SUMMER IS HERE, but the civic learning continues after a Spring semester packed with civic songs, poetry, dance and visual arts. The Civic Circle is pleased to be offering a summer civic arts residency in collaboration with Montgomery Housing Partnership for students attending Odessa Shannon Middle School. Students will explore respect and kindness (Listen!) with visual artist Trisha Gupta, and share their art pieces with younger students as part of summer service-learning.
This continues The Civic Circle’s expansion into the upper grades, which began this Spring with successful pilots at Northwood and Wheaton High Schools in collaboration with Liberty’s Promise, which offers civic learning to immigrant youth. The Civic Circle also wrapped up its after-school workshops for Grades 3-5 through MHP and Excel Beyond the Bell with songwriting on themes like helping others (Join!) and making the world a better place (Act!). Older students then showcased and discussed their civic art with students in younger grades, a great peer-to-peer learning opportunity.
WE BID FAREWELL to Civic Circle Program Specialist Cassidy Little, who just wrapped up an AmeriCorps service year sponsored by Project CHANGE Montgomery. Cassidy joined us in the 2022-23 school year as a classroom teacher, and her role expanded this year to include program administration. Cassidy did a terrific job with our students, and we will miss her. Thanks to Project CHANGE for this opportunity, and for the moving graduation ceremony at the AFI Silver Theater. And congratulations to Cassidy, who will now join the City Teaching Alliance in Philadelphia, a four-year program to both teach and obtain a Master's degree in Teaching.
BIG THANKS TO RTI INTERNATIONAL for its generous $3,500 Community Partnerships Program grant award. RTI International is an independent nonprofit that works to improve the human condition through research, development and technical services. We thank RTI's Tami Mark, a Civic Circle founding board member, for nominating our group for this opportunity. The Civic Circle's commitment to teach students to find the truth and distinguish fact from fiction (Learn!) aligns with RTI's mission to use science-based solutions to solve the world's most critical problems. Thank you, RTI International!
WE ALSO EXTEND GRATITUDE to the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County for its recent $4,410 Programming and Capacity Building Project Grant award. This funding comes at a crucial moment as The Civic Circle lays the foundation for continued growth and long-term sustainability. We thank all our sponsors, including the Newburger-Schwartz Family Foundation, Transform Mid-Atlantic, Montgomery Housing Partnership, Excel Beyond the Bell, Project CHANGE Montgomery, and all the collaborators and individual donors who make this work possible.