Overview

Our approach to learning is intentional, driven by acknowledgement of students for their accomplishments, and is collaborative with families and community organizations. C&C has been designed with the best principles from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (Hall, Israel, & Short, 2004) including:

• Informal learning experiences are engaging, relevant, and allow some measure of self-direction.
• Informal learning experiences increase in rigor and or variety across the duration of student involvement
• Informal learning experiences connected to students’ day-school learning experiences so that they see the relationship between formal and informal learning
• Time and energy is devoted to developing a community of learners among the participants.
• Students feel a sense of independence as part of their participation in the program.
• Youth voices are listened to and incorporated into the decision making process.
• Youth have an opportunity to interact with community members and leaders.
• Schools are active partners.
• Youth are introduced to the world outside their local neighborhoods.
• Parent or guardian engagement increases likeliness of student retention and success.
• Business, university and school community support is a critical part of the program design as this support allows access to human and financial resources.

Partnerships

We involve partners and community stakeholders, including our parents and youth, in our planning process. Partnerships are successful only when the needs of each partner organization are considered and met. We use a strategy called participatory reform in which all partners become planners and stakeholders in the C&C effort.

To that end, we have formed very strong partnerships with many organizations that help make C&C a reality each summer. We recognize our partners’ needs through our communication and history with them and we work to enhance the mission and vision of each partner’s organization. Those partners include Atlanta Urban Ministries, Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County Public Schools, the Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Emory Nursing School, Emory Admissions Office, Emory Senior Vice Provost Offices External Academic Affairs and for Community and Diversity, Emory Dining, Emory Medical School and the Georgia Afterschool Investment Council.

If you would like to partner with us, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!

MAT program

One of the cornerstones of the Division of Educational Studies is to prepare new teachers to work with diverse pupils in an urban setting. To that end, the C&C program provides a theory/practice learning opportunity for the graduate students who are preparing to become middle and high school teachers through our Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. Each summer approximately 21 graduate preservice students (MATs), as part of a graduate course in education that they take with the C&C Director, Dr. Karen Falkenberg, act in the role as assistants and observers to the 4 academic lead teachers who are teaching the middle grades pupils. One of our lead teachers is the MAT mentor leader. All of the academic lead teachers and Dr. Falkenberg mentor the MATs.

Download our brochure here

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