APRIL 2015
NEWSLETTER
BRINGING THE FUTURE CLOSER
RehabCare Mentor Lauren with her student Julia

As UrbanFUTURE continues to enhance its programming model to prepare city school students for the workforce, we are placing more emphasis on our Real World Business Partner (RWBP) relationships. These relationships provide our students the necessary exposure to people working in a myriad of jobs that await them.  Through RWBPs, students learn what suits them for future job opportunities and what classroom subjects pertain specifically to the jobs they could be interested in. At the schools, the embedded UrbanFUTURE staff is then able to work with the student on aligning future career interests with current classroom responsibility. A key RWBP with us this year has been RehabCare, a division of Kindred Healthcare. RehabCare has dedicated its staff to mentoring our young students, as well as providing career speakers, DiscoveryLab presenters and field trip tour guides. Volunteers from our business partnerships ensure that UF students are working with career-driven folks that can share their knowledge of the workforce and their chosen profession. We know the model we are forging with RehabCare will allow us to connect with other local corporations to create these valuable and exciting career pipelines for our students!

 

April also brought us the ThurtenE Carnival at Washington University! This year, we had the distinct honor of being selected as the Community Partner for 2015 Carnival. Not only will we receive the net profits from the 3-day event, but we also had the opportunity for our students to perform on stage at the Carnival on Friday afternoon. After their dance performances, we all enjoyed the thrilling rides and tasty concessions - what a fun weekend! Thank you again to ThurtenE, your support of our programming will make a difference in our students' futures. View all pics from the carnival here.

UF Students enjoy the ThurtenE Carnival
Coming up in mid-May we will once again celebrate our students' amazing accomplishments with two Award Banquets. Please join us for the ceremony and a buffet dinner to follow!

Tuesday, May 12th at 5pm
Busch Middle School - 5910 Clifton Ave, 63109

Wednesday, May 13th at 5pm
Fanning Middle School - 3417 Grace Ave, 63116

We'd love for you to join us as we commemorate another year of enriching, educating and enlivening our urban youth, to lead them on a path to a career in tomorrow's workforce.

Sincerely,

Frank Van Bree
 
President/CEO
UrbanFUTURE

Our students visited St. Louis Public Radio this month
FANNING MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

UrbanFUTURE students at Fanning enjoyed a jam-packed April! One of our newest and most popular DiscoveryLab classes is our Future Leaders in Engineering Class where students tackle small engineering projects with hand-on solutions. This month, over half of all UrbanFUTURE students were in a STEM-related DiscoveryLab class!
 
This month we also took a very exciting field trip to St. Louis Public Radio headquarters in Grand Center. Kids toured the offices and learned about all that it entails to produce radio programming. They even had the chance to have their voices recorded and edited by executive producer Mary Edwards! Thank you Ms. Edwards and St. Louis Public Radio staff for taking the time to educate us about radio broadcasting. We now have a number of very interested, budding broadcasters in our midst!

Explore! Careers in April brought us Mark Schlake, a Community Relations Associate at Ameren Missouri who spoke about customer relations and keeping your cool in tense situations. We also welcomed Elizabeth Adamecz of Monsanto who spoke about plant research methods, as well as techniques for growing crops safely and efficiently. Stephen Beishir of Monsanto stopped by earlier in April and had our students do DNA extraction on strawberries. Students even got to keep their DNA in take-home test tubes!

**FANNING SUCCESS STORY**
Seventh grader JayQuise Williams
JayQuise Williams, is a bright and motivated 7th grader at Fanning Middle School. 

As a member of our Robotics team, JayQuise has a strong interest in science, and his favorite DiscoveryLab class is "Wacky Science" where they run fun experiments each week. He hopes to continue to feed his love of science by studying to be a Marine Biologist!

JayQuise also enjoys Explore! Careers class, specifically having speakers come in to share their experiences with students. One of things that he values about joining UF is the time spent with his mentor, Mr. Perkins. He has allowed him to grow and learn from others in his mentoring group! 

If you would like more information about mentoring, contact Jennifer at jennifer@urbanfuturestl.org
BUSCH MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS
Learning about the recording equipment at the
Library's digital maker space

We had excellent academic momentum going into April, and our students kept it up throughout the month earning a total of 95 blue ribbons on their online tutoring software Study Island. This shows us that they are working hard to accomplish their academic goals - way to go, kids!

UrbanFUTURE staff and students were busy with field trips this month - first visiting the historic site Cahokia Mounds and learning all about most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico. We also had a fun visit to the St. Louis Public Library's Creative Experience digital maker space where our kids recorded themselves reading their own poetry. The coolest part is that anytime they want to come back, they can use these digital work stations absolutely free!

