Category: General Info

James Devers Selected to Lead Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo

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James Devers

CIS of Kalamazoo Board of Directors have announced that they have selected James Devers to serve as the nonprofit organization’s second Executive Director. “After a very thorough search, the Board is excited to welcome James Devers to lead Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo into the future,” said Tony McDonnell, President of CIS Board. “James bring tremendous experience, passion for helping kids succeed and a steady leadership style to his new role as CIS Executive Director,” says McDonnell.

When Pam Kingery, CIS of Kalamazoo’s founding executive director retires from CIS at the end of June, James Devers will begin his tenure as executive director the first week of July.

James has more than 19 years of diverse experience in the field of education, ranging from working for the Ohio Department of Education, to doing community-based computer literacy training, to serving as principal at a K-8 public school in Ohio. Most recently, James has served as the Senior Director of Site Services for Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo.

A graduate of Kalamazoo Public Schools, James holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Western Michigan University and a master’s degree in public administration from The Ohio State University. A passionate advocate for youth and families, James’ volunteer work over the years has included starting several summer camps, tutoring youth, and mentoring high school students who were at risk of dropping out of school.

“I am grateful to be stepping into the role of Executive Director with the perspective gained from my current position as Senior Director of Site Services,” said James. “I already know our staff—we have a terrific team. In my new position I want to ensure that the work we’ve begun, as well as the progress we’ve made together—both programmatically and relationally—will continue. I’m looking forward to bringing my perspective and experience to this dedicated team of staff, volunteers, school and community partners at CIS. Together, we will continue and build upon CIS’s successful history focused on helping kids stay in school and achieve in life.”

You can look forward to learning more about James, his thoughts on leadership, and more in our next CIS Connections (due out this fall). Ask Me About My 12,000 Kids will also bring you an interview with James in the months to come.

YOUTH HAVE LOTS OF LOVE FOR THE HATE YOU GIVE

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It was exciting to learn that this year’s Reading Together book is written by author Angie Thomas, the inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015. [Ask Me About My 12,000 Kids featured Walter Dean Myers and his 2013 “Reading is Not Optional” visit to Kalamazoo in this post, “Finding Words in Your Pockets.”]

Even more exciting is that Thomas’ book, The Hate U Give, is resonating with our youth. CIS After School Coordinators Phillip Hegwood, Shannon Jones, and Katherine Williamson incorporated the Reading Together Book as part of CIS programming. Hegwood, who oversees CIS afterschool at Maple Street Magnet School says part of the reason for such a strong and positive response from students is due to the powerful themes woven throughout The Hate U Give, themes such as isolation, privilege, racism, violence, and activism.

Here’s what two students from Hillside Middle School told us about how the book has impacted them and what, if given the chance, they would ask the author. (Their school also selected The Hate U Give as their all-school read.) And they just might get the chance! Angie Thomas will be in Kalamazoo on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 7 pm to talk about her book. More information on this event noted below.

 

I’d ask, “Is this a true story? What aspects of this story happened to you?”

I’m gaining some insights from reading her book. You know, like the main character in the book, she is scared to speak up at first. But something I’ve discovered is that it’s important to speak up. Don’t be scared to say what’s right!

-Zechariah, 8th grade, Hillside

 

I would ask Angie Thomas, “How were you able to do this so well? How were you able to compare real life to the life you have created in your book?” She really was able to capture real life—and the world of black and white—so real-like. How was she able to do that?

Reading and seeing the movie, The Hate U Give, is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me. That book by Angie Thomas has really helped me and has given me more courage…I have two copies of the book and watch parts of the movie almost every day!

-Annie, 7th grade, Hillside Middle School

 

“When we read together, we grow together.” This is essentially the motto of Kalamazoo Public Library’s Reading Together program. The Hate U Give, this year’s Reading Together book, is doing just that. So, let’s keep growing together! Please note that the event, originally scheduled to be held at Chenery, will now be at Miller Auditorium. Following Angie Thomas’ talk will be a book signing, with Bookbug/this is a bookstore selling copies of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up, Thomas’ newly-released second book. Hopefully, you have already RSVPd by now. Due to seating capacity, RSVPs are no longer able to be accepted at this time.

Creating Courage

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Kalamazoo Central High School student Leasia Posey at MLK Courage to Create Celebration with Principal Valerie Boggan.

Courage doesn’t just happen. It takes work. Just ask the seventh through twelfth graders throughout Kalamazoo Public Schools who have chosen to participate in MLK Courage to Create. For the past five years, students have had the opportunity to attend “Courage to Create” poetry workshops offered as part of Kalamazoo’s annual MLK Day Celebration held in January at Western Michigan University. They have also been submitting their poems to the MLK Courage to Create Contest. The “Courage to Create” is a collaborative effort of Western Michigan University Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo, Friends of Poetry, and Kalamazoo Public Schools.

