Yesterday, all Achievement Prep employees got an email from our principal that mentioned the fact that Monday, May 7th marks the start of the last 30 days of school. This spring has FLOWN by. I've kept a calendar on my desk all year and have been crossing off the days as they pass and now I only have two pages left. Now that it's May, I'm in the second-to-last month of my PP55 Fellowship. The time is drawing extremely near that I will no longer be a member of the most recent class of graduates of Princeton University.
Despite my concerns about the passage of time, I'm really looking forward to this Saturday. And no, not because it's Cinco de Mayo (or Trucko de Mayo, for that matter), but because it's Achievement Prep Academy Community Day, of course!
Achievement Prep has been working really closely with the CityBridge Foundation (home of current PP55 Fellow Jon Extein as well as at least two former fellows) over the last couple of months to pull this event together. The event is intended to help build new relationships with the Ward 8 / East of the River community and to express our gratitude for being welcomed into the neighborhood for the last four years. Community Day is being held at a park near the school and will have a wide range of social service and health vendors, as well as free food, music, and fun activities for children.
Community Day is a large part of our drive to cultivate community partners, as well as to collect as many student applications for the 2012-2013 school year as possible. Far too often, people will say to us, APA is such a great school, I can't believe I haven't heard of you earlier. Unfortunately, we don't have a prominent location on a main thoroughfare like some of our competitors. We are tucked into a residential neighborhood very close to the border with Prince George's County, so we are working as hard as we can to promote the school and the great work we do for the children of this community. I personally have spent a good amount of time in the last two weeks driving around to different organizations that serve families in the area and dropping off marketing materials with them and trying to cultivate contacts who might be interested in developing a partnership with Achievement Prep. It was pretty scary the first time I had to "cold-call" an organization and walk in unannounced, but sometimes actually walking into a building is the best way to get your foot in the door.
On a personal note, a friend from work and I joined a kickball team that plays on the National Mall on Sunday afternoons. It's super fun. I highly recommend our next round of DC fellows look into it.
Also, Carol and I made delicious black bean burgers last week. You can find the recipe here: http://dinnerisvegan.blogspot.com/2012/04/southwest-style-black-bean-burgers.html
Despite my concerns about the passage of time, I'm really looking forward to this Saturday. And no, not because it's Cinco de Mayo (or Trucko de Mayo, for that matter), but because it's Achievement Prep Academy Community Day, of course!
Achievement Prep has been working really closely with the CityBridge Foundation (home of current PP55 Fellow Jon Extein as well as at least two former fellows) over the last couple of months to pull this event together. The event is intended to help build new relationships with the Ward 8 / East of the River community and to express our gratitude for being welcomed into the neighborhood for the last four years. Community Day is being held at a park near the school and will have a wide range of social service and health vendors, as well as free food, music, and fun activities for children.
Community Day is a large part of our drive to cultivate community partners, as well as to collect as many student applications for the 2012-2013 school year as possible. Far too often, people will say to us, APA is such a great school, I can't believe I haven't heard of you earlier. Unfortunately, we don't have a prominent location on a main thoroughfare like some of our competitors. We are tucked into a residential neighborhood very close to the border with Prince George's County, so we are working as hard as we can to promote the school and the great work we do for the children of this community. I personally have spent a good amount of time in the last two weeks driving around to different organizations that serve families in the area and dropping off marketing materials with them and trying to cultivate contacts who might be interested in developing a partnership with Achievement Prep. It was pretty scary the first time I had to "cold-call" an organization and walk in unannounced, but sometimes actually walking into a building is the best way to get your foot in the door.
On a personal note, a friend from work and I joined a kickball team that plays on the National Mall on Sunday afternoons. It's super fun. I highly recommend our next round of DC fellows look into it.
Also, Carol and I made delicious black bean burgers last week. You can find the recipe here: http://dinnerisvegan.blogspot.com/2012/04/southwest-style-black-bean-burgers.html
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