As the nights cool down and our clocks fall back, we want to send your minds off to warmer months––to this past summer’s 小心 program. In June 2021, 小心 offered its first in-person program in two years. 对这些学生中的许多人来说, June was also their first time at a physical school since the pandemic began. 温暖的, sunny month was full of new friendships and skills, from coding and debate to tennis and roller skating. 

For our new community members, 小心 is the School’s cornerstone community engagement program, founded in 1987. 每年夏天, a cohort of first-generation, 大学-bound students from Oakland public middle schools join together at Head-Royce for academic and enrichment classes. Students enter 小心 in 6th and graduate at the end of 9th grade, as socially responsible leaders, ready to tackle high school, 大学, 及以后. 

The 小心 academic courses help prevent the dreaded “summer slide,” a phrase education experts use for the annual learning loss that occurs over break. 夏天的滑梯, which statistically affects BIPOC and low-income families hardest, was especially potent this year, with the disparities between access to technology and in-person school hours, as well as all of the COVID-related fear, 焦虑, 和损失. 大流行期间, 小心 had to freeze its admissions, 2021年, welcomed their biggest incoming class ever: 60 new students. 

“The stakes definitely felt high, 但在第一周, I began morning meeting by modeling that we had every reason to feel equal parts nervous and excited,” said 小心 Director Mikki Frazier. “We committed to ‘naming our nerves’ and working together to support each other.” 

Mikki is also careful to balance fun, social activities alongside academics. 毕竟这是假期! “Leveraging fun is an important part of creating a successful learning environment,” she says. “有个伙伴, 敬爱的老师, or a free-time favorite is a big reason students look forward to coming to campus. We wanted to ensure that these anchors were firmly in place after missing out on the in-person experience the year prior.” 

小心 builds a sense of togetherness between peers and between the student and their teachers, 导师, Head-Royce 上学校 student-volunteers. The first days on campus were a mixture of social 焦虑 and high energy, 作为学生, ranging in age from 11 to 14, readjusted to learning in-person.  

The 小心 roller skating class provides a perfect metaphor for this summer’s trajectory: it was exciting but a little uncomfortable, and with encouragement and continued practice, students were sailing across the gym on one foot. (看看这个 video of the roller skaters 来理解我们的意思!) 

The skating metaphor extends into the classroom as well. Vikram Ramaswamy, 21岁, along with fellow recent grads Jasper Reid, 泰勒黄, Lisa Kopelnik created an online debate program for 小心 in 2020, teaching students who’d never before studied the art of argument. 

Vikram, who also interned for the program, worked with Mikki Frazier to plan the in-person debate curriculum for this year and the five young alumni took turns teaching the class. “It was all entirely volunteer,米琪说, 带着深深的感激, “and the students-teaching-students approach is extraordinarily powerful for all involved.”  

“A few students immediately loved Debate,维克拉姆说。, “but many found it difficult to find their voice––after all, it’s difficult to speak in front of an audience.“维克拉姆, who is now a first-year student at the University of Chicago, fostered a “forum where ideas and opinions were prioritized over pure debate strategy.”  

“Some searched for solutions to gentrification and mass incarceration. Others lit up when arguing about anime or Minecraft,” he said. “I learned it’s possible to approach debate through a lens of community-building rather than adversarial competition, which I intend to incorporate into my own 大学 debate experience.”

整个学年, 小心 students will continue learning, 连接, and growing in four Saturday Leadership Academies. The first of the day-long seminars was on October 16. 学生们学会了设置S.M.A.R.T. goals (see the graphic below), 手工金属丝首饰, 在泳池里游泳, 一直以来, deepened their connections with their friends and 导师. 

Learn more about the 小心 program this Wednesday, 11月 10, 7 p.m. 通过 变焦. 我们希望在那里见到你!