Alumni News
Kayleigh Colombero, '08 New Director of Project Coach
Q) What is your educational background? What was your major?
A) I was lucky enough to attend my dream and reach school -- Smith College. I decided I wanted to go when I was only ten years old. Although my mother warned me that only "really smart, really rich" girls could go there, I was determined. I worked so hard in high school with Smith as my goal. When I got accepted I was pleased, but it wasn't until I got my financial aide package that I cried for joy. At Smith, I majored in English Literature and Education. I also spent a semester studying abroad in England. After Smith, I received a Master's Degree in English Literature for Teachers at Western New England University.
Q) What made you decide to come to Smith?
A) Attending Smith was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Smith gave me the opportunity to become a young, educated female leader early on in life. Furthermore, it was during my time at Smith, attending education classes and performing service learning in the Springfield Schools, that I realized my passion for urban education. From my first year at Smith to the day I graduated I often thought about how wonderful it would be to return to this community. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to once again be a part of Smith College.
Q) What inspired you to work with college and graduate level education programs?
A) While I was at Smith, I first began working with Project Coach as a mentor and tutor for the teenage coaches. I always loved the mission of the program, its capacity to change the lives of Springfield youth, and the opportunity to showcase how amazing teenagers in Springfield are. I continued working with the program while teaching and was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to become involved in a significant way.Having the opportunity to lead a program with so many great aspects, the ability to reach so many young people, and the potential to continue to grow and improve is something that I found veryexciting. Knowing the program and the services its provides (both in academics and sports), I am thrilled to be able to deliver such high caliber programming to such a deserving city. I am also very attracted to the opportunity to coordinate possible experiences for Smith students both with Project Coach and with the Urban Education Initiative. I understand first hand how transformative these experiences can be and I hope to provide them for a vast array of Smithies.
Q) How did your education/work background prepare you for this line of work?
A) I think my experiences working in the Springfield Public Schools will be invaluable in my work with both UEI and PC. Understanding the amazing benefits and the very real challenges of teaching in an urban setting will better prepare me to guide Smith students into and through this work. Also, having lived in Springfield for years worked with hundreds of teens in Springfield, I hope to bring a deeper understandingto Project Coach about how to best help the youth of the city and how to help build a more sustainable community of educated, young leaders.
Q) Is there any advice you would give to graduating students who wish to work in a similar field?
A) The first piece of advice I would give any students going into education is to find what sustains you. I honestly believe that working in education, particularly urban education, can be the most difficult, trying, exhausting experience. It also provides more satisfaction and benefits than any career I can think of. When one student really thanks you, when you get a letter two years later about how much you mattered, or when you watch a student who really struggled flip their tassel, there is no better feeling in the world. At the same time, prioritizing your personal life and things that relax you (yoga, running, reading, whatever) is crucial. Burnout is real but can be avoided. Get a really good mentor, take care of yourself, and write in a journal or blog about the good and bad you experience.
Emily Neuburger earned her M.A.T. in English from Smith in 2002. She recently published Show Me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children's Storytelling, released in August of 2012 by Storey Publishing.
"It is a curriculum-rich book with projects and activities that nurture children's natural inclination to tell their own imaginative stories. The crafts, games, unique activities, and prompts encourage children to shape their everyday imaginings into rich narratives. I intend for it to be an inspiring companion for anyone who does creative work with children of all ages."
Question & Answer with Emily Neuburger
Can you give us a description of your book?
It is a curriculum-rich book with projects and activities that nurture children's natural inclination to tell their own imaginative stories. The crafts, games, unique activities, and prompts encourage children to shape their everyday imaginings into rich narratives. I intend for it to be an inspiring companion for anyone who does creative work with children of all ages.
What inspired you to write it?
I adored my full-time teaching position, but when my first daughter was born, I decided to leave work in order to be home with my new baby. While parenting both of my children full-time, I observed their emerging creativity and I was inspired to reconnect with my own art and writing. As an educator, I became extremely interested in how art informs writing and how writing informs art and how they intersect for each child. This inspired me to develop creative projects for my children, which led to the creation of my blog, redbirdcrafts.com. Once I began blogging, I received wonderful, supportive feedback from readers and colleagues, and I decided to pitch my book idea to publishers. My two creative, thoughtful, spirited, bright-eyed, inquisitive children were my true inspiration from the very beginning. And, of course, they continue to inspire me each day.
How did your Smith education prepare you for this line of work?
