Back to School Picnic

RCLC’s AnnualBack to School Picnic

Lets TalkFootball ...Parkingand The IrishExperience

ChicagoBlackhawksVisit the RCLC

Red RibbonMarchThe RCLCTakes a stand against drugs

Celebrating a Community HeroMarguerite Taylor

December 2014 Vol. 4, Issue 1Robinson Review

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Let’s Turn it Around and Put the Drugs Down was the theme of the 26th Annual Red Ribbon March Against Drugs and Violence. The March took place Friday, October 24th 2014. The March is a national initiative to raise awareness of the effects of drugs and violence on children and teens. The Robinson Communi-ty Learning Center had a number of students and volunteers participate. Other students from around the community also marched from the Colfax Center to the

Kroc Center. At the end of the walk, marchers were entertained by performances, videos and plays. Awards were given out to those who showed the hardest work and were the most dedicated to the Red Ribbon March. It was a fun experience for those who have never marched before. For those who had, they thought it was an even better experience than last year. There were so many people who were dedicated to marching and encouraging people to not do drugs and commit acts of violence. Everyone had a lot of fun and The Robinson Community Learning Center cannot wait to do it again next year! | Caribia Coleman

It was a very fun experience... an even better experience than last

year.

The RCLC Takes a stand against drugsRed Ribbon March

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The Robinson Review is published at the Robinson Community Learning Center. The opinions expressed in the Robinson Review are not necessarily those of the RCLC or the University of Notre Dame. This material is based upon work supported by the Corpora-tion for National and Community Service under AmeriCorps Grant No. 06AFHIN0010030. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflec the official position of, or a position that is endorsed by, the Corpora-tion or the AmeriCorps group.

© 2014 Robinson Community Learning Center

Executive Editor: Duane WilsonEditor: Julie NovakAssistant Editor: Alexandra LigginsCreative Director: Christopher BushContributing Writers:Joseph HabimanaKiara WilliamsCaribia ColemanValencia RandalphIsaiah CrudupPhotos by RCLC Staff

What I love about teaching is seeing students’ have that “light bulb mo-ment.” The students become engaged in content and have a thirst for knowl-edge. They start asking questions, their brain starts turning and a fire is lit inside of them. When I see they have reached that moment, it inspires me to challenge myself to come up with more creative and engaging methods of teaching. The Robinson Review allows students to have that moment. I love working with the students on the Robinson Review because they are fully im-mersed and engaged in the content. They write stories about what they are passionate about. The students become so motivated in their stories that they research, interview, and write articles about matters that interest them at the Robinson Center. It is exciting to see how inspired the students become.

My desire is that the student authors not only inspire the readers but in-spire themselves. So take the time to sit down, relax, and read the student’s stories. You will get an idea of what is happening at the Robinson Center through their eyes. I hope, while read-ing their stories, that “lightbulb” mo-ment jumps off the page and you get a chance to feel that same excitement from the students. | Julie Novak

From The EditorLet’s Turn it Around 3The 2014 Red Ribbon March

Chicago Blackhawkes 4Visit the RCLC

Celebrating a Community Hero 6Ms. Marguerite’s Retirement Celebration

ND Football Parking 10

The Irish Experience 12

RCLC Back to School Picnic 14

Program Updates 16

2014 | Vol. 4 | Issue 1Contents

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On September 19th, 2014 the Robinson Community Learn-ing Center had an amazing surprise visit from the Chicago Blackhawks Hockey Team. The Chicago Blackhawks were in town for a scrimmage game at the Compton Ice Area at the University of Notre Dame. The team typically takes time to go into the community to talk about leadership. This day they chose to come to the RCLC. We had no idea that the three team mates from the 2013 Stanley Cup winners would walk through the door of the RCLC. When the team completed their practice for the day, the three players, along with the president and CEO of the Blackhawks, surprised all the stu-dents at the Robinson Center. Ben Smith, Stephen Johns, and Johnny Oduya generously took time out of their day to talk with us and sign autographs. The players talked about how they started playing hockey when they were real young and had to work very hard to get where they are. One of the play-ers, Stephen Johns graduated from Notre Dame and talked about how hard the transition was from playing college hock-ey to playing in a professional league. He said it was a weird

