take the natural inclination to help out our friends and families and turn it into a willingness to support strangers. We need to inspire people to answer the call to serve because in so doing they will discover ways to have their voices heard and their communities seen and respected.

This is neither a new nor a partisan idea. This call to serve and inspire is written into the preamble of the United States Constitution. When the founders sought to “form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty,” they were talking about establishing an ethos of citizenship and participation.

Compulsory national service is not a panacea, but neither is it a mere placebo. It could be a very real solution to a very real problem that already has wrought havoc on our democracy and that threatens our future as a nation, our viability as a culture and our very worth as human beings. This nation and its democratic principles need our help. We can and must do better.

Jonathan Holloway is the president of Rutgers University, a historian and the author, most recently, of “The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

A JULY 4TH SPEECH

July 2, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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While some Maryland towns have called off their fireworks and parades for 4th of July 2021, many communities plan to hold displays again.

Watch this rousing recital of a famous and controversial speech given in 1852 on July 5th by the amazing leader, Frederick Douglas. 169 years later, it still sounds so alive to our current challenges.

MCPS Update for 2021-2 Year

July 2, 2021 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
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classroom

COMMUNITY UPDATE

July 01, 2021

Dear MCPS Community:

Here are five things you need to know about the June 29 Board of Education meeting and what’s ahead for the MCPS community this summer and fall. 

1.The 2021-2022 school year will begin on August 30, with all schools returning to in-person instruction at 100 percent capacity five days a week. Watch this video to learn more about the fall 2021 vision for schools.

2.Mask guidance from the 2020-2021 school year will continue through the summer. Students and staff participating in summer programs are required to wear face coverings in school buildings; outdoors, mask wearing is not required, but is highly recommended and up to the individual. Tentative mask guidance for the 2021-2022 school year will be provided in August.

3.The deadline to apply for the Virtual Academy is July 2. We encourage all families who feel the program would be a good fit for their child to apply and to provide any available supporting materials. All applications will be reviewed and responses will be provided on a rolling basis.

4.MCPS will provide a new social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum for students beginning in the fall. Staff have begun to receive training on the new SEL curriculum—the Leader in Me. The curriculum fosters a holistic approach to education, empowering educators with effective practices and tools to teach leadership to every student; create a culture of student empowerment; and align systems to drive results in academics. Implementation will be phased in over three years, beginning with these schools this fall.

5. MCPS elementary and middle school summer programs begin July 6, either in-person at the local school, in a special program, or through the MCPS all-virtual program. More than 53,000 students are participating in MCPS’ summer programming. For programs starting next week, families will receive details about what to expect in their emails by the end of this week. If you do not receive a confirmation for in-person programs at your school, please contact your child’s school. For the all-virtual program, if you do not receive a welcome message by the end of the day on July 2, please email CentralSummerMS@mcpsmd.org (middle school) or CentralSummerES@mcpsmd.org (elementary school).