Summer program challenges pupils

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Nadine White was impressed with the computer skills displayed by her daughter, Lindsey, who will be entering the fifth grade in the city school system this fall.

“She’s teaching me things,” the North Side mother said as she visited her daughter’s Summer Enrichment Program class at Williamson Elementary on Thursday.

The program is six weeks of summer school offered to children entering third, fourth and fifth grades this fall and about 125 pupils from across the city are attending, said Wanda Clark, summer school enrichment principal. The program is free and the district provides the transportation. Children are in the school for three hours a day.

Williamson held a “Learning Cafe” session at the school Thursday to show the parents of those children what they are learning.

“It’s almost like a summer camp,” Clark said, adding that the children are being exposed to material they will be required to learn in the next school year.

Like the pupils, teachers in the program came from across the district, creating almost a family atmosphere with one common goal —­ excellence in education, she said.

“I like everything I’ve seen so far,” White said as she left her daughter’s classroom where Lindsey was using a computer to study fractions.

The enrichment program is a worthwhile effort, White said.

A highlight of the Learning Cafe was the creation of an “Alex’s Lemonade Stand” by pupils in Stacie Shepard’s social studies and reading class.

Introducing children to economics is one of the state academic standard requirements for those in the fourth grade and Shepard said she was searching for some way to do that when she learned about Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a foundation created in the memory of Alexandra Scott, a Philadelphia girl who set up a lemonade stand in her own yard to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Alex, as she called herself, was diagnosed with cancer at age 1, and, in 2000, set up her fund-raising lemonade stand. She died in 2004.

The foundation sponsors annual Lemonade Days each year in her honor and had 2,000 participants across the country in this year’s event in early June. The effort has raised $20 million for childhood cancer research.

It is a good cause and a good way to teach children the economics of setting up and running their own small business, Shepard said. The money they raised will go to childhood cancer research, she said.

“I’m on the job,” volunteered Znayia Brown, who was working as a cashier at the stand. “I learned that it was fun,” she added.

Miya Jefferson was handing out the lemonade and pointed out that she was good at her assigned task.

Brendon Moorer said it was his job to put a slice of lemon in each cup, and he was very careful, not spilling a drop.

Nechelle Caban was keeping track of the number of people visiting the stand, using a mechanical clicker to record each visit.

Other children called her “the click-clack lady.”

“Seventy-seven,” she replied as she glanced at the clicker in her hand when asked how many people had visited the stand.

Wilson Martinez and his wife, Nolbia, who live on the city’s West Side, were visiting the school to view the work of their daughter, Keissi, who will be a third-grader this fall.

The enrichment program has been very beneficial for her, Martinez said, explaining that she had been having some problems with math but now is doing quite well on her own.

The summer program will wrap up next week.

gwin@vindy.com