feeling only being gone a year from playing at Notre Dame and not being part of the Notre Dame team. John McDonough, the president of the Blackhawks, gave tips on how to reach your goals. He then surprised us by inviting students, staff and families to a Blackhawks game! After a long question and answer session, that included topics such as college life, hockey and leadership, they gave us hats and lunch boxes. We lined up and they took time to autograph the gifts and meet every student. The Blackhawks were so gracious to come to the Robinson Center and to invite us to their game. Everyone had a blast! | Joseph Habimana

The players talked about how they started playing hockey when they were real young and had to work very hard to get where they are.

Chicago Blackhawks Visit the RCLC

Marguerite Taylor

Celebratinga Community Hero

It seemed like it was an end of an era. The event was a time for celebration and a time for tears. A hero from the Robinson Center was going to retire. On October 29th the RCLC held a big cel-ebration in honor of Ms. Marguerite to celebrate her retirement and her contributions to the RCLC and to the community. As one of the Center’s founders, she has always played a central role in the program’s development. In fact, the Robinson Center is named after her mother Renelda Rob-inson, who herself was a significant contributor to the community. It was obvious how loved Ms. Marguerite was since there were was standing room only at the celebration. The Evening con-sisted of a Shakespearean performance, video presentation, speeches from local dignitaries, such as Mayor Pete Buttigieg, County Commissioner Andy Kostielney, Jay Caponigro, Director of Civic Community Engagement and a prayer of blessing from Father McNeil who was also instrumental in the founding of the center.

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Irish Experience is sponsored by ND Sports Properties. It is hosted at the Joyce Center on Notre Dame home Football Games and is an opportunity for both family and friends who are enjoying the game day experience to partic-ipate in playful competition through games and various activities. Some of the activities include 40 yard dash, vertical jumping and an obstacle course. Robinson Center students supervise and assist with the game and activities. RCLC stu-dents who volunteered expressed how much joy they gained from helping the families have an enjoyable experience. Carribia, a RCLC student volunteer, reflects upon her thoughts about Irish Experience, “You have to keep a positive attitude and always try to encourage others and make them feel like they are welcome.”

Several student volunteers have learned the value of a hard work ethic and community involve-ment. They also shared that they need to pro-vide excellent customer service in order to gain a good reputation. They realized they do in fact represent Robinson Community Learning Cen-ter. Carribia also went on to say, “While I was helping I realized that you’re developing skills: not just for the Irish Experience, but for all as-pects of life.” | Valencia Randalph

“You have to keep a positive attitude and always try to encour-age others and make them feel like they are welcome.”

Experience

Irish

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Through a Shakespearean

performance, video pre-sentation, speeches, and prayer we gave a spiri-tually filled thanks to

Ms. Marguerite.

Close your eyes and imagine a room filled with people of all ages, joking and laughing about the memories giv-en by different speakers as they shared of their experiences of knowing Ms. Taylor. So much joy filling a single room brought to life exactly what Ms. Marguerite worked so hard to instill into the community. To further exem-plify the lasting impact of her contri-butions, the mayor and the commis-sioner presented her with the keys to the city and county respectively. The final recognition of the night was renaming the room where we were gathered in her honor. Con-sequently, from that day forward, the multi-purpose room will now be called the Marguerite Taylor room. Overall, the event was wrapped in love in order to celebrate Ms. Marguerite in honor of her leadership in our community. |

Thank You Ms. Marguerite!

