Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a national non-profit organization that works to extend the school day by providing students in high needs middle schools with quality afterschool programming. Our mission is two-fold: we strive to work with students to improve their current academic performance, and connect students with caring members of the community to expand their horizons and share their talents. The cornerstone of our model are our apprenticeships, 90 minute sessions once a week when community volunteers come in and teach our students about their career, hobby or passions, reinforcing the hard and soft skills that are necessary to be successful in school and in life, such as oral presentation, data analysis and teamwork. Our students have had the privilege to work with experts in a variety of fields and explore topics using a hands-on project based approach, including: mock trial with lawyers from the nation’s premier firms, video game development with students in the school of computing, small business development with local entrepreneurs, mural painting with local artists, and financial planning with employees from the nation’s largest banks.