Arcadia University, a PHENND member campus, partners with Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, an academic enrichment program for students in sixth grade through college. Recently, Breakthrough and Arcadia collaborated on a graduate level education course, where Arcadia graduate students developed and taught a project-based lesson for eighth grade students involved with Breakthrough. Here, Miriam Leisman Rubin, Director of Operations at Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, and Dr. Augusto Macalalag Jr., Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education at Arcadia’s School of Education, discuss their collaboration.

Caitlin: First, Miriam, can you provide a general overview of what Breakthrough does?

Miriam: Breakthrough has a dual mission. One is to increase the academic opportunity for highly motivated, underserved students and get them through college ready to succeed. Secondly, Breakthrough works to inspire and develop the next generation of teachers and educational leaders. Our service model is “students teaching students.” Overall, Breakthrough works to have a regional impact on urban education through local partnerships and extends its reach still further by engaging with 25 partners in a national collaborative.

Caitlin: Augusto, what in particular have you been working on with Breakthrough here at Arcadia?

Augusto: I was working on developing a graduate level teacher preparatory course on STEM and I needed field placements for the students, so I reached out to Breakthrough. Arcadia had already partnered with Breakthrough around teaching social studies, so this seemed like a natural fit. The graduate students in my course design a STEM, project-based lesson, what we call “STEM in a Box.” This past spring the graduate students developed a lesson on the physics of drag, called “A long way down.” Through this lesson the Breakthrough students explored the concept explored the concept of force by investigating the effects of different materials, area and shapes in the descent of parachutes.

Miriam: Pairs of the graduate students came to Breakthrough on two Saturdays and taught the lessons they developed to a small group of eighth grade students. Each Saturday lesson consisted of two hours of instruction, one hour to develop the hypothesis and design the experiment, and one hour to work on conducting the experiment and analyzing the results. The students ran multiple trials of their experiment, which gave them the opportunity to tweak their experimental design.

Caitlin: What makes this partnership different from other teach prep field placement experiences?

Augusto: This is more of a tangible experience. The graduate students can manipulate and work collaboratively on the lesson design. They also are able to run through the lesson at least three times. First, during the graduate class, then twice with two different groups of students from Breakthrough. After each run through of the lesson, the graduate students revise their lesson design based on feedback from each other and the Breakthrough students.

Miriam: In many ways this reminds me of when I did my lesson study while I was in graduate school for education. My fellow graduate students and I worked collaboratively in a team to develop our lesson, test it with a real live group of students, and receive feedback that informed our revisions. At the time I may not have felt the importance of the intentionality of the lesson study, but I now really appreciate the value of this process.

Caitlin: What has been some of the graduate students’ reactions to this experience?

Miriam: The graduate students have found this to be a very valuable experience. They put a lot of work into the development of the lesson, including the timing instructions and the level of detail. In practice, however, they quickly learned that especially when engaging in a more project-based lesson, you have to quickly adapt your timing and approach while in the moment.

Augusto: The graduate students were also pre-K to 4^th grade or Special Education, K-8^th grade pre-service teachers.  For many of these graduate students, working with middle school students can be intimidating, but this was a real eye opening opportunity. The graduate students expressed they were really surprised by the background knowledge and skill level of the Breakthrough students.

Miriam: The graduate students also reflected that they really learned the importance of being OK with not knowing all the answers as teachers. They really began to understand that their job is not to know everything about a particular topic but rather to open the students’ minds. It is a continual process to encourage students to come up with their own hypotheses.

Caitlin: Finally, where do you see this partnership going from here?

Miriam: One of the challenges is that semester to semester the number of students in the course can fluctuate. This can be a bit tricky, because we want to balance the number of graduate students and the number of Breakthrough students. In addition, scheduling is important because many of the graduate students work full-time during the week, so the lessons are taught in out-of-school time.

