Empowering the Next Generation of Female Leaders to Change the World
You know you feel a shift when someone else acknowledges it, like when the Earth shakes, and the next thing you know is that a telephone pole falls. Everyone saw it, and now, everyone is talking about it. Well, the world took an epic shift not too long ago in March 2020. Schools were on lockdown indefinitely, no one left their homes, and masks were everywhere. This pandemic has affected everyone, both mentally and physically. One way COVID-19 has impacted our world is our education system.
Since the year of school isolation and online learning struck, The Annenberg Institute at Brown University conducted a study to understand the projecting impacts of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement. The results included that between families’ socioeconomic status, the achievement gap will excessively widen.
While families in the middle and upper class of the spectrum will, no doubt, have access and resources to keep their students involved in learning and schoolwork, some do not. Since technology is evolving, our education system is too. I do not remember doing my homework or any class assignment on a tablet. Nowadays, that form of technology is the only source that students are expected to have access to for their schoolwork. Since the pandemic hit, all schools in the U.S are providing students with their tablets. Still, due to the lack of resources families may have, less programs being open, and students not being able to learn in the same environment they were used to, the researchers predict that students will lose approximately three months worth of education in reading and five months worth in math. According to Megan Kuhfled, an author of the university’s study, the most prominent outcome is students all having declined academically at inconsistent rates when they return to school. “Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.” That is where CHOYCES comes in.
At CHOYCES, we want nothing more than to help students achieve and learn to the best of their ability. The same goes for instructors and teachers who are struggling in the new education shift.
CHOYCES is a for-profit organization that provides tutoring and educational consultation services. Our mission is simple. To creatively help our youth conquer education and success through remote tutoring for grades K-12.
We also provide educational consulting services to teachers and educational institutions as well as classes in the arts. Since everything is remote and online, we are within everyone’s reach.
We are all about using the youth’s creative gifts to provide equitable and differentiated instruction to educate them. Our goal is to support children in utilizing as many resources as necessary, ensuring that children will conquer education and success while participating in fun and creative activities. We fulfill our mission through the various programs we offer, such as our Virtual College Tour, Social Justice Book Club, Coding Classes, Holiday Dessert Class, and Dance Academy. CHOYCES meets the demands of our youth by providing a college readiness program and motivating kids to be limitless in imagination. We support the next generation’s creative thinking and unique gifts by teaching them to tackle implicit biases, dig deep into social justice issues, defend their rights and the rights of others. Moreover, CHOYCES pillars the youth’s talents by fostering originality, cultivating sympathy, empathy, and consideration for others.
CHOYCES can help students of the world narrow the academic gap by giving them what they need: resources, time, and support. Let’s face it, going to school was never easy when we were their age, and I can only imagine how hard it is now. With the proper guide, opportunity, and source, CHOYCES can not only help change the world for all students but all teachers. Regardless of where a student is or their socioeconomic status, CHOYCES can help them not fall behind and instead move forward in their learning and school experience.
Because CHOYCES is a for-profit organization, it cannot run on volunteers and technology alone. For CHOYCES to creatively help students conquer the world’s new education system they need three things. One, professionals who can guide and instruct our youth. Second, online platforms like Zoom, which provide a space for our instructors and tutors to interact with our students. Lastly, CHOYCES is in need of supplies. How can someone, let alone CHOYCES, help students learn and understand the material they are being taught if they do not have the proper tools to teach with? Materials, like pencils, notebooks, and crayons, as well as other essentials like Chromebooks and science kits will enable us to help our children succeed.
CHOYCES can change the world and the lives of all the students in it, but we cannot do it with the snap of our fingers. We are not Thanos. If CHOYCES was chosen as the winner of the scholarship, we would be able to initiate the route to change the lives of students in the U.S. We would narrow the academic gap by providing aid to both students and teachers, both near and far. We would help students further excel in their schoolwork as well as help prepare them for pre-collegiate tests such as the PSAT, SAT, and ACT. Ultimately, we would teach them how to conquer education and be successful.
About Author
Dr. Danielle S. Goolsby
Dr. Danielle S. Goolsby has always had a love for education. She has experience tutoring even before she decided to become an educator. Dr. Goolsby is a native of Rochester, New York. She has a Bachelors in Communication with a minor in Political Science from the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY, a Masters in Childhood Education from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, with certifications in both General & Special Education, and completed her Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Education at LIU, C.W. Post, in Long Island, NY.
Danielle has been in the education field for 10 years. She has consistently demonstrated proficiency in communication, leadership, conflict resolution, teaching students with disabilities, common core curriculum development, providing professional development for colleagues, mentorship, and staff development. As a leader and educator, Ms. Goolsby is consistently confronted with opportunities to provide needed information to her colleagues, students and their families as well as serve as the go between and liaison for effective communication, pedagogy and education.