I left Smith College feeling clear that as a teacher, I must nurture each student's unique, educational journey. I embarked on my teaching career with a passion for finding what intrinsically motivates students and a determination to provide a means of authentic investigation and exploration. As I reflect, I realize that one of the most important lessons, from my time at Smith, was learning that in order to be an effective teacher, I must also be an effective learner. This has always resonated with me, and it's why I was pouring through educational theory books while nursing my young daughter. It is why I get a surge of excitement when I witness creativity and imagination in my classroom.
Do you have any advice for Smith graduates, as they enter the work world? Do you have any advice specifically for those who would like to write?
Yes! 1. Be willing to continuously revaluate your work. Experiment with shifting the focus of your project. Dig deeper, and don't be afraid to set parts of it aside in search of the heart and soul of your project. 2. Send your creations out into the world. Mail a copy to a friend, start a blog, or submit it to a magazine. Be confident! 3. Mindfully search for a bit of inspiration each day. Consider documenting it (with a photograph, drawing, or a little note) and be open to letting it inform your work.
Faculty News
Rosetta Marantz Cohen, Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Professor of
Education and American Studies gave her inaugural speech, "Teaching,
Prestige and the Cult of Service," on Monday, November 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Rosetta Marantz Cohen's research and writing was featured in an article about teaching in the Christian Science Monitor: Teachers who excel: A lesson from Miss Smoot
Al Rudnitsky and a team that includes Glenn Ellis from the Department of Engineering were awarded a very prestigious major National Science Foundation award that builds on their long-term work around knowledge building and narrative-based idea stories.
Project Summary: Smith College and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) propose a full-scale development project designed to engage children and young teens in engineering through the use of narrative in their native digital medium. The project will apply innovative approaches to learning that are emerging from the learning sciences, including Imaginative Education and knowledge building. Together these approaches will support deep learning and address the critical need of preparing young learners to participate in the knowledge age society. Specifically, this proposal will address the unmet need of providing an engaging resource designed to improve attitudes toward engineering, provide a deeper understanding of what engineering is about, and support the development of cognitive tools and specific engineering skills.
Project Coach Teaches Students Life Skills Through Sports
Written by Matthew Milano, MassLive Intern
Article featured in The Republican
SPRINGFIELD
If you were to stop by the gym inside Chestnut Middle School just before sunset, you would find children in an after school program running around kicking soccer balls, yelling, laughing and learning.
Those more than 100 elementary school children, who participate in the uniquely-designed after school program called Project Coach, receive one-on-one tutoring with about 30 high school students and learn about sports in a safe learning environment.
The high school students - who come from Springfield's Central, Putnam, Renaissance, and the city's High School of Science and Technology - improve practical leadership skills that will prepare them for life after graduation.
For Springfield Central sophomore Xavier Rosario, Project Coach has been a large part of his life for some time now. Before becoming an active coach in the youth program, Rosario was a participant as a young child who looked up to his high school mentors.
"I know what they feel like and know what they can work on. When they tell me they don't understand something I actually know what they feel like because at the time I was younger I didn't get it, so I can teach them a little bit better," Rosario said.
The mission of Project Coach is to help students flourish in the classroom by learning specific lessons and values through coaching. The teachings of the program have a strong emphasis on leadership roles and youth development.
The project helps high school students learn what it means to be a role model from Smith College graduate students and complete school assignments with Smith undergraduate students.
Putnam High School sophomore and a current coach in the youth program Kiana Figueroa loves her time with Project Coach. "I really become a role model and a leader to them," she said.
Figueroa said she was strongly influenced by her brother's participation in the program when he was in high school.
"When Project Coach first started," she said with a bright smile, "my brother was one of the first to coach. When I was growing up, he kept telling me about it and because I liked to work with kids, it would be something I'd enjoy."
When the high school students first meet up with their elementary children from Springfield's Brightwood, Gerena and Lincoln schools, they go into a tutoring session and read books about sports.
"They get excited about the books for reasons related to sports and they also learn to love reading because they're watching these teenagers enjoy reading and learning from it as well," program director Kayleigh Colombero said.
After classroom time has ended, everyone heads into the gym for soccer games and drills. The younger children sit still, intently listening to their coach's directions and after everything has been explained, everyone huddles up to scream their team's name at the top of their lungs before bursting out into the gym.
Coaching all these children is no easy task for the high schoolers. Once the young children start to play, they play with the intensity only a child can muster up, darting around the gym as fast as their legs will take them, laughing with their high school coach who tries to play along and yelling as loud as they can for a chance to kick the soccer ball.
With the energy and excitement the younger children bring to the table every day, the coaches have to find a way to stay energized, too.
"This year, my goal for Project Coach was to be more enthusiastic while I'm running a game or coaching in a huddle just to bring more energy," said Figueroa. "My goal for school is to maintain my straight A's and to progress to a point to start taking college preparatory classes."