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The Robinson Enterprise’s Business of Football Parking is one of the longest lasting programs at the Center. Football parking gives youth 16 years and older, an opportunity to be employed and earn money as they raise funds for the Center. Approximately 10 Robinson Center participants are employed and work at one of four sites man-aged by Mr. Duane. The proceeds from each parking spot specifically benefit the Advanced Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship Programs at the Robinson Community Learning Center. The

participants utilize key skills such as patience, customer service, and public speaking to interact with customers. Values vital to our program to prepare the students to be successful entrepre-neurs and creative thinkers. The football team did not do as well as hoped, but football parking was extremely successful. This year the set the record for the amount of money earned in a sea-son. This was all made possible by the dedication of the students and their constant enthusiasm, continued persistence, and hard work. Students often woke up several hours earlier and faced unpredictable weather conditions, high amounts of traffic, and having to adapt to constant new challenges. The students’ ability to adapt to new challenges is what makes football parking suc-cessful. A sincere thanks to Ms. Julie, Ms. Alex, Ms. Shamel, Mr. Chris, and Mr. Duane. Also, great thanks to the countless volunteers for their participation with parking! | Valencia Randalph, Isaiah Crudup

The football team did not do as well as hoped, but football parking was extremely successful.

Go

Irish!

Football Parking

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... the event represents an annual opportunity for varying groups to come together through love, openness, and understanding as one community.

The back to school picnic, an annual event that brings together the University of Notre Dame, the Robin-son Community Learning Center and the Northeast Neighborhood to celebrate students from K – college

going back to school, was held on September 19, 2014. There were many family friendly activi-ties for everyone to enjoy. Face painting, fire trucks, popcorn, and balloons created an enjoyable environment for all those who attended. We had special appearance by the Notre Dame lacross

team, cheerleaders and the University’s leprechaun. They truly pumped up the crowd with their active spirit and high morale. The visiting firemen gave the students a small but fun insight into what it takes to be a fireman. They held conversations with each kid and let them learn the ins and outs of a fire truck. At the end, these firemen turned on the fire hose and let the children run and play through the streams of water. It was very cold, but everyone has a blast.

The northeast neighborhood, Notre dame and the RCLC did an excellent job putting together the back to school picnic. Overall, the event represents an annual opportunity for varying groups to come together through love, openness, and understanding as one community. | Kiara Wil-liams

Back 2 School Picnic

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Shakespeare After an intense and exhilarating full term of programs at Dickinson Intermediate Fine Arts Academy, Perley Primary Fine Arts Academy, Jefferson Intermediate Traditional School, Muessel Primary Center, the Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture, and the Robinson Community Learning Center, we are ready for the holiday break! Our children have performed the works of Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, and Clement Clarke Moore (“A Visit from St. Nicholas”) with feeling and fun in the presence of community members, fellow students and classmates, teachers and administrators, and family! Members of our Muessel Drama Club appeared on WNDU news per-forming the first scene from Romeo and Juliet. The Robinson Shakespeare Company gave stellar performances in our fall Monologue Competition, and Brian Lebron-Williams will represent the RSC at the 2015 Indianapolis Branch Shakespeare Competition at Butler University in February. We look forward to another term of programs with our incredible kids! — Maya Hippensteel

Youth DevelopmentThis term, Youth Development programming included Book Club, during which tutors read aloud to students; tutoring and homework help; and several semester-long enrichment programs. Kindergarten through second grade students listened as tutors read James and the Giant Peach, and third through fifth grade students enjoyed Holes. Enrichment topics included Math and Science, Take Ten, Writing and Geography, and Animals Around the World. Last week, our Tutor Appreciation Party was held at Compton Ice Arena, where many program par-ticipants ice skated for the first time! — Meredith Haag

Talk With Your BabyThis past term, we have had many exciting developments in TWYB. We have held 5 classes, and served 78 participants in group and individual settings in various locations throughout South Bend. In addition, we have created a monthly newsletter for those involved in TWYB and reached out to several new agencies. We have also held two successful Lunch & Learns with distinguished psychology professors from the University of Notre Dame, who spoke on topics such as overcoming a traumatic childhood and fathers’ roles in developing child-hood emotion regulation. TWYB has received a gift of 150 copies of Mommy Talk from the Colorado-based Nancy M. and Douglas M. Yeager Family Foundation. We continue to collaborate with many agencies in order to share the importance of talk with all those in our community.— Kim Halstead

