Participation in CONNECT is a wonderful alternative to a traditional Albany High School education. Rather than taking a variety of unrelated courses of seemingly little value in the real world, CONNECT students take classes with focused curriculum that is applicable outside of the classroom.
Additionally, all students in the program participate in weekly internships and have the opportunity to “connect” what they learn in school to the work they do outside of it.
The internships were the most difficult part of CONNECT to implement because they are off campus and were not integrated into the program until last year. Juliet Chiarella, CONNECT coordinator and English teacher, has been a part of CONNECT since its beginnings at AHS. She said of the interships, “The other teachers and I have done a lot of networking to help the juniors find internships. As seniors, students have more flexibility and independence in choosing their internships.”
The internships are designed to enrich the students’ learning and provide them with real-world work experience that will be highly beneficial to them after high school. The semester-long internships make students aware of the many opportunities available to them in the future and help to develop valuable career skills.
In addition to gaining marketable skills, seniors McKenzie Giblin and Ryan Reynolds have learned about economic and social issues through their internships.
Giblin handles the intake of merchandise and stocking at Mary & Joe’s. At her internship, she has learned about the impact of recessions. She said, “I’ve seen that in a recession, retail is really hard. Princing is harder to figure. They can’t order as much because unfortunately, they aren’t selling as much.”
Reynolds, observes the growing problem of childhood obesity and its relation to sports and exercise at his internship Fairmont Elementary School in El Cerrito. As a P.E. and recess aide, he has found that, “kids need to stay active, but a lot of them usually don’t. They get in to trouble when they are not active, and some of my students are on the way to obesity.”
In some cases, CONNECT students have found employment as a result of their interships. Senior Tommy Kurtz now works at Golden Gate Fields after having an internship there last year. Last year, he primarily prepared food, but now he helps out with hosting parties and events in addition to cooking. Kurtz said of his internship, “CONNECT and my internship opened my mind to things I didn’t think I would want to do. Cooking at the racetrack helped me realize that I want to be a chef.”
The junior and senior CONNECT classes are each comprised of approximately 30 students. The required courses for juniors are English 3, US History, and Design Lab 1, while those for seniors are Senior Composition/Non-Fiction, US Government/Economics, and Design Lab 2. Senior Salman Zaman especially likes the program because, “Everything in CONNECT is related. When we’re reading a book in English, we’re learning about its context in History. We really get an in-depth understanding of each subject.”
In CONNECT classes, there is a large emphasis on group work. Students collaborate on projects, and this has brought them closer together. Zaman especially likes “the homeroom feel of CONNECT.” He added, “There isn’t one person in my class that I couldn’t talk to or ask for help. In CONNECT, everyone is a family and we all help each other out.”
Vice Principal Susan Charlip partnered with current superintendent Marla Stephenson to found CONNECT in 2006 and 2007. Charlip led a group of teachers in creating an interdisciplinary academy-style program in the humanities. Before CONNECT, many students were getting lost jumping from one teacher to another with random course sequencing. The CONNECT curriculum helps students remain focused and has helped most of them improve their grades. During the most recent budget crisis, the school board could have easily swept CONNECT from the budget. However, the board preserved it because it has been largely successful.
Charlip said, “With CONNECT,
we hoped to create a smaller learning community within the school for students not already a part of naturally forming communities at AHS.” Students within the CONNECT community can become involved in the Albany community through their internships. Charlip added, “CONNECT helps us to bring the community into the school and the school into the community.”
With a focused curriculum, the collaborative and interdisciplinary CONNECT program offers students enriching educational opportunities and allows them to become involved in their community and gain valuable work experience through internships. Kurtz said the best part of the program is that, “CONNECT just makes school and learning a lot more fun.”
