New Genesis Success Academy
After School Program
New Genesis Success Academy (NGSA) is modeled after the nationally known “Harlem
Children’s Zone Project” (HCZ). Like Harlem Children Zone, New Genesis focuses on offering
an extended day and year program with additional social services available to support their
families.
NGSA encourages youth to build a strong educational foundation and provides a safe,
structured environment where children can go during peak juvenile crime times between
3:00 pm and 6:00 pm during the school year, and 8:00 am to 6:00 pm in the summer months.
NGSA Tutoring
Our staff here at New Genesis communicates with each child's teacher to receive homework assignments for the week and then strives to ensure each student completed his/her assignments.
Volunteer tutors are also available to help children with their school subjects. Children work on other academic support programs such as web-based "Kid's College: Learning through Sports" education system which delivers MEAP aligned, graphically appealing, interactive sports, computerized games as reinforcement for correct answers on skills assessment with our elementary and middle school students.
Mentoring
The partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) has been an ongoing collaboration since 2007. BBBS will make sure a site-based approach is used to foster academic improvement by linking the mentor to the after-school setting and making education an important component of the mentoring relationship. Mentor matches are a one-to-one mentoring concept with a once-a-week meeting.
Fine Arts and
Fitness Activities
To expose children and youth to fine arts and fitness, NGSA has worked with different local organizations and individuals such the Black Arts Cultural Center, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo River Valley Trail and others. Dance, music, theater, visual arts, biking and team sports are some examples of the opportunities available to the youth who participate in the NGSA.
Technology
As the demand for workers skilled in the sciences, technology, engineering and math continues to soar, educators are developing courses that will prepare children for the 21st century and beyond. NGSA will be working with Southwest Michigan Youth Spark to offer coding for elementary students. This program is an easy introdution to programming for beginners in lower elementary grades. Familiarize students with visual programming techniques. Students' progress through the lessons learning concepts in a game-like interface. To complete each lesson, students typically go through a concept review, solve puzzle, run through a tutorial, build their own project and take a quiz. After completing these lessons students are able to build a wide variety of simple programs with events, loops, and some conditional logic.