Advanced Skills This term, has been very exciting for Advanced Skills and Youth Entrepreneurship. This fall in Entrepreneurship Club we focused on social entrepreneurship. The students went through the creative problem solving process to fix an issue with South Bend. We had three business ethic students from Notre Dame mentoring the students throughout the process. We also had students from the Esteem program and three fellows from the Enfocus pro-gram from the University of Notre Dame providing guidance as we pursue completion of the project. This term, we also prepared the students on how to write and say an elevator pitch. On December 2nd, we had an Idea Pitch Competition at Notre Dame with our student’s from the RCLC, Clay High School and John Adams High School. On Wednesday nights, we had our new video club. The students were learning how to produce and edit videos. They are learning these skills so that they can produce their own talk show called “Kidz Talk.” In October, the students produced their first two minute documentary about a Robinson Center employee who is retiring and was such an important person in creating the Center. The students also travelled to WNDU to tour the news set and see how they produce a show. — Julie Novak

Take TenThe Take Ten program has once again been teaching our conflict resolution curriculum to both students and adults—we serve 18 sites of school-age students and 4 sites of adults weekly. One interesting new event that we presented this year was a Bully Discussion Panel at LaSalle Intermediate Academy. A group of veteran Take Ten volunteers introduced clips from the movie Bully and answered questions from the 5th through 8th grade audiences. The panel was such a success that we are looking to partner with other middle schools in the area to provide a similar event.

We also held our annual Take Ten Poster Competition for all school-aged participants. We received many cre-ative and colorful entries, and we will choose one winner from each site to have his or her poster reproduced and posted at school. — Torrey Tokarski

Adult ProgramsAdult Programs are running very smoothly this year. Wednesday’s Book Club has read two books this term, Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Franscis-Sharma and A Christmas Prayer by Kimberla Lawson Roby. Tuesday’s Book Club has been reading I still Dream about You by Fannie Flagg. The Senior’s Computer classes have gone well. Students have learnearned gigabites of information this semester. This years Turning Over a New leaf proj-ect had over 126 volunteers raking over 50 lawns. We had our big farewell Ms. Marguerite Taylor on October 29th of this year. It was a fun and emotional event for all. We finished the year with our Senior Lunch and Learn Celebration. Overall, everything is going very well and we are looking forward to what’s next! — Lu Ella Webster

ND Center for Arts & Culture Educational Programs:What a great year we’ve had! It has been exciting to further develop our programming in our second year. Ed-ucational Programming continues to serve twenty primary school students each semester in our Tutoring and Enrichment program, connecting them with university tutors and incredible arts and culture opportunities. This year our students were able to interact with Faith Ringgold, Elizabeth Bird, Jackie Welsh, and Sandra Fernández. This summer, we also ran four one-week camps for middle school students, trying programming into Guayasa-mín exhibit and its theme of “identity.” Our students learned about art, photography, cooking, and creative writing. Our Girl Scout troop started and continues to meet every other week. We also expanded our commu-nity outreach offerings with crochet, unity garden, and cooking classes, as well as “Read, Baby, Read,” our new preschool story hour that meets every Wednesday.

In 2015, we look forward to expanding our school year services to STEM programming for middle school stu-dents. A huge thank you to all of our wonderful partners, families, and tutors! — Molly Gettinger

Lit Programs:It has been a busy semester for the Literacy Program! We went from tutoring at one Boys and Girls Club site to tutoring at every school based Boys and Girls Club in Saint Joseph County. Our program is now a regular part of their rotations, and we work with every third and fourth grade student in the clubs. We have expanded our pro-grams at these locations to include enrichment, activities. Each student is working on writing a story that will be published in an anthology! We also provide tutoring at the Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture and at Rob-inson Community Learning Center. We served 176 students total! Our English as a New Language Preschool, too, has had a fantastic year, with record enrollment. Things have been busier than ever, and it is really making a difference in the lives of our students. — Molly Gettinger

Program Updates

Robinson Community Learning Center921 N Eddy Street South Bend, IN 46617rclc.nd.edu574.631.8759