Course puts students to work building community schools

Binghamton University’s community schools partnership – a Promise Zone initiative – connects the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) with the Division of Student Affairs, local community agencies, New York state and Broome County school districts to build supports necessary for all children to succeed.

This semester, 17 Binghamton University students are enrolled in the Community Schools course, taught by CCPA Dean Laura Bronstein and Assistant Vice President for Student Development Elizabeth Carter.  The course falls under the designation of Community Engaged Learning (CEL) because the service in the local schools is the practice aspect of what students learn in the classroom.

“The goal of the course is two-fold,” said Carter. “To give students the academic background of community schools work and to give them a practical experience doing the work. Students get the academic coursework and use that as a basis for their experiential learning.”
Students in the course build relationships with the students and families they are working with in local schools. One student is taking what she learned in the classroom and applying it by developing an event for parents, to discuss discipline strategies and parenting skills – what works and what doesn’t. 

Community school activities that Binghamton students are implementing are aimed to support teachers in reaching children who do not have the resources at home to support their success in the classroom.  Such resources include physical and mental healthcare, after-school support, summer programming, arts and athletics – the things that middle-class students and families can take for granted, and which often make the difference between students being able to break out of a cycle of poverty. 

“An important piece is to put this class in the context of community schools as the University’s signature civic engagement effort and student affairs-academic affairs partnership,” said Bronstein. “It also responds to the governor’s support for building community schools in New York state as well as to the New York State Office of Mental Health Promise Zone program for our development of a county-wide system of University-assisted community schools – the only such effort nationwide.”

The course is only one avenue the University uses to engage students in building community schools in Broome County. There are more than 40 Promise Zone interns this semester, assigned to schools in the Binghamton, Johnson City, Union Endicott and Whitney Point districts, as well as BOCES. Since the Promise Zone began last year, participating undergraduate and graduate interns have come from CCPA, Harpur School of Arts and Sciences, Decker School of Nursing, the Graduate School of Education, the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Management.

A snapshot of the activities students have been involved in include:
    • an afterschool robotics program
    • a high school peer mentoring program
    • conflict resolution
    • an afterschool art program
    • blog development
    • family engagement
    • diabetes education
    • talent show preparation
    • creation of promotional materials
    • academic support
    • participation and support of a documentary
    • and more