This summer, 12-year-old Amarian Carter discovered a love for music, history and, for the first time, read what is now his favorite book, “Dear Black Boy.”
Amarian was among 30 scholars to participate in the Gulf Coast Freedom Schools’ Harambee summer program. On Friday, the scholars were honored at a finale celebration at First Baptist Church of Warrington.
Harambee, the Kiswahili word for “all pull together,” is a summer learning enrichment program for kindergarten through fifth-grade students sponsored by the Gulf Coast Freedom School. The six-week program started on June 22 and focused on helping scholars retain and improve reading skills.
“What I love about the Freedom Schools is that we did a lot of fun things like going on field trips, but they really helped us with our reading. We used STAR reading, which will help us when we go back to school,” said Amarian, who also got a chance to take part in a drumline.
“That was something I had never done before but I really liked drumming. I was pretty good at it and may join the band when I go to middle school or high school.”
A Blue Angels Elementary fifth-grader, Amarian said “Dear Black Boy” also inspired him to follow his dreams.
“There are Black Americans who look just like me and are doing many things and they’re successful. I can be just like them in the future if I stay focused on my schoolwork and be a good person,” he said.
The Gulf Coast Freedom School’s learning enrichment program started in summer 2021, said Aarin Phillips-Nedd, site coordinator for the Freedom Schools.
“Our goal is to encourage reading and make reading fun for our scholars so they can take that fun aspect and the academic rigor into their classes this upcoming school year,” she said.
“Reading is the thing that opens our imagination. Reading is the foundation for learning. And in the public school sector, reading is one of the things that students have to master—especially by third grade—to elevate to the next grade. Nationally, we’re at a deficit when it comes to reading, and we want to fill that gap for our scholars.”
She said the program includes a DEAR—Drop Everything And Read Library—that includes books and literature that reflects the scholars.
“The authors reflect them. The characters in the books reflect them. The students read these books, and they have high-order thinking comprehension questions at the end, that our scholars can have discussions about,” she said. “They then turn those discussions into activities.”
For Kennie Lyons, the Gulf Coast Freedom Schools’ learning enrichment program was perfect for his granddaughter, Layla Leonard. The 9-year-old already loves to read.
“She’s going into fourth grade at Kingsfield Elementary this fall, but she’s been tested, and I believe she’s already reading at sixth- or seventh-grade level,” Lyons said, adding his daughter, Faith Morris, enrolled Layla in the program so she could do something constructive over the summer break.
“It’s so important for kids to maintain and improve reading skills during the summer. My wife and I have three daughters and four granddaughters, and we always encouraged our girls to read books in the summer. I feel like it made a big difference in how well they did in school.”
Rachel Iverson, executive director of the Gulf Coast Freedom Schools, said the learning enrichment program is important to local children.
“In this community, we know that children are reading below grade level. So our program goes after that summer reading loss. School ends in May, classes restart in August, and there are some deficits, but our program attacks that and makes sure there’s no reading loss. If anything, there are gains,” said Iverson, who reiterated the program also strives to foster a love for reading.
“It gets them (children) excited about reading. Everything that they do—if it’s the first part of the day when they’re coming together in our Harambee or at the end of the day—it’s about reading and the fun of reading.”
During the 8 a.m.to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday learning enrichment program, students had three hours of integrated reading that included different activities. In the afternoon, scholars took part in culturally relevant activities.
“If a child comes in and they have a passion for science, we focus on those sciences,” Iverson said.
Jayla Carr, one of the scholars who enjoys science, had a chance to plant a garden and watch sage, cilantro and spinach sprout up through the soil. She also fell in love with the book, “Human Computer: Mary Jackson, Engineer.”
“It was about this girl named Mary Jackson. She basically grew up to be one of NASA’s first African-American employees and was a human computer,” said Jayla who attended the program with her twin, Kayla. The 10-year-olds are going into fifth-grade at N.B. Cook Elementary School this fall.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Young scholars leave Harambee summer program ready to read and succeed
Reporting by Mary Lett, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mary Lett, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