As one parent put it, “Courage to Create is more than poetry. It’s about community…I love that my child has an opportunity to not only practice writing, but to share their voice and read at Western with established poets.”

This year’s MLK Courage to Create celebration was held February 20th on the campus of Western Michigan University. Students who participated in the annual MLK Courage to Create contest were invited to read alongside community poets. Those present received college-themed prizes. Ten students whose poems received top scores also received an Amazon Kindle Fire. In addition, for the second year in a row, Hillside teacher Heidi Ellis received the inspirational teacher award for her support of the poetry project. Hillside Middle School was also recognized for having the highest level of school participation. (Watch out Hillside, Loy Norrix was just two submissions shy of taking this honor!)

In the months to come, we’ll publish (in the blog and in CIS newsletter) a few works that students created as a result of this project. In the meantime, here are two Courage to Create poems. Thank you, Leasia Posey and Wayne Bond, for not only your courage to create, but to share your work with us.

Proud to Be Black

I was never proud to be Black.
Maybe my ebony means nothing to me.
Like being in this skin is like being stuck in a nightmare.
Fear gunshots coming at me.
Not being as pretty as I wish I could be.
Being called a royalty.
But I never know because we never talk about Black history as often as we talk about the
Europeans crossing seas and great English writers writing stories
while my brothers and sister were shipped away to what they thought was hell.
Well, let me tell you something that isn’t anything.
Or maybe that is just everything because I wake up feeling like a slave to my own body.
I must change it for a society where I’m not the majority.
I’m minority
I am a minority
The lower class
The topic of conversation
But not the subject of an action
I sit and watch people my age die for nothing.
Killed by hate shot by a gun.
A punch
A word
An action that shouldn’t be made
That’s why when I have my children
I will wish their skin is caramel
Instead of dark chocolate
Because apparently
My skin is bitter
Or maybe we’re sweet.
But they only chose to take the first bite and spit it out.
And not allow all the flavors to cover your tongue
Our history to fill you
And maybe for once
I will be proud to be
Black.

-Leasia Posey

A senior at Kalamazoo Central High School, Leasia has been writing poetry since she was seven years old. For the past two years, Leasia has attended the Courage to Create poetry workshops held on the campus of WMU during the annual MLK Day Celebration. “It has given me a place to express myself,” she says. This was her first year attending the poetry celebration. Alongside local community poets, she read “Proud to be Black,” which was one of the top ten awarded poems. Leasia has completed a poetry manuscript and hopes it will find a publishing home soon. Upon graduation, she is looking forward to using the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship to attend Western Michigan University and study journalism, creative writing, and photography.

Leasia with her mother, Sharondra Posey (left) and her grandparents, Lynn  (on far left) and Daryl Underwood (far right).

Millennial’s Reverie

The fluency
of our time
is dictated by the beat
of a Congress that can’t understand

why our struggles
turn to outrage
and their grip on our throats
finally begins to loosen

It is time
For those fighting for change
to become their potential
and lead into a new Era.

-Wayne L. Bond II

A Career Development Specialist at Western Michigan University, Wayne Bond welcomed the students back in January, introduced the MLK Courage to Create poetry facilitators, and then participated with the students in the MLK Courage to Create Workshop.

What Do You Love?

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We know you love seeing kids succeed. We do too! What else do you love? We polled a few CIS staff. Here is what they said: 

“I love my new apartment, my independence and all these new possibilities that come with that: with designing and laying things out just how I want. I get to be unapologetically me.”

-Laurin Mathis, Administrative Assistant

“I love spring board and platform diving. I was a diver in high school and college. I’m soon to be training for tower diving.”

-Phillip Hegwood, CIS Afterschool Coordinator

“Musical theater!”

-Nicky Aiello, Volunteer and Development Coordinator

“Music and playing guitar.”

-John Oliver, Director of Quality and Evaluation

“A really good book. As I look over the course of my life, it is so enriched by reading.”

-Pam Kingery, Executive Director

“First of all… I love my daughter with all of my heart and soul and am very proud to be her mother. I love all of my family, even with our differences. I love my friends who have become part of my family. Last, but not least, I love each and every one of the students I have and continue to come in contact with and support through my work at KPS and with CIS.”

-Martha Serio, CIS Site Coordinator, Spring Valley Center for Exploration

 “The Great Lakes…still.”

-John Brandon, Partner Services Coordinator

 “I LOVE, my two daughters, Alyssa and Leila.”

-Felicia Lemons, Development Coordinator

 

Come back next week and meet Principal Amira Mogaji, KPS Principal of Northglade Montessori Magnet School. In the meantime, here’s what she shared with us when we asked her this same question:

“Oh, I love so many things! Learning. I know that’s such a principal thing to say, but it’s true. Anybody who knows me knows I love learning. Pizza, too, but I’m gluten-free now.”

