Posted on June 30, 2010 5:47 PM
The Woodside Priory chapter of the Peninsula Bridge Program began this week with a class of 60 rising eight graders. The kids arrived bright and early on the bus Monday morning and the enthusiasm they brought hasn't dulled in the slightest throughout the week.
One of the English teachers, Kindra Briggs, says about the students, "They have a lot of energy, a little bit of sass, and generally they seem pretty excited."
Their excitement is only matched by the eagerness of the teachers and the TA's, whether it's Elena Long leading the morning cheer, or philosophy teacher Mathew Nelson leading his class in an exercise in identity by peeling lemons.
Posted on June 1, 2010 4:46 PM
There is not a day
that goes by that I do not thank the Lord for what I have, where I am in
life, and most importantly, who I am. I was raised in East Palo Alto
(the murder capital of the world in 1992). Odds would say that I would
be in prison like my brother, selling drugs, or deceased like my
cousin. Well, I have never been in prison, never sold drugs, I am
obviously not dead. On the contrary, my life has taken quite a
different direction during the last 15 years. Why you may ask? It is
because of Les DeWitt, the Peninsula Bridge program and Woodside Priory.
Posted on June 1, 2010 2:24 PM
This is the 2nd summer my daughter, Francesca, has been in this program;
it is such a wonderful program. Francesca enjoyed every single day
there and always tells me what she did at the program. She got the
opportunity to explore into more areas than what we can provide to her
at home. This summer, she was exposed to the subject of psychology for
the first time and was so excited about it...I think she may have found
another subject she really loves besides mathematics. Also new this
summer was a parent education seminar which I thought was truly helpful.
To top it all off, everything was provided for free!
I feel very fortunate to have Francesca in this program and we look
forward to returning next summer!
Posted on June 1, 2010 1:35 PM
I heard about the Peninsula Bridge program when I was in high school. I had friends who worked as TAs and they always had great experiences. Once I got to college and started learning about the summer slip and how that disproportionately impacts
low-income students, I wanted to get involved.
Bridge provides really personalized support. As a TA, I knew my students' strengths and weaknesses and was able to tailor each lesson to them. They got a lot of one-on-one support in order to scaffold their learning of important concepts and engage them more fully in exciting material. Peninsula Bridge is academically-rigorous and still fun place for low-income youth to spend their summers.