Summer Programs?

Yesterday, Sabrina came by the museum to see what is going on. She had read the newspaper article a few weeks ago and had contacted the museum to set up a tour to see the building.

She is a teacher in Imperial and has several kids from Ocotillo in her class. She is very interested in the museum developing summer programs. She expressed that the kids in Ocotillo need somewhere they can go to be stimulated. They need internet. They need computers. They need projects.

She was hoping that the museum was in the position to provide this.

What she was talking about sounded a lot like a program I had run at the Turks and Caicos National Museum called the After School Homework Program. For this program the museum had received a grant to buy computers and hire an intern coordinator/tutor who worked with local youth from 3:00-5:00 everyday, helping them excel. During the two years we ran this program we attracted 28% of the students who lived on the island of Grand Turk. The kids who came through our program received the top grades in their classes. One of our students (with a letter of endorsement from the museum) went on to the engineering program at Leicester University in England. One of our local student interns, who helped with the program, received the highest grade in the country for her elementary teaching practicum.

I will include a picture of our program in operation in the Turks and Caicos. It was exciting to be in a museum that was full of kids working and learning.