The Liberty Partnerships Program (LPP) hosted its annual cookout over spring break and invited its students to a lodge and park in Brighton for a day full of relaxation, food, and games. Everyone had a blast trying a new method of tie-dye T-shirts and socializing outside of school and tutoring. The next day, students had the opportunity to go on a college tour to St. Bonaventure. Students enjoyed the change of scenery and marveled at the vast expanse of farmland on the bus ride out to the campus. Current St. Bonaventure students conducted tours of academic buildings, residence halls, the library, the dining commons, and the gym. Later, LPP students listened to a presentation on admissions and the Higher Education Opportunity Program. This trip made many students more excited about the prospect of going to college!
Later in the week, four LPP students were invited to attend the annual statewide Empire Youth Summit in Albany. They spent two nights there and had opportunities to participate in workshops about college readiness and to tour the state capital. All LPP students were nominated for awards, and one of our 10th grade students from Edison High School was selected as the winner of the LPP All Star Award for most growth while in the program.
Over the past two months, MCC LPP students have also been working on a project with WXXI and other teen groups from across the county. The program is called “Re: Dream” and it is a community project to see how youth across Monroe County interpret success, how to become successful, as well as how to define the American Dream in the 21st century. The project is a national initiative lead by Kansas City Public Television, with hopes to better understand the changing views of our youth in America, and how aspects of their individual identities help them reach their goals. LPP students attended workshops in March and April to learn about Re: Dream and meet with the other teen teams. Their role was to bring a large banner to DCC and post it so community members could write their goals and dreams for everyone to see. The banner provided a unique visual of the diversity of aspirations the DCC community has, as well as serving as inspiration for students who may be struggling to figure out their own dreams.
For more information regarding the national project, check out their website at:
https://redreamproject.org/ .
Most recently, the Imagine RIT festival provided an amazing opportunity for a number of LPP students to tour the campus and see what innovative projects have been worked on at RIT this year. In addition to celebrating the amazing work of RIT students and faculty, an LPP student was selected as a top four contestants out of 70+ entries in the Wordistry contest. Students across Monroe County were given three made up words and were asked to define each. One of our 10th graders from the PTech program at Edison was awarded first place and won an ipad!
We are so proud of the range of activities our students have been busy with this spring, and cannot wait to see what they accomplish this summer! LPP will be hosting our summer enrichment program here at DCC from July 6th through July 28th.
Liberty Partnerships Program is funded by the New York State Department of Education.