Newburgh Free Academy, West Campus Celebrates Programs with Mount Saint Mary College

On Thursday, May 3, 2018, Newburgh Free Academy, West Campus and Mount Saint Mary College, Division of Education hosted a Scholar Celebration. Welcoming remarks were given by lead collaborators, Dr. David Gallagher, Associate Professor at MSMC and Ms. Lakeya Stukes, School Counselor at Newburgh Free Academy, West Campus.

The partnership between MSMC and NFA West include three main programs: tutoring, mentoring, and an internship program. Three NFA West scholars spoke briefly about their experiences with MSMC, Edwin Seda spoke about the tutoring program, Maddison Jasso, spoke about the mentoring program, and Jordan Patterson, spoke about the internship program.

A musical performance was given by an NFA Scholar and her mentor from MSMC.

Mentors who are also alumni of Newburgh Free Academy, class of 2016, include: Giselle Martinez, Larry Arnold, and Harley Ramirez.

Students who volunteer to be mentors were recruited from a general call for volunteers, as well as recruited from the Black Student Union, the Latino Student Union, and through HEOP. Mentors represent a wide range of majors including nursing, pre-law, pre-med, and education to name a few.

Dr. Janine Bixler, Division Chair and Professor of Education and co-principals of Newburgh Free Academy, West Campus, Ms. Ebony Clark and Mr. Matteo Doddo were on hand to celebrate the successful year.

“We hope this partnership is able to expand and ripple through the learning community to enable participants to learn from each other. We hope that this is the start of a very powerful experience for all of you. You are all welcomed to campus often, even outside of mentoring program.”

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!