\u201cThey had to think through what they\u2019ve been through, what they didn\u2019t have access to, their struggles, and what they wish they would have known about,\u201d said Sarah Winchowky, project coordinator at the Free Library of Philadelphia. \u201cThe whole purpose of the badging system was to help prepare other teens and preteens, because they were on the other side. They were graduated seniors who were going or had been accepted to college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winchowky added that as the teens brainstormed what skills and knowledge are important for younger kids to graduate high school, they were also reflecting on a set of skills they\u2019d need to prepare for college. For example, a badge for budget skills geared toward younger students led to discussions about financial literacy in college—like how to navigate financial aid and budget for living expenses.<\/p>\n
Although these skills are valuable for every young person heading to college, Winchowky said the support was extra important for the majority of students in the program who were the first in their families to go to college. Those from low-income families, who are also first-generation college students, often face additional hurdles freshman year—from less familiarity with university systems, to less familiarity with the expectations and workload of college. When the Pell Institute (PDF)<\/a> crunched nationwide data, only 11 percent of first-generation, low-income students graduated within six years of enrollment, compared with 55 percent of their more advantaged peers.<\/p>\n But beyond instilling the more traditional, helpful college tips (like the inevitable conflict resolution with roommates), Winchowky said the young people also picked up other skills the program directors hadn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the older students wanted us to tell them what to do all the time,\u201d Winchowky said. \u201c[Being self-directed] was another hidden college readiness skill. And that wasn\u2019t something we anticipated going in.\u201d<\/p>\n The summer was also filled with opportunities for young people to get their hands messy experimenting with STEAM projects—or projects that involve some aspect of science, technology, engineering, art, or math.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of [parts of STEAM] are being cut back in schools, and kids are not getting exposure to them,\u201d said Leslie Birch, a maker mentor with the library\u2019s Maker Jawn Initiative, in a short documentary<\/a> created about the summer program. \u201cBut I don\u2019t even like the word \u2018exposure\u2019 nowadays. Exposure sounds like it\u2019s some sort of disease. I like to think of it as a really happy run-in, or an awesome meet-up.\u201d<\/p>\n Happy run-ins weren\u2019t limited to STEAM. Students also directed videos like a stop-motion work out video<\/a> and two music videos<\/a> for original songs about badges—complete with choreography, sets, and animation.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoy video editing,\u201d said Tarwanda Lewis, who participated at the Lillian Marrero branch, in the documentary. \u201c[Ever since] I first learned it in the first orientation session we did, I\u2019m thinking about going to school for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Photos\/ The Free Library of Philadelphia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The summer before freshman year at college can be tricky—filled with anticipation, transitions, and sometimes nerves. For teens participating in a college preparation program at the Free Library of Philadelphia last summer, it was also filled with making, film production, and creating a set of badges for younger kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,397],"tags":[78,121,128,140,269],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7683"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8260,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683\/revisions\/8260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/PYN-Group-Shot-Picture2.jpg\")
For example, the teen badging specialists worked with younger kids in the library\u2019s Maker Jawn Initiative<\/a> by making or tinkering with art and technology materials. Often, maker projects have no prescribed outcome. Rather, the making process is self-directed, letting kids tinker and make mistakes. But Winchowky said so much of that kind of free exploration has been removed from the teens\u2019 high schools, so for many of them, it was a growth process learning how to direct their own projects based on their own interests.<\/p>\n