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| | Pathways students observe closely during the first day of the auto maintenance program. |
AN EXPANDING PARTNERSHIP
 Several years ago, Transition Specialist Anthony Hamm established a partnership between Pathways and the City of Greenbelt that gives Pathways students experience in the field of environmental conservation and benefits the city's parks and green spaces. At first, Pathways students volunteered doing odd jobs such as pulling invasive plants. As they demonstrated their enthusiasm and reliability, the variety of jobs they did grew so that now the students have become a significant support for the environmental arm of the City's Department of Public Works.
This year the partnership is expanding beyond parks and environment to include vocational training in auto maintenance. Four Pathways students from three sites will work with a professional auto technician and be supervised by a master mechanic as they work on vehicles owned by the City of Greenbelt in its large garage at the Department of Public Works. At the end of the program the students will receive a letter stating that they have successfully completed technical training in auto maintenance.
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HOMEWORK CLUB
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| | Boylu Deganso and Mr. Leventhal at homework club |
For some if not most students it can be a challenge to get organized and focus on a game plan for completing homework. That's why the Homework Club came into being at Pathways-DuVal Re-Entry three years ago, and why it has been going strong ever since. Since most Pathways students depend on the public school buses to get home and therefore cannot stay after school, the Club's creative solution was to meet during lunch. This has the added benefit of incentive: Pathways provides a small lunch, the ticket for which is a completed homework task with the appropriate entry checked off in the student's homework agenda notebook. The Club offers a quiet space in which to work and access to computers. Unless they are involved in a group homework assignment, the students work individually without distracting music, social media, or conversations. Everyone at Pathways-DuVal is supportive of the Club. Teachers stop in during their own lunch hour, heating up their microwave items and staying to help. It's no wonder that the Club is popular. It's available Monday through Thursday and always has at least two or three students each day, with many more when there is a big project or near the end of the quarter. At those times, the Homework Club has quite a full house, and spills beyond the lunchroom to the resource room. While the Homework Club has been helpful for every student, it is a particularly beneficial for those who find the large cafeteria intimidating or who need a small, quiet, success-oriented environment.
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Another story of the Pathways-Greenbelt partnership centers on an effort to promote "zero waste". Pathways student volunteers constructed a prototype zero waste station that was tested at the Greenbelt Public Works annual holiday party. The station was designed to guide behavior towards properly separating recyclables from compostable materials and landfill waste. It worked! At the end of the party, the landfill waste bin weighed only 3.2 pounds of mainly plastic utensils. A total of 11.2 pounds of recyclables were properly sorted and recycled. The majority of the holiday party's waste was 24.8 pounds of compostable napkins, paper plates and food scraps, which were ultimately delivered to Prince George's County Composting Pilot Program.
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Pathways Therapists Stay Current and Informed:
Clinical Coordinators Trudy Portewig and Carol Frank asked Pathways therapists what areas of research and study would be most helpful to them in their work with our students. In response to the answers, they arranged for award-winning professor and psychiatric nurse Pamela Marcus to head up a Professional Development Seminar with Pathways therapists in early January. Marcus, based in Maryland, is well known here and nationally for her evidence- and clinical-based assessments and strategies in several areas, including self-injurious behaviors. The seminar was attended by the entire Pathways therapeutic team and was held at DuVal High School in a space provided by Prince George's County Public Schools. A skilled and engaging presenter, Marcus described the latest brain research and offered practical strategies for responding to the pressures and circumstances experienced by young people in today's society and peer culture.
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A NOTE THAT MADE OUR DAY:
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"We would like to say thank you for being patient, believing in each child, developing their strengths, repeating yourself over and over and for coming back every day. Each of you imparts a little something to the kids that sticks."
--parent of a Pathways student
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