If “awesome summer” were a photo, this would be it!
Meet soon-to-be eighth grader Sasha, who has been a participant of The Child Center of NY’s afterschool program at Parsons Community School in Flushing, Queens, since sixth grade. This summer, he participated in Parsons’ Summer Rising program, offered through a partnership between the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and the NYC Department of Education. A free, full-day program for NYC students in kindergarten through eighth grade, Summer Rising provides a combination of academic support, social-emotional learning, and enrichment activities.
Those are the parameters for all Summer Rising programs—but how each program accomplishes this is up to their own creativity and imagination!
The Parsons team chose to center the summer’s activities around the theme “Parsons Goes Hollywood.” Participants engaged in weekly theme challenges such as recreating iconic movie scenes, posters, and props. The movie genre was action the week Sasha’s group earned the winner’s chain!
“Participants and their counselors took the theme and made it like a Hollywood set every week,” recalls Program Director Rafael Florero, noting that they attended to all the details, from costumes and makeup to elaborate set pieces and performances.
In addition to going all in on the Parsons Goes Hollywood theme, participants went on fun and exciting trips, such as United Skates, Dorney Park, and Ferox Ninja Park, and they explored electives such as basketball, soccer, fitness, 3-D printing, music studio, and dance—to name a few!
“This summer has been a standout,” Rafael says. “A huge shoutout to the team at Parsons who made this a great summer and helped bring their participants’ ideas to life.”
