MEF to Help Even More Students Stay On Track This Summer With New Fully In-person Options
Centers to Give Parents the Choice Between Fully In-Person, Fully Remote or Hybrid Options
This summer, students will soon return to Midtown Center for boys (pictured here) and Metro Achievement Center for girls.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
3/9/21
CHICAGO – Midtown Educational Foundation (MEF), a local nonprofit offering after-school and summer enrichment programs to over 800 low-income Chicago students per year, has expanded its summer 2021 program offerings to now include a fully in-person option. Parents of rising 4th-12th graders can now apply for these new in-person options on the MEF website in addition to the current fully remote and hybrid options. Space is limited due to COVID-19 related capacity restrictions at each Center.
Families who enroll their students in the remote learning option, will still receive the same high level programming and classes as those families who chose in-person.
This will be the first time since March 2020 that student programs will return to MEF’s Midtown and Metro Achievement Centers. After reviewing an initial wave of over 160 summer applications, it became clear that there was a growing demand for in-person programming. This was despite previous survey data from December where parents indicated a slightly higher preference for a remote-based program. Midtown and Metro staff met to discuss these results and accepted the challenge of planning and navigating both virtual and in-person summer curriculums.
MEF will now be able to help even more students catch-up academically and socially from a tumultuous school year. “Although this is going to take additional financial and staff resources to offer all of these programming options, we feel it is important to help as many families as we can, regardless of their preference for in-person or virtual activities,” said MEF Executive Director, Glenn Wilke. “We are ecstatic to welcome back students and parents and to breath life and joy back into our Centers which have stayed mostly empty for over a year!”
Here are some of the features of the MEF Summer 2021 Programs:
In-person field trips and select recreational activities (like the Metro field trip pictured here) will still be available for students who are enrolled in the virtual learning program.
All programs will have an academic and character education core curriculum, alongside individual and group tutoring, to aid in school readiness and social-emotional development.
Most programs will feature optional electives or clubs, such as fitness, dance, sports, art, robotics, chess, drama, coding, and journalism.
All Parents of rising 4th-8th grade students can choose either a fully in-person program, a fully remote program, or a hybrid of remote education with optional in-person recreational activities and mentoring.
Rising 9-12th grade students’ options will vary based on the program or apprenticeship to which they apply.* For example, Metro Achievement Center’s Hospitality and Filmmaking Apprenticeships will be in-person, while its Business and Engineering Apprenticeships will be remote.
*High school apprentices will receive a stipend for their completed work.
MEF’s summer 2021 programs run from June 28 to August 6. If you would like more detailed information or to set-up a one-on-one appointment or tour with the program staff, please visit:
About Midtown Educational Foundation: Midtown Educational Foundation (www.midtown-metro.org), through its Metro Achievement Center for girls and Midtown Center for boys, has helped close the achievement gap for underserved students in Chicago since its founding in 1965. Their programming focus on academic excellence, virtue development, individual attention, and parental engagement has led to 100% high school graduation and college enrollment for its students for 21 consecutive years.
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Media Contact:
Vince Meno
Director of Community Outreach & Marketing
Phone: 773-520-7202
Email: vmeno@midtown-metro.org