Aidan Stroud is a third year P-Tech student in Excelsior Academy. His favorite extracurricular activities are Track & Field and the Cyberpatriot club. Cyberpatriot asks students to identify and prevent damaging problems on a virtual machine which allow hackers to easily break into the computer. Aidan hopes to bring back what he learns while in Ecuador to help make Newburgh a better place.
Colton Andress is currently working towards his Eagle Scout ranking. He is a kind and caring young man who enjoys helping others and is very much looking forward to working as a Project Manager on his Eagle Scout project at Casa Victoria.
Gabriella Estrada is an exceptional writer who always strives to be a better person. She volunteers often and is always looking for ways to be involved. Gabby teaches coding at the Armory and enjoys working with young kids. She can’t wait to see what the world has to offer.
Liliana Cardoso is a latina living in Newburgh, New York and is a P-Tech student at Excelsior Academy. She is a curious, silly, caring and adventurous girl who enjoys doing community service and learning new things. Lili is very excited to travel to Ecuador volunteer at Casa Victoria. She is looking forward to applying her skills and aims to bring back new ideas, passions and skills.
Nestor Luis, an 11th grader at P-Tech, breathes oxygen with a mixture of nitrogen. In order to sustain life, he consumes biodegradable matter. He hopes to bring his scientific intelligence and nerdiness to the people of the world.
Brendin Skakel has been interested in computer science since he was in middle school. An avid writer, he enjoys helping his peers. He is self-driven and the oldest of a family of seven. In his spare time, Brendin likes to read and innovate in his bedroom workshop.
Alejandro Juarez is a first-generation American and the youngest of his two siblings. He is interested in science and volunteering and is looking forward to working the youth at Casa Victoria.
Maribel Ramos is a third year P-Tech student at Excelsior Academy. She likes to challenge herself and gain valuable leadership qualities throughout all of her experiences. She is exited to interact with members of a foreign local community , to gain a better understanding of the culture, as well as the issues that affect that part of the world.
Jason Solis, our resident soccer star, is all about communication and teamwork. He likes to stay healthy and active and looks forward to exploring the world and educating others about the things that interest him.
Ignacio Salim is pursuing a career in computer science and currently teaches coding to underserved youth at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center. A budding entrepreneur, he is excited to apply the knowledge and skills he has to help youth in a foreign country.
Aboya Omot made the varsity basketball team in ninth grade. She is an avid athlete, whose parents grew up in Ethiopia and who dreams of being a biomedical engineer. She joined Global to Local because she loves learning about other cultures and looks forward to strengthening her leadership skills while abroad.
Addison Lima is a first generation Mexican-American student in the Excelsior program. He would like to study technology and likes to hop on a computer and familiarize himself with coding and the programming which makes a computer run. He likes to hang out with friends and help the community through community service. He is excited for Ecuador because it will help him become a better youth leader in the city of Newburgh.
Taina Caballero is an avid dancer who loves a good challenge. In her eleventh grade year of high school, she is taking college classes through the P-Tech program and looks forward to learning about other cultures.
Cindy Vaquero is a third year student in Excelsior Academy P-Tech. She is ambitious in her education goals and passionate with children. She loves to be active in her community. Cindy is excited to go to Ecuador to interact with the children and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to inspire others to make remarkable changes in Newburgh NY.
To build the global component into our program in a meaningful way, while honoring our overarching goal of having students use their new perspective to serve their own community, we will create a structure that builds towards both their Global Service Learning experience, as well as a local, culminating project. The structure will be as follows for our first cohort (subsequent cohorts will follow a similar timeline):
Year One (2014-15): Students were invited to develop an understanding of community service through participation in and reflection upon local volunteer experiences. At the end of year one, students were expected to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the issues facing their local community and present research on a self-selected issue.
Year Two (2015-16): Students have continued local volunteer work. During the summer, they corresponded virtually with educators traveling to Ecuador and Galapagos.
Year Three (2016-17): All Excelsior students will fundraise to pay for student service-learning in Ecuador. Students will continue local volunteer work, and interested students will apply for the international service-learning component of Global to Local.
Ongoing: The Student Advisory Board meets weekly, focusing on fundraising and planning the trip.
November 15, 2016: Applications for service-learning in Ecuador are due. A parent information session will scheduled.
December, 2016: The selection committee will meet; it is made up of various stakeholders from the Newburgh School District, SUNY Orange and IBM. Names will be removed for the first read, and a rubric will be utilized for sorting. Interviews will be scheduled with all eligible candidates.
December 20th, 2016: Students will be selected for program and notified. One additional chaperone will be selected from the Excelsior staff to accompany students abroad. Program Coordinators will keep in continual contact with service partners to establish program dates and activities.
January, 2017: An awards ceremony will be held to honor selected students and faculty, and students will speak publicly for the first time about their goals in the program.
February, 2017: Selected students will create blogs, and research issues impacting the community where they will be volunteering. Additional parent meetings will be held, detailing the goals and expectations for participants.
March, 2017: Students will sign contracts detailing requirements of trip, as well as obligations as Project Managers for Community Impact Projects in the following year. Requirements such as securing passports and vaccinations must be met.
April, 2017: All fundraising must be completed by April 30th. Plane tickets will be purchased and plans with Casa Victoria will be finalized.
May-June 2017: Students will make all final preparations for travel.
Year Four (2017): Students will reflect on their experience in Ecuador, while planning and initiating a local volunteer project in our city. Students will work in groups to design, enact and assess Community Impact Projects and present their work in a community forum. Students will also mentor younger participants and help them to prepare for their global service-learning experience.
September, 2017: Upon their return from their global service-learning project, students will participate in a forum which will provide them with a chance to share their reflections on their experiences and what they learned. All students will brainstorm potential projects and invite potential community partners to meet. Based on interest, students will form groups, each with a project leader who participated in the international service-learning trip.
October, 2017: Students will begin to plan their Community Impact project, and will offer ways for interested mentors, students and community members to offer their input, support and involvement. Students can apply for micro-grants of up to $500 as necessary to implement their project. (In future years, teachers and mentors will support students in applying for outside grant funding.)
November, 2017: Students will continue work on their Community Impact Projects, regularly assessing impact and reflecting upon the process.
December, 2017: Towards the end of the project implementation period and once students have reflected upon their own projects and are ready to share their insights with the community, they will host an evening in which they share their project presentations with the community. At this point, students may present completed projects or may present plans for how they are continuing the projects into the future.
This timeline is subject to change as needed.
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