Partners in Education

Spring into Service! Are you interested in being a mentor, tutor or reading buddy?

In honor of Volunteer Appreciation Month, Arlington Public Schools is launching the Partners in Education Volunteer Drive. Throughout the spring, APS will engage with local businesses, community members, organizations, non-profits, religious institutions and government agencies to educate them about the many ways they can support student learning. This initiative will allow APS to:

• Tap into the business community in Arlington to support and extend student learning and academic progress.
• Partner with local businesses and organizations to recruit more volunteers to serve as mentors, after-school tutors and reading buddies.
• Identify community members and other individuals who have skills, time and commitment to support students.
• Work with schools to identify students who will most benefit from these mentor, volunteer connections

APS Partners in Education Mentoring, Volunteering and Partnering (MVP) will include coffee chats, special events, outreach to the business community, how to volunteer and volunteer testimonials.

View our website for volunteer opportunities and steps to partner with us and support our students. Please contact Dawn Smith at dawn.smith@apsva.us for more information.

Arlington Public Schools has numerous mentoring programs and mentors that meet the standard of making positive impacts on young lives. Take a look below to read how these programs and mentors have been instrumental in supporting APS Strategic Goal: Student Success.

Thomas Jefferson Middle School is proud to partner with Phoenix Bikes again this year. Jefferson had lots of enthusiastic students who wanted to sign up and now there are 13 students who have demonstrated their commitment to the club. The group just finished repairing bikes that will be donated to a member of the community. Next week they start traveling to the Phoenix bike shop to begin the "Earn a Bike" portion of the program. Each student will repair a bike and then they get to keep it! It's a wonderful partnership that gives students hands on after school learning opportunities.

The Legacy Readers program is an afterschool reading program that was started at Hoffman-Boston last year through a group of community volunteers. Volunteers come Monday through Thursday to work with students who have been identified as needing additional support in reading. The volunteers work one-on-one with students or in small groups where they play games and read together to help students strengthen their reading proficiency. Hoffman-Boston’s Reading Specialist, Jennifer Albro, PhD, shared that “Our students are thrilled to read and play literacy games with our Legacy Readers volunteers. The volunteers have done an amazing job of building relationships with students and seeing them grow as readers.”

Weather you are a professional looking to share your time, knowledge and talents, a community member wanting to give back, or a parent looking to support your child's school, we are grateful for your interest in supporting and enriching our instructional program and helping our students achieve their full potential. While our volunteers come from many different backgrounds, ALL have the same goal in common - supporting student learning.

One of the things that make Arlington Public Schools remarkable is the robust partnerships that enhance our schools learning experiences. There are many organizations and individuals that work with our students on a regular basis. These relationships have developed not only to support our academics, but also to recognize and meet the needs of the whole child. See below for a few partnerships that we have this year.

Yorktown High School celebrated Computer Science Education Week with “12 Days of Coding”. Volunteers from Accenture Federal Services visited classrooms to discuss various careers that use coding skills.

Mr. Nathan Jumali from Accenture visits a YHS engineering class to share his experiences in high school, military service, online college, and graduate school. He detailed his career and academic journey to illustrate an alternate path to a career in coding. He encouraged students to be open minded to life’s opportunities, especially when they are unsure of their own future career interests.

Ms. Queen Ngale from Accenture speaks to YHS biology students about the many companies that Accenture works with and the range of opportunities for its employees to engage in successful work projects while using coding skills. Students learned about careers such as software developers, data scientists, web designers, digital marketing analysts, and technical writers.

Carlin Springs students in grades K-5th enjoyed a free bookfair this month choosing new, exciting books, and other fun items! This event was sponsored by our partners from R.E.A.D. as well as the APS Title I office, APS Library Services, along with a few other generous donors.

Thank you to the Arlington County Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management for partnering with Arlington Tech and providing a Capstone internship. The intern is working closely with community engagement and outreach.

"Volunteers partnering with the school is a way to grow our community and support student education."

-Gunston Middle School, Assistant Principal, Wilson Ramirez

I like the fact that I’ve had the opportunity to try my career choice out in MS. I believe some kids like to pick careers based on family experiences, but to be able to have the opportunity to have hands on experience for my interest in an after school club is good. The volunteers that run the club are always nice and very informative. I also like how they not only teach us new recipes but also teach us about cleanliness and the importance of working together.

-Dorothy Hamm Student, MJ Richardson

Arlington Public Schools would like to take the opportunity to thank our community volunteers and partners who work with our students, administrators, and APS programs across the district.

We actively encourage volunteerism in all of our schools. All our volunteers and partners are essential to enriching our students academic experience and we are thankful for the support they provide. During this month, APS will showcase, across our social media some of the many great volunteers who work in different capacities with our students and programs.

WMS Helping Hands Club, lead by parent volunteer Molly Wolff, lead a food drive to benefit Arlington Food Assistance Center.

With the support of an incredible donation from Amazon Fresh to Food for Neighbors and the year-long dedication of volunteers, Abingdon Elementary School's PTA is building snack baskets for every classroom filled with items like granola bars, cheese crackers and other healthy snacks. Each week a team of volunteers unpacks and organizes the Amazon snacks, packs snack baskets for individual classrooms and delivers the snack baskets for daily snacks for every child. The Abingdon community is thankful for the support of increased access to fresh and shelf-stable food.

Nottingham Elementary School would like to thank our amazing volunteers from the PEP Program! Ankita Barua, Amanda Vinson, and Sebastian Brown have been traveling to Nottingham every Wednesday to our assist staff with various tasks. The students love it when they visit classrooms to read, and the staff is so appreciative of their help decorating bulletin boards, shredding paperwork and preparing materials for teachers to use in classrooms. Thank you PEP interns!

Oakridge librarian, Megan Price and librarian assistant, Beth Scott have created a cafe in their library.
They covered the tables with tablecloths and added a vases of flowers. They have enlisted parent volunteers as the waitstaff. Dressed in their aprons, the volunteers serve the students their choice of books.

Are you interested in partnering with Arlington Public Schools? Would you like to mentor a student or adopt a school? Arlington Public Schools will host coffee chats throughout the Spring and Summer. These coffee chats will allow the volunteer and partnership office to educate targeted audiences about the numerous opportunities to partner with APS in order to support student learning.

For additional information please contact Dawn Smith at dawn.smith@apsva.us

Email: dawn.smith@apsva.us
Website: www.apsva.us
Location: 2110 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA, USA
Phone: 703-228-2581