BERLIN – An expanded after school program at Buckingham Elementary School has increased student interest in academic enrichment.
Roughly 140 students are currently enrolled in the After School CARE Academy at Buckingham. Through the program, students are able to take part in 13 enrichment courses, ranging from art to Lego robotics.
“We had to do a lottery for some of the courses because we had so many sign up,” said Taylor Danmyer, CARE Academy site director for the school. “We try to do different things the kids may be interested in.”
While Buckingham always offers an after school program, the specific CARE Academy program was made possible through a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant awarded to the school last year. The grant has enabled the Berlin school to offer three eight-week sessions of CARE Academy. The first session, offered this past fall, drew 96 students from second-, third- and fourth-grade.
“We have a course catalog and students sign up for the courses they want to participate in,” Danmyer said.
She said that community volunteers allowed the school to increase available courses from five to 13 for the second session of CARE Academy, which is currently underway. Monday through Thursday of each week, you’ll now find 140 students clustered throughout the building after the final bell rings. They spend two hours doing homework, eating dinner and participating in the enrichment activity of their choice. While Lego robotics has proven to be the most popular course, students also enjoy art, Spanish, computer coding, 4-H, wellness and brain games, among others.
“We want to give them opportunities to find a niche, something that fits them as individuals,” Danmyer said.
This week, students in the art course were busy creating self-portraits under the guidance of Debbi Dean-Colley of the Art League of Ocean City. She said the self-portraits helped with self-esteem issues. She’s also got plans to have the children do mosaics, as that will be representative of the various parts of their own lives. She says regardless of the project, art is healing for the students.
“They love it,” she said. “It’s an outlet.”
Buckingham officials said organizations like the art league that were willing to donate time made CARE Academy possible.
“The Ocean City Art League is a very consistent community partner for us,” said Angela McCracken, assistant principal at Buckingham.
Danmyer said other volunteers included the University of Maryland Extension Office, the Worcester County Health Department and Food Lion of Berlin.
“Food Lion very graciously opened their doors and allowed all of the Buckingham families to come in and do a scavenger hunt,” Danmyer said.
The Spanish course, which targets English speakers interested in learning Spanish as well as Spanish speakers who are learning English, is done through a Rosetta Stone program. Danmyer said that was made possible with a grant from the Donnie Williams Foundation.
She and McCracken stressed while grants played a key role in CARE Academy, local volunteers were vital to its success.
“The reason we’re able to offer so many courses is our community partners are giving us their time,” McCracken said. “Without that we wouldn’t be able to offer these courses.”