Augusto: To help with scheduling we have thought about adding a special event outside of the regular curriculum, and in this way we can also deepen our impact. In addition, we would love to offer the experience to seventh graders as well.

http://breakthroughphilly.org/

Kelly Peeler is CEO and Founder of NextGenVest, a financial aid service with a mission to invest in the next generations’ aspirations for a college education. NextGenVest partners students with “Money Mentors” through text messaging to help with financial aid, scholarships, student loans, and more. Kelly recently had the chance to interview the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education John King (see here) and I got the chance to ask her a few questions about her work in helping to get students to college.

Caitlin: Kelly, can you tell us a little about NextGenVest?

Kelly: NextGenVest.com is the Money Mentor for every student. We help students with financial aid, scholarships, and student loans over text message, and now even Snapchat. Whether it be FAFSA help, finding match scholarships, writing appeal letters, or filling out state grant forms, NextGenVest is available for student questions, even on nights and weekends! We currently serve over 35,000 students in six major cities.

Caitlin: You mentioned, Money Mentors – who are they and how can someone get involved?

Kelly: Money Mentors are trained college students who went through the financial aid process themselves and want to help other students avoid mistakes in a relatable way. We have many Money Mentors who are first generation college students and had to navigate all financing options by themselves. Any college student in one of our major cities can apply for a semester long Money Mentor internship.  If accepted, they participate in a month-long training program. We have about 300 college students from across the U.S. interning as Money Mentors, and about 70% came from those who used Money Mentors themselves. The internship is paid and they develop professional skills as well!

Caitlin: You mentioned writing appeal letters. Does this mean that students can negotiate their tuition?

Kelly: Yes! NextGenVest.com helped students negotiate $260k+ in 2016 alone. Money Mentors help students write appeal letters stating their case as to why a university should consider re-evaluating their financial aid package. It isn’t a guarantee but it is worth a try!

Caitlin: What are some of the most difficult challenges that you have seen students face today when looking to access a college education?

Kelly: The biggest challenge is not filling out the FAFSA. Students left $2.7 billion dollars unclaimed in free federal aid for which they would have qualified. Many times students will take out far too much in loans as opposed to just submitting their FAFSA which allows them access to federal aid and potentially scholarships.

Caitlin: Is it all just about that process during senior year of figuring out how to pay to college?

Kelly: Definitely not!  We continue to help students to and through college. NextGenVest helps students budget for important steps such as travel to freshman orientation and Money Mentors are there to work through alternative options for emergencies such as unexpected expenses or the loss of a scholarship or aid.

Caitlin: What can schools and/or teachers do to partner with NextGenVest?

Kelly: In Philadelphia, we have teams of trained college students from Temple, Drexel and Penn who can provide 30 minute in-person workshops at schools. We have a workshop that discusses how to navigate the world of scholarships, a workshop for seniors on how to understand the financial aid package, and a workshop for juniors that helps to kick-off the college application process. Thanks to a partnership with Dominos, all workshops include free pizza! In addition, any school that provides free and reduced lunch can receive a free code for their students for a Money Mentor.

Caitlin: You seem really passionate about this work, so what inspired you to start NextGenVest?

Kelly: This is my third student-focused social enterprise that I’ve created. I’m a big believer that the number one thing holding this generation back from fulfilling their potential and dreams are student loan burdens – the average student will graduate with $37k in debt.

Kelly will be in the Philadelphia area next month, presenting at Teach For America’s Annual Education Summit: Grow in Greater Philly, February 11^th at School of the Future (4021 Parkside Avenue). If you would like to reserve a college student to host a 30 minute workshop with free pizza on Scholarships 101, FAFSA 101, Understanding Your Financial Aid Package, or Kicking Off the College Process, please email kelly@nextgenvest.com with your preferred date, time, and school!

http://www.nextgenvest.com/

https://youtu.be/5wK053It9tQ

http://www.cvent.com/events/grow-in-greater-philly-an-education-summit-for-cultivating-collective-impact/event-summary-7b9aee79c5774c7ea2e1d56b200337c3.aspx