Author: slpRachel

  • NYC Special Needs Voucher Program Is Not Enough

    This is the part two of a series on students with special needs by Guest Blogger and SLP Intern Juliana Castro.  According to a recent article on Chalkbeat (an incredible resource for education-related news), NYC families face a Herculean task when trying to arrange critical support for children with special needs.  The City is home to thousands…

  • Increasing Accessibility In The Classroom: NYC Schools

    This is the first post from SLP’s guest blogger and summer intern, Juliana Castro.  Juliana is a junior at Wesleyan University. A few years ago, 6th graders in SLP’s Residency Program tackled the issue of accessibility in NYC, specifically with regard to transportation.  But, too often, public schools themselves are not accessible. What would it be…

  • Advocacy Awards For SLP Students

    We were thrilled to attend Care for the Homeless’ (CFH) annual Summer Solstice event and accept an advocacy award on behalf of SLP students! CFH is a long-standing SLP partner.  We have been so fortunate to have the opportunity to help advance their critical mission: providing free medical care and advocacy for homeless adults and children in…

  • SLP Spring Fundraiser!

    What a night! Thanks so much to all who came out to celebrate with us at the awesome Shapeshifter Lab in Gowanus, Brooklyn on Wednesday night! In all, we raised more than $17,000 which means that close to 300 students attending school in under-served Brooklyn neighborhoods will have the opportunity to become leaders in their schools and…

  • Teens In The News…

    We are loving these teens in the news, making their voices heard: NYC students are calling for the City to integrate public schools and give students a voice in the process. Last weekend, students from IntegrateNYC4Me, a student-led advocacy group, organized a rally to “call attention to the necessity of including student voices in the creation of the policies…

  • Why Service Learning? Ask A Student…

    A third grader’s take on the best part of service learning, and how the experience changed him.

  • Taking Up The Baton

    Earlier this week, President Obama visited the University of Chicago and delivered the first public remarks of his post-presidency. His comments covered a range of topics, including his plans for the next phase of his life. Going forward, he explained, his highest priority is help “prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the…

  • When It Comes To Service Learning, Students Are Community Partners

    In this week’s issue of Education Week, SLP responded to a recent op-ed, “How Can We Make Service Learning Less Self-Serving?”  In the original article, San Francisco teacher Kyle Redford shared her concern that too often service-learning efforts organized with community partners benefit the students but not the partners themselves.  Our Letter to the Editor explains how the SLP…

  • Brownsville, Moving Forward

    We love this recent article challenging the typical deficit portrayal of Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood home to more than 58,000 residents, with close to 30% under the age of 18.  When Brownsville is covered by the media, the subject is typically crime, poverty, and crisis. But this piece highlights the work of a few native New Yorkers…

  • Protest Is Not Enough…

    In a recent interview with The Atlantic magazine, Eric Liu, author of You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen, explains why protest is important but not enough.  Anyone looking to create systemic change must “outline an alternative vision of what life should look like, and work to sell people on that vision.”  This…