–Amira Mogaji, KPS Principal, Northglade Montessori Magnet School

As long as we’re on the subject of love, we love you, dear reader and CIS friend! Thank you for putting love into action by sharing your time, talents, and financial gifts with Communities In Schools. Thank you for working with us to help students stay in school and achieve in life.

 

What We are Made Of

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Angelo’s Mosaic Portrait

Just last week, the national CIS office unveiled What We are Made Of. This collaboration between pop artist Jason Mecier and CIS students has resulted in 3-D mosaic portraits of students that are currently on display at Touchstone Gallery in Washington D.C.  To bring this unique project to everyone, a virtual, interactive version is available here. It’s worth checking out!

We love thinking about what we’re made of. We invited CIS staff to be part of this project. We asked them to tell us what item represents part of what they are made of. Here’s what a few of them said:

Hiking boots and bologna sandwich

My well-worn, hiking boots have been a trusted support, emotionally, as well as physically—encouraging my love of travel and immersion into various communities, along with my best pal, Lisa. And, of course, without the grounding of a bologna sandwich, all experiences would be less than.

-Jenn Miner, CIS Site Coordinator, Kalamazoo Central High School

A suitcase

I made my first journey as an infant with my parents to come to the United States after being adopted by them. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to travel to other places and those experiences have helped me grow as a person and learn to appreciate differences and other points of view.

-Emily Kobza, Sr. Director of Development & Business Engagement

Photo of family

I come from a large family with a supporting and loving mother who I know has shaped the person I am today…caring, giving and loving. Because of the strong love and relationships I have with my family, it makes me the mother and Site Coordinator that I am today.

-Martha Serio, CIS Site Coordinator, Spring Valley Center for Exploration

Coffee

I’m made up of coffee. With a four-year-old and nine-month-old, this mama needs all the help she can get.

-Felicia Lemons, Development Coordinator

Sand Dollar

Its simple shape reflects who I am – what you see is what you get, nothing is hidden. It especially connects me to the salty waters of my Caribbean roots and reminds me of who I am and where I came from.  I have a sand dollar pendant that I always wear and has been with me since I left my home and family many years ago to explore “new waters”… a challenge bigger that I ever imagined… It also reminds me of our human nature and how it doesn’t matter if we are fragile and quiet, we still strive to be resilient, beautiful and unique in our own special way.

-Nazlhy Heredia-Waltemyer, Success Coach, Loy Norrix High School

What are you made of?

Creativity: An Ingredient in Every Child’s Cupboard, Pt. II

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As we discussed in last week’s post, experts who study creativity remind us that creativity is not a magical component bestowed to a lucky few children. By virtue of belonging to the human family, we are all innately creative. That means creativity can be taught and nurtured. But how do we do this?

Fortunately, there are countless ways to unlock and strengthen a child’s innate ability to be a creative thinker. Here are just three ideas.

1. Play the “What else can it be used for?” game.

Round up a common object, such as a stone, a leaf, or a pencil. Spend five minutes listing as many uses for this common object as possible. Not only can this be fun, but a recent study has found that this “alternative use task” can actually improve problem solving!

This finding makes sense. By making the familiar strange, we can see a common object (or problem) from various perspectives. We create fresh views and interesting connections when we imagine possibilities.

One tip: Have kid(s) do this independently. Some studies have found that brainstorming in a group actually produces fewer—and less interesting—ideas than listing them alone. (Brainstorming can still be a good thing for other activities.)

On your mark, get set, go!

2. Find the second right answer.

Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head, says that “By the time the average person finishes college, he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes, and exams. The right answer approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems where there is in fact only one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t this way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers—all depending on what you’re looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.”

Rarely is it the first idea that pops in our mind the best idea. Encouraging kids to look for a second, third, fourth, and even the twelfth right answer, stirs creativity. It builds receptivity to new ideas and considering problems from various viewpoints. Encouraging this type of open-minded thinking also offers a side-benefit: not falling in love with one particular way of doing something.

One simple way we can help kids search for a second right answer is to pay attention to the type of questions we ask. Do we frame questions so that they are open-ended and invite more than one answer?

Why else do you think that might be? What other reasons could there be for that? What other ways could this problem be solved?

[Bonus material: We get better answers if we ask better questions. For example, how many of us have turned to a child we love and asked, How was school today?   This terribly uninspiring question—asked by many well-intentioned grownups—tends to elicit responses like “Good.” Okay.” “Hmmphf.”  Can you think of a better way to ask this question? Let us know and if we get some interesting questions, we’ll test them out with kids and share their responses in a future post.]