We also welcomed several extraordinary guest speakers, including Sam Maul of Shock City Studios who spoke about his career as a Producer and Recording Engineer. Later on in April, Sherri Becklmen and Brian Feldt of the St. Louis Business Journal came through to speak about their careers in Journalism. Lastly, we were so happy to have Burnea Lester of Devry University visit our students to speak about their career goals and how they plan to reach them. Thanks to all for a great month of career speakers!

**BUSCH SUCCESS STORY**
Star Volunteer Lauren Grimes
Lauren Grimes is a student at Webster University, and a she has been a reliable and consistent volunteer during Discovery Lab classes and tutoring since the beginning of programming. 

She has gotten to know our students and has formed a bond with them. Lauren is flexible and will take on any Discovery Lab class or tutoring subject that needs to be tackled. She is always willing to fill in wherever needed. 

She has been an essential part of programming this year, and we are very grateful to have had her at Busch!

If you would like more information on volunteering with UrbanFUTURE, contact jennifer@urbanfuturestl.org

8th grader Javon Harris
UrbanFUTURE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Meet Javon Harris

Javon is an 8th grader, at Busch Middle School and is headed to Clyde C. Miller Career Academy next year! He is a very motivated student, and is always ready to take advantage of any opportunity that is offered to him. Javon is always willing to help out teachers and his peers, often without being asked!

Javon is a member of the D.C. Research class, and this will be his second year traveling with us to Washington D.C.  Javon is also a member of the Berklee City Music class taught by Mr. Layton, who performed with the members of this class at Rebel Rock. 

Continuing to feed his love of music, Javon is also a member of our drum line, and he has greatly enjoyed learning how to play different beats and rhythms. He loves working with his hands, which is why he wants to build high-performance cars when he grows up. It's been a pleasure having you part of UrbanFUTURE the last few years Javon, we will see you this Fall at Clyde C. Miller!

UrbanFUTURE HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM NEWS
 
UF Students at the 2015 SuperMileage Challenge

SuperMileage Challenge Team
A group of UrbanFUTURE High School students from Clyde C Miller ventured out to Warrensburg, MO on April 14th to check out to the 2015 Missouri Supermileage Challenge in preparation for next year's competition. We had a great time learning all about this year's competition.


Monsanto Field Trip

The UrbanFUTURE Robotics Team from Carnahan High School toured the  Monsanto Company Research Center this month where they learned about robotics in the workplace and sustainable agriculture. A fun wrap-up to a stellar first season for the UrbanFUTURE C-Bots!

UF Robotics students visit Monsanto


 

UF High School Website

Visit www.urbanfuturehighschool.org for up to date information on all the happenings in our High School Program. Also follow us on Facebook and stay connected! 

UrbanFUTURE High School Career Manager, Anthony Lemons, can be reached at anthony@urbanfuturestl.org or 314-309-2525.
 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Award Banquets
Coming up in May we will once again celebrate our students' amazing accomplishments with two Award Banquets. Please join us for the ceremony and a buffet dinner to follow! RSVP by the day of the event to Stephanie at  stephanie@urbanfuturestl.org or 314-480-3726.

Tuesday, May 12th at 5pm
Busch Middle School - 5910 Clifton Ave, 63109

Wednesday, May 13th at 5pm
Fanning Middle School - 3417 Grace Ave, 63116


Mentor Forum
We have created a private online mentor forum for volunteers who wish to sign on and connect with other volunteers, share experiences, and support each other. All mentors should have received an email invitation, however if you did not or need help signing on contact Eleanor at eleanor@urbanfuturestl.org or 314-480-3730.
 

YOU CAN HELP!

1. Career Connector or Career Speaker
Allow UrbanFUTURE students to come to your workplace for a field trip, job shadow or internship. Or, visit one of our middle schools and speak to the class about your personal career path. You can also volunteer to teach a class to our students!
 
2. Mentor
Volunteer just one hour a week at our middle schools as a mentor, with a focus on literacy, goal setting and character development. Or, mentor a high school student and focus on career development. 

3. Tutor
Help UrbanFUTURE students excel in school by tutoring kids in either Communication Arts or Math. All students benefit from the personal attention and extra help.
 
4. Become an UrbanCHAMPION
Invest in our urban students and help level the playing field for underexposed kids. It costs $3,000 per year for us to provide the full UrbanFUTURE experience to each student. Please make a monetary tax deductible donation via our secure website - YOP tax credits are available!
 


UrbanFUTURE
2823 Olive Street
St. Louis, MO 63103
314.776.3434