AmeriCorps Progress Report
COMPASS School’s Transitional Services Coordinator and teacher, Wallace Hurd, and Kerri-Ann Foley, our Massachusetts Promise Fellow / AmeriCorps Fellow, have been working throughout this academic year on the following services with students:
Four students in the tranisitional classroom are slated to graduate this spring or summer and have been meeting regularly with the Transition staff, investigating post-secondary education and employment opportunities. This spring we are planning on taking some of these students to visit local colleges in which they’ve expressed interest and with whom they’ve made contact, including Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, Curry College, UMASS-Boston, and Massasoit Community College.
With the help of Kerri-Ann, nearly all our high school students have completed resumes and are on their way to completing a fairly comprehensive "Transition Portfolio." Kerri teaches six classes a week, testing a curriculum she has developed for our programs. She’s also reached out into the community looking for partners who share our dedication to helping our students succeed in the classroom, at work and in the world at large.
We’ve had workshops involving outside representatives speaking on topics such as Legal Rights and Professionalism in the Workplace.
As we move into spring, Kerri and Wallace are looking to become involved with more community businesses and to help students apply for summer jobs. They are looking to re-establish a partnership with an automotive repair shop as several students are very interested in pursuing that as a career path. They are also working on becoming involved with local hospitals, as health care remains a growing and diverse industry that presents many options for our students.
They’ll continue to hold an "open office" time during the student elective period, in which students can choose to work on their portfolios or applications to work or post-secondary education; we have averaged 4 students during these periods, which often compete with gym or free time.