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2 school programs get state recognition
By Denise Dick
youngstowN
Two city school programs received recognition from the Ohio School Boards Association.
The district learned earlier this month that the programs — Sojourn to the Past and Service Learning Project — were selected by OSBA to be part of the Student Achievement Fair at the association’s Capital Conference next month in Columbus.
“It’s an honor to get chosen,” said Gary Motz, OSBA editorial manager.
OSBA takes nominations for the fair each spring and selects programs in the summer.
“We try to select programs that we think the most people would be interested in and would be the most informative,” Motz said.
Superintendent Wendy Webb said that the Service Learning Project is a program started last year that allows high school students to spend time with a particular company to learn about a field or profession.
Webb said it was helpful in exposing students to careers in which they’re interested.
Strollo Architects was among the companies participating.
Gregg Strollo, company president, said the company received a telephone call from a former city school-board member who now works with the schools, explaining the program.
It was for students considered the best and brightest in the school system. The 12 who spent time with the Youngstown architectural firm showed an interest in architecture.
“We talked about it among our partners and we decided that we could spare a few hours a week for these kids,” Strollo said.
The students spend time at the company three days per week for 10 to 12 weeks, he said.
“It gave the opportunity to expose them to the profession from a very base level,” Strollo said.
The students started the sessions with some inaccurate perceptions about architects. Some thought that an architect could earn $300,000 to $400,000 per year upon graduating from college.
And other than Strollo, they couldn’t name a professional architect.
“It was a learning process for us and them,” Strollo said. “We make assumptions about what people should know because it’s something we deal with every day, and they don’t.”
Class sessions started with history about the profession and included information about the use of technology.
“Some were more interested than others,” he said. “One is interested in a follow-up as they move into college, which is in itself a bit of a reward.”
The students had to select an internationally known architect and report interesting facts about him or her.
“The end was a field trip to Fallingwater,” he said of the home and historic landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Strollo said the partners are in discussions about whether to participate in the program again this year, but he expects they will.
In Sojourn to the Past, students participate in a 10-day trip to sites in the past that were pivotal in the civil-rights movement.
“Those students should be commended,” Webb has said. “They petitioned the school board, city council and the [Youngstown State University] board of trustees to establish Nonviolence Week.”
The three panels each voted to make Nonviolence Week, observed the first week of October, an annual event.