Congratulations to this year’s Amy Rossborough Fellows, who all did an amazing job on their projects!
Ilana and Carolina expanded the Summer Science Research Institute and worked to institutionalize the program. More labs expressed interest this year, allowing SSRI to offer students placements in a wider range departments. Ilana and Carolina recruited additional Yale undergraduates to help run the program and worked with the Office of New Haven-State Affairs to ensure SSR would continue after this summer. As a result of their efforts, New Haven high school students will have the opportunity to work in Yale labs over the summer long after Ilana and Carolina graduate.
Raymond and Wendy initially planned to institute a mock trial program at Coop, but as the year progressed changed their focus to building students’ public speaking skills. The program participants significantly improved their public speaking abilities and built their confidence.
Lindsey and Naaman taught a group of New Haven high school students how to design, implement, and analyze community based research. The students created a survey on youth perceptions of violence, which they administered and are in the process of analyzing. They will present their data at the Youth Summit in June.
Julia expanded Girls Swim this year, recruiting additional swim instructors so as to offer lessons to more students. She also found a permanent home for the program, creating a new organization at Dwight Hall. Thanks to Julia’s work, New Haven middle school girls will continue to receive free swim lessons that build their skills and self-esteem.
Rahul passed the reigns of his financial literacy program to Max, who taught after school classes at Metro Business Academy and gave an abridged version of the curriculum at Community. Max is in the process of revising the curriculum and recruiting additional instructors, so as to offer financial literacy classes to more New Haven schools next year. He is also creating a website that will make the course content widely available. The financial literacy program will be administered by Dwight Hall’s Socially Responsible Investment Fund in the future.
Isabel taught a series of workshops designed to increase “food literacy” among 5th grade students at Celentano. Through the workshops, the students learned about food culture, how to read labels, the role of media and advertising in food consumption, and how to be informed consumers.
Jerusalem began the year wanting to start at Ted Talks book club, but after meeting with students and leading sessions with New Haven Academy’s Future Project, she changed her focus to helping students write college application essays. Jerusalem saw students had a need for this type of program, so she is holding a workshop on May 16th to guide students through the essay writing process and offer advice on how to craft a successful personal statement.
Congratulations to all on a successful year!
