Amari Morgan wants to go to Harvard University to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist. But the first step is fifth grade.
For the next two weeks the Summer Tutorial Extravaganza Program will be helping Amari and other elementary students accomplish these first steps.
STEP prepares local students for the next grade, focusing on reading, comprehension and math skills.
The program, which began Monday, is in its 15th year, and this year’s group of students is its largest.
STEP offers help to students who may have performed poorly on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
Some, but not all, of the students in STEP did poorly on the CRCT, said STEP co-director Laney Stevenson.
Students work on test-taking skills on a computer program called Study Island, but most of the learning takes place in a hands-on classroom setting.
Mike Buck, who works at the Rome City Schools central office, said earlier he expected about 400 students in elementary through middle school to seek CRCT remediation this summer system wide.
Floyd County schools expect about 500 students to seek help this summer.
While numbers for last year were not available, both systems say this summer’s enrollment represents a large increase.
Rome Middle School Teacher of the Year Pam Williams has been a STEP volunteer since the very beginning.
“I love the kids. I love the opportunity to help them know that they can accomplish what they set out to do,” she said Wednesday during classes at the Kelsey-Aycock-Burrell Center on Washington Drive.
Williams, a language arts teacher, will focus on writing and reading comprehension with the fifth- and sixth-graders. As a seventh-grade teacher, Williams knows what they will need to know when they get to middle school.
Henrice Berrian, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, one of the program’s sponsors, has watched many children grow and mature as they go through the program.
“It’s good for the kids to get help in a small setting, away from the classroom, doing something different,” she said.
For the students at STEP, it’s all about daring to be different.
Williams says she loves for students to ask questions. “They need to know it’s OK to be wrong, that you can always learn something new with your mistakes.”
Not everything being taught at STEP will be about mean, median and mode. Stephanie Williamson, counselor for Main Elementary, teaches arts and crafts.
As they create door decorations with foam letters and glitter, rising second-graders Morgan Kendrick and Shemaiah Pinson declare reading, math and arts and crafts as their favorite subjects.
Briana Jolly, a sixth-grader and aspiring science teacher, helps Morgan and Shemaiah with their art projects. “I like being around the kids,” she said. “They crack me up.”
The fifth- and sixth-graders will make a trip to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute at the close of camp. Many of the students have already studied the civil rights movement in school. “They’ll be able to see a bus used by the Freedom Riders, the 16th Street Baptist Church, and things that were a part of that time,” said Stevenson.
Whether they want to be teachers, actors, astronauts or certified registered nurse anesthetists, STEP is working to help students achieve their goals.
“That’s the biggest thing,” Williams said. “We’re helping kids set a goal and reach for it.”
