We are nearing the finish line with one week left of this school year! It has been encouraging to see all the transformation and progress throughout this year. Read our highlights from the month below and hear directly from some of those CISCC has impacted!
Cooking Matters for Teens has quickly become one of our highlights each semester. Recently, to close out this semester of Cooking Matters, students from George Moses Horton and Margaret Pollard Middle Schools brought their A-game in the kitchen during our CHOPPED–style Cooking Matters for Teens competition!
We had the privilege of welcoming Chatham County Schools Superintendent Dr. Anthony Jackson as a guest judge—we are so thankful he could join us for this great event! And an extra big thank you to our incredible CISCC volunteer Erika Guy for the passion, time, and energy she pours into making Cooking Matters a reality for our teens. Her work is truly remarkable.
One of our teens shared this about her time in the Cooking Matters program:
“I LOVE this class. I would like to thank all of you chaperone chefs. The class will stay a memory for life for me. You guys and girls helped me alot in my passion for cooking. I will forever remember this class and all of you wonderful chefs. You have given me skills that I can show off to my family. I love y’all and hope to share what I have learned with the world one day. Thank you for making me a CHEF!
Sincerely, Chef Emmy
p.s. Love y’all to the moon and back”
Jane Ann Mallon has been Aldo’s Reading Buddy for the past two years. Reading Buddies provide a great opportunity to engage a student each week, boost confidence, and improve reading performance. Jane recently shared the following with our team:
Aldo’s end of year/ last day of reading buddy sessions card was a hit! He beamed when I explained that he may choose to read it in Spanish to his parents. I also handed him a personal copy of the novel we hadn’t quite finished, plus a small children’s dictionary I ordered at McIntyres, then showed him that he could write his name inside the dictionary where it said “this belongs to”. More beams.
We talked about things he learned this year; he mentioned that his mother requires 5 pages of daily reading, and I reinforced that since he is bilingual (and many people, like me, are not) he is already using way more brain power every day than most people. Another huge smile! Also, this was a good opportunity for me to encourage continuing to gain proficiency in both Spanish and English.
Best moment? I asked the kind of open ended questions that Shirille Lee sent at the end of the last quarter. After a general question about goals, he asked if he could return to his classroom. In ten seconds he was back with me, pencil and lined notebook paper in hand. Carefully and accurately (how many months are in the school year, he asked) he drew the exact replica of a progress chart from memory, detailing by month how he had met and exceeded a goal in school that year. Lines that were not quite right, compared to his memory, he quickly erased and adjusted.
I could hardly breathe. It was a moment any teacher would cherish. I tucked it into his gift bag and suggested that he also share that with his parents.
I briefly shared the progress chart story privately with his teacher, Dana, as we said goodbye…her tears fell along with mine.
And I didn’t even know it was teacher appreciation week!
We had a wonderful last day! I look forward to whatever adventures are ahead for me and our students as a reading buddy in the fall.
Thank you all for making this possible!!
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And here is the note she sent home with Aldo:
Dear Aldo,
It has been an honor to be your reading buddy at North Chatham Elementary School over the past two years.
In fourth grade, you read lots of books about Lionel Messi. I learned a lot about soccer from you! By the spring of fifth grade, you were reading a mystery novel titled Hoot, written by the author Carl Hiaasen.
We met for only 30 minutes each week, but you worked hard to meet your goal to become a more confident reader. You are ready for middle school!
In addition to our daily work in schools, with our Community Service and Restitution students, and in support of various families, we also value opportunities to engage with the broader community and raise awareness of CISCC.
In May, we continued to participate in a number of community-wide events. One special highlight was the Annual Chicken Festival in Siler City. Our staff had a tremendous day engaging with the broader community, sharing about CISCC’s work…and even took a moment to take one of our favorite pictures of the year (see above)!