Kelli Stanley, assistant principal at Ariel Community Academy in Kenwood, has seen the positive impact the University of Chicago’s long-running Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP) has had on her school’s students and teachers firsthand. UChicago students, who work with kids individually and in small groups through the program, benefit as well.
Six NSP students visited Ariel weekly throughout the last school year, serving as tutors and teaching assistants at the public elementary school.
“The kids have really gravitated toward our tutors,” Stanley said. “The tutors’ personalities were very open and caring and the Ariel students felt very comfortable with them. They looked forward to them coming and our teachers embraced them as well.”
The University students expose younger students to the college experience in a tangible way.
This past spring, an NSP participant brought 10 Ariel eighth graders to her UChicago philosophy class and gave the group a tour of campus. Stanley and her team used the field trip as a jumping off point to talk to their students about college readiness and what they would need to focus on throughout high school to make college an attainable goal, should they decide to go.
“I felt like I was on a college campus tour with incoming college freshmen, not eighth graders, just because of how excited they were and the kids were like, ‘Ms. Stanley, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t even want to come to this, I thought it was going to be so boring and this has been the greatest day ever, I can’t wait to go to college and be on campus,’” Stanley said. “Really our hope [with sitting down with the group afterward] was to plant the seed before they went to high school so that they went to high school with a stronger focus.”
Working with NSP students has helped Ariel teachers to focus as well, Stanley says. In addition to the tailored classroom support and one-on-one and small group tutoring they offer, the relationships the teachers build with the University students allow for professional reflection and mentoring opportunities that Stanley encourages.
“The teachers benefit from digging deep within themselves and understanding why they do this so they can explain to someone else, which I think helps keep teachers passionate about what they’re doing,” she said. “Sometimes if we don’t have those moments, we can actually get a little burned out, so I feel like NSP helps my teachers stay passionate and on their toes.”
Stanley has worked closely with NSP leadership to ensure the partnership empowers participating University students as well. Specifically, she sat down with all NSP employees and volunteers at the beginning of the school year and implemented a data collection process so the students could measure growth throughout the year and practice documenting their work and holding themselves accountable as they enter the professional world. The approach makes sense for a school that was founded with a financial literacy focus but will be useful regardless of the careers students pursue, Stanley says.
Ultimately, working with NSP and the University more broadly has connected Ariel students, teachers, and families with University people, programming, and resources and forged an important relationship Stanley looks forward to building on in years to come.
“With those types of partnerships, we do see that we’re a community and we’re all here to support one another,” she said. “I feel like the NSP program just brings us closer to each other, and it’s an avenue for us to really enjoy each other as a community.”
