City Year Corps Give More than Just a Year

By Angel Sabater

City Year Corps member Chelsea Berkowitz gets to campus every morning at 7:45. She checks in with her teammates and then starts tutoring. She’s in academic classes with teachers and students all day.

“Basically we help students answer questions and help facilitate lessons,” Berkowitz said.

City Year tutoring is after school from Monday through Friday in Rough Rider building second floor.

“After school we have our tutoring from 4:15 to 5:15. So that’s kind of what our day is like,” Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz is one out of 17 of the City Years who are assigned here. At times they go to events, such as National Night Out and Open House, but starting soon they will be going to start after school events after tutoring. City Year’s been working on planning and getting things together for it.

“We haven’t quite started those yet, but they will be starting soon. We will have a math haunted house to work on the TEKS coming up for Algebra I, and we have different stuff going on that we’re going to start accomplishing,” Berkowitz said.

City Year is a nonprofit organization where City Year Corps members, from young adults at ages 17-24 who are recent college and high school graduates, help middle and high school students with their academic readiness.

Some challenges for City Year include seeing students who have a lot of potential, but lack motivation to get involved in their work and making sure that they’re getting their work done to the best of their abilities. Another challenge is seeing some students who need an extra push to become more efficient.

“For this nine weeks we have been working in the classes, answering all the questions students have and helping out with homework at our tutoring and get them motivated and excited to be in class,” Berkowitz said.

City Year’s motto is give a year. Change the world. They want to reduce the number of high school dropouts, increase the number of students that attend school, and increase the number of students to graduate high school. They’re mostly targeting middle school and ninth grade students to become successful in school.

“We work specifically with the freshmen; our goal is to help all the ninth graders pass their STAAR test and move on to be tenth graders and hopefully have the majority of the class go to collage,” City Year Corps member, Charles Hayden said.

City Year is also helpful because they help keep students on task, and help if ever there is a student struggling during a lecture and students can get the extra help they need from City Year.

“City Year is really good, because they’re an extra pair of hands and eyes in the classroom. It’s nice to have someone to help aid the students; say if you have questions and it’s not just me answering them it’s City Year as well,” Algebra I teacher, Brianne Kennedy said.

City Year values include 1) service to a cause greater than self, 2) students first, collaboration always, 3) belief in the power of the young people, 4) social justice for all, 5) level five leadership, 6) empathy, 7) inclusivity, 8) Ubuntu, 9) teamwork, and 10) excellence.

“City Year has enough time to be at class, and they’re there for you, helping you, and if you make a mistake they will show you how to resolve that problem,” junior Ali Abdikadir said.

City Year has dreams of their own, whether it’s to make a difference in the world or help others.

“I wanted a job that was both fulfilling and enriching and I wanted to help people and help myself at the same time,” City Year Corps member, Becky Clegg said.