GO Project
The GO Project is an incredible organization that believes high quality education should be easily available for all children. In reality, education is not easily accessible to many low-income families. 100% of the students at GO are 1-2 years behind their fellow peers at their entry level in kindergarten. Additionally, 50% of the kids who are part of GO have a special education classification as a result of a speech or language impairment, emotional disturbance, or learning disability. GO Project’s goal is to provide lower and middle public school students who are at risk of failing school with educational and emotional support. By the end of their time with GO, each student develops a newfound sense of curiosity and dedication.
You may be wondering what GO Project has to do with you. The GO Project’s offices share the building with our high school. GO also has a school in both of Grace’s campuses. As students at a private school, we are extremely privileged to have practically unlimited educational resources. It should be considered our duty as community members of GCS and as New Yorkers to share our exemplary education with those whose accessibility to a fine education is not as easy. We both can safely say from our past two years with GO, that the experience is eye-opening. For us to see our commitment to the students pay off each week is inspiring.
In addition to Grace, the GO Project is in other schools in Manhattan: LREI, Avenues and St. Luke’s. GO is not a huge commitment. It takes place on Saturdays from 9:00-12:30 in the morning. Only a few hours a week can make a monumental difference in these students’ lives. As the new year is approaching, the next season of GO School is right on the horizon with the opening date on January 7th. If you and a friend are interested, fill out this form. It would be great to see some familiar faces at GO!
Many students from Grace already dedicate their Saturday mornings to GO. This is what Laila Durrani, a current Junior, had to say about her experience, “Go Project’s main initiative is to help students who are struggling academically. The program creates a nurturing environment for these students and provides intensive tutoring in both math and English so as to ensure that they are prepared for academic success in their futures. Personally, I find teaching at the GO Project to be really rewarding. It’s been a great experience helping kids reach their academic goals.”
The GO project heavily relies on the help of volunteers, much like Laila. All of the teachers are certified educators and the volunteers work to support the teachers. Our goal, as volunteers, is to make sure the kids feel supported and to ensure that they understand the new topics we review during the day. Since volunteers play such a vital role, it is important that we have a good number of people in each classroom. In most classrooms, there is one adult per small group, so each group has someone to ask for help and get specified attention from. Students come to GO project from many different schools, with many different levels of understanding and many different circumstances. When a student is in GO, it means that they need that extra attention. Being able to provide that attention not only helps the child, but it is incredibly rewarding. By giving these kids the help they need, they further themselves, gain confidence, and build relationships with other students and teachers.
If you are interested in a trial day at GO, Olivia Nunez is in the process of organizing a day volunteering opportunity for Grace high school students. This means that anyone who signs up would be placed in a class for the day with a teacher and other volunteers. This session would take place at the grade school campus on January 21st from 9-12:30 am. There are only about 15 spots open. This offers a way for you to meet the awesome students and spend a day at GO to further decide if you are interested. If you would like to be involved or have any questions at all please feel free to reach out to either of us in person or via email. Our emails are gdiserio@gcschool.org and gleslie@gcschool.org.