Announcement
Students were excited to make new friends and join the fun at this summer’s 23rd annual Newcomer Youth Summer Academy (NYSA)! This year's NYSA ran for five weeks from July 11 to August 16.
109 students attended lower and upper school classroom cohorts. The majority of students recently arrived in the past months or have been here a little over a year. If you are familiar with NYSA, you’ll know that building school readiness in students through academics, social-emotional learning, and the arts is the foundation of NYSA programming.
In the classroom, students are supported by the Academic Lead Teacher, Classroom Culture Lead Teacher, and two Peer Mentors. The classroom staff-to-student ratio helps to shape the experience, allowing for individual and tailored learning supports and improved engagement. Most of all, this balance ensures learning continuity, which supports students’ English language acquisition and empowers students’ individual learning styles.
Students learned social studies, English, math, and science, and participated in elective clubs such as table tennis, karaoke, board games, and more. In science, students learned about pollination, gravity, and light photosynthesis.
Friday Field Trips and Wednesday Community Events included: a scavenger hunt, concert, talent show, fashion show, and trips to the Central Park Zoo, Arts Games, Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Natural History.
Field Trip Fridays!
Photo: Melissa Horowitz
L.I.G.H.T: Building Confidence
To build confidence in the classrooms, students engaged in an engaging NYSA chant and participated in class spirit. This year’s theme was LIGHT: Light. Innovation. Gratitude. Heart. Teamwork. It stands for:
-Leadership - enabling others to act; activating teamwork; delegating work; and modeling positive behaviors.
-Innovation - finding a creative way to solve a problem; thinking out of the box; showing curiosity.
-Gratitude - saying thanks; showing appreciation for others' actions.
-Heart - being brave; staying positive; showing compassion for another student or staff member.
-Teamwork - open communication, working well together, encouraging and supporting each other.
Teachers reinforced these values by praising students for their accomplishments, further building our positive classroom and school culture.
Bringing L.I.G.H.T. to NYSA
Photo: IRC in NY
No Single Story: Building Community
Beyond school readiness, students had the opportunity to build community. NYSA partnered with Arts Ignite to bring dedicated art lessons to students’ afternoons. This partnership is going strong into its 13th year and the IRC in NY is so grateful for the immense talent and dedication of Arts Ignite’s teachers.
NYSA also weaves storytelling into social-emotional learning (SEL) classes, which are designed to help students find ways to develop coping skills, build friendships, and better collaborate with their peers. This year, Upper School students engaged with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s talk: The Danger of a Single Story (Ted Talk, July 2009). One of the many culture shocks of moving to New York City can be the wide cultural diversity. In recognizing that students may come from homogenous communities and arrive with preconceived opinions and ideas that may not reflect the welcoming climate of NYSA, staff have taken an active stance in cultivating new outlooks.
In class, students shared their interpretation of the message:
“The risk of a single story, the one perspective is that it can lead us to standard assumptions, conclusions, and solutions that may be incomplete and misunderstood.”
-Upper School 3 Student
“It can be dangerous because we know only one side's opinion, we don’t know all opinions to know the whole story.”
-Upper School 1 Student
Hear from Peer Mentors
In every NYSA class, peer mentors support with translation, explain assignments, and provide encouragement and motivation. Two of our peer mentors, Hui and Nftaliem, have also previously attended NYSA as students. In addition to serving as peer mentors, they were part of Leaders in Training (LIT), a school-year program for high school juniors and seniors to improve college access and career readiness. This upcoming fall, both Hui and Nftaliem are preparing to start college. Hui is interested in film and Nftaliem wants to learn finance. They took a moment to step out of their classrooms to share their reflections about NYSA with the community during the NYSA 2023 tour:
Hui: In my first year of arrival, my school counselor emailed me information about this NYSA program. At this point, I joined NYSA as a hybrid student learner because of the pandemic. As a student, I really enjoyed the opportunity to see new places in NYC and become more familiar with this new city. Through this experience, I became less shy to speak English. It is a high responsibility to teach others. As a peer-mentor, I get the amazing opportunity to practice my teaching and language skills to help students.
Nftaliem: I really enjoy giving back and connecting with our students. I heard about this program through a friend who like myself arrived here and was looking for a fun program. I see how students may feel scared to raise their hand and it's nice to let them know that they can ask for help.
More Reflections:
NYSA Graduation & What comes next
August 11 was the last day of NYSA and the IRC in NY celebrated the end of this program together with the students. Students were excited to rehearse for their graduation so their loved ones could see them shine. IRC's support doesn’t end with NYSA. Students can continue to work toward their learning goals in various youth programs at IRC in NY such as School Success Coaching, Tutoring, LIT, and our Youth ESL courses (pilot program launching this fall).
Soaking in the charm of Central Park Zoo
Photo: Melissa Horowitz
Students left NYSA with meaningful intercultural friendships and the tools to navigate the upcoming school year alongside school readiness skills they can apply to their learning. The IRC in NY wishes our students future success and growth!
The IRC in NY is also grateful to the Gray Foundation and the Hays Foundation for their generous support and dedication to NYSA programming. The IRC in NY is also grateful for the Refugee School Impact Program grant under the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, for further expanding the staff capacity of NYSA. Check out this year’s spring break mini-NYSA to see how NYSA continues to expand, and check out last year’s NYSA story!