3. Practice being impractical. 

Too often, as grownups, we can find ourselves in a “Be Practical” mindset. We shouldn’t waste time devoting energy to useless activities, right? We should be productive, right? For Von Oech, “Be Practical” is a mental block to creativity and can easily be knocked down by posing “What if?” questions. And the sillier, the better.

What if trees grew upside down, with their leaves in the ground and their roots in the air?

What if we walked backwards all day?

What if you could fly for one hour every day?

Asking silly “What if?” questions and answering them (there is more than one right answer!) stretches the imagination. Kids love coming up with these types of questions and answering them. At the same time, it prepares their young minds for asking/answering questions and generating fresh ideas to challenges (both big and small) that will arise throughout their lives.

Remember, each one of us and our 12,000+ kids has creativity as an ingredient in our cupboard. We just need to take it out and use it. We’ve just shared three recipes. Now get cooking!

 

Creativity: An Ingredient in Every Child’s Cupboard

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We recently ran a post, “Curious about Curiosity? noting that, among other things, curious children are better able to grasp basic math and reading than their less curious comrades. Another success ingredient, closely linked to curiosity and also associated with higher academic achievement, is creativity.

What do we mean when we speak of creativity? While uninspiring definitions abound, consider these three definitions on creativity and creative thinkers:

  •  “…. imagining familiar things in a new light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected patterns, and finding connections among unrelated phenomena.”  -Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head
  • “… a process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements and disharmonies as well as identifying, searching for solutions, making guesses or formulation of hypotheses, and possibly modifying and restating them, and experimenting to find results and finally communicating the results.” -John E. Penick, researcher who has studied the relationship between academic success and creativity, author of Teaching with Purpose: Closing the Research- Practice Gap
  • “… the process of bringing something new into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy.” -Rollo May, existential psychologist and author of The Courage to Create

Neuroscientist Tina Seelig teaches courses in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship at Stanford. Too often, she says, the creative process is viewed narrowly, associated with only the arts. She has developed an “Innovation Engine model” to help us think about creativity as both an internal (attitude, imagination and knowledge) and external (resources, habitat, and culture) process. She also offers several intriguing ideas to unleash creativity. You can watch her “Crash Course in Creativity” TEDx talk here.

Before we help kids unlock their creativity, it makes sense to first consider our own relationship with creativity. Here’s some questions to toss around. You can ask these questions in the context of yourself, your team, school, family, or business.

  • Do I/we value creativity?
  • How do I/we think of creativity? Do I/we need to expand my/our view of creativity?
  • When asking a question of others (or ourselves), do I/we wait for that second, third, or fourth right answer?
  • Do I/we tend to explore or judge/shut down unique and odd-ball ideas and questions?
  • How do I/we model creativity? (This doesn’t mean breaking out the oil paints and creating the next Mona Lisa. Rather, dragging out questions like: Do I allow myself to play with questions? Do I ask open-ended questions? Am I willing to take risks with sharing ideas, even if they seem a bit whacky?)
  • Do I/we reward creativity? If so, how?
  • What am I/What are we doing to nurture a culture of creativity in within the home/school/business environment? Am I/Are we doing anything to stifle creativity?

Come back next week, and we’ll offer specific strategies for strengthening children’s innate ability to be creative thinkers. Who knows, you may even reclaim the creative genius locked away inside yourself!

The Gift of Presence

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“The gift of presence is a rare and beautiful gift. To come – unguarded, undistracted – and be fully present, fully engaged with whoever we are with at that moment.” – John Eldredge

 

 

Winter break is almost here. One of our 12,000+ kids can’t wait. He’s looking forward to spending time with his dad. It’s a good reminder that one of the greatest gifts we can give each other is the gift of ourselves. Holidays can be a fun, yet hectic time. It helps to take a minute and breathe in. Breathe out. And be present.

Wondering what fun things there are for kids to do in Kalamazoo over the winter break? Check out this list of “40+ Things To Do During Winter Break Around Kalamazoo” that KZOOkids pulled together.

And of course, on December 31st from 5:30 p.m. to midnight, there is much to enjoy at the annual New Year’s Fest: music, magic, comedy, exhibitions, fireworks, and food. There will be a ball drop & fireworks at midnight in Bronson Park. For event information, go here.

As the days get darker and colder, the holidays can also be a time of stress. People can be affected by feelings of hopelessness, depression, and negative mood. It’s good to know that Gryphon Place has a 24-hour HELP-Line. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, dial 260-381-HELP (381-4357). There is someone who will listen, help you sort through your thoughts, let you know where you can turn for help or can directly send help to you, to help get you through the moment, the hour, the night.

We’re taking a blogging break at Ask Me About My 12,000 Kids and will return with fresh, weekly posts beginning Tuesday, January 8th. Until then, be present and take care!