Combating Social Isolation with Virtual Crew
To ensure peer support and teacher advising structures are uninterrupted.
For so many of our students, the school building is a safe haven of support and belonging and the transition to home learning can create many risks for their mental health and well-being. A critical part of our educational approach is the creation of supportive school cultures where each student is known and cared for. At the heart of this approach is Crew, our signature advisory structure in which a small group of students and a teacher meet together daily to support each other and build a sense of belonging. We are deploying additional resources and supports to ensure that the Crew structure across our schools is not only functioning on a virtual level during this time, but serves as a powerful antidote to the crisis students are facing.
Keeping Seniors on Track for College
By giving college counselors timely resources and coaching.
We are providing our college counselors with extra support to respond to the rapidly changing environment in which students are making their college decisions and finalizing their financial aid paperwork. We are giving them tools to do this work virtually and partnering with counterparts at other organizations to gather timely information and resources related to college admissions.
Offering a Virtual Lifeline for Alumni
1:1 support as many adjust to their college education moving online.
We are working to identify and assist students who might be in crisis, and we are giving our Crew Mentors (our near-peer mentors for students in college) additional training on how to operate in this environment.
Coaching Teachers & School Leaders
Ensuring online lessons are still deeply engaging, rigorous, and meaningful.
Our schools have had to make a sudden pivot to remote learning and the teachers and school leaders in those schools have been working around the clock to react to this shift in a number of ways, including technology setup and training, adjustment of instructional methods, curriculum changes, etc. In an effort to be as responsive as possible to our schools’ needs, we have been redeploying our staff to help our schools make this adjustment with a focus on adapting their curriculum and individual lessons to be as engaging and meaningful as possible for students in remote environments, where attention can be difficult to sustain.