UDC program brought out the inner scientists in teens

Over here at One City Youth, we're jealous of the young folks who participated in UDC's 2014 Summer Bridge Program in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences program. Why? Well, let's start with the fact the youth participants got to work outside in water, dirt and with plants. Field work was performed in Rock Creek Park, the UDC Van Ness Campus and the Muirkirk Agricultural Research Farm in Beltsville, MD.

Next, the youth had the opportunity to learn how to use very cool equipment. Finally, they got to learn all kinds of useful science stuff. And by stuff we mean environmental computing, cloud computing, sustainability, water quality, climate change, engineering design and mobile technologies.

2014 Summer Bridge STEM Course Concludes walks readers through the highlights of the program. Perhaps the most interesting part of the summer was the work the young people did on their capstone projects.

The projects were:

1. Nathnael Eshetu and Heran Tatek: Solar Power for Food, Energy and Water (evaluating the potential benefit of photovoltaic power at Muirkirk Farm
2. Lataija Gilmore, Kevon Johnson and Semale Stafford: Orthophosphate Analysis in soil
3. Niles Townsend and Joel Crooms-Porter: Aquaponics System: Nutrient Cycle (water difference in aquaponic tanks)
4. Courtney George, Amen Hailu and Sofia Cisneros: Potomac River vs. Rock Creek River Quality

The post is an interesting read and you'll learn about all the cool things College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences does with students, faculty and the community for the benefit of us all.

More pictures from the program, on Facebook.

Apply for the Youth Development Practitioner Scholarship!

The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (CYITC), in partnership with the University of the District of Columbia Community College (UDC-CC), is offering credit-bearing courses at the UDC-CC and a Youth Development Practitioner Scholarship to help out! The scholarship covers admission fees, tuition and books for the full certificate program based on program guidelines.

The courses at UDC-CC will eventually lead to an eighteen credit Certificate in General Education (Out-of-School-Time), which builds staff capacity in youth-serving organizations. These classes will be offered over the course of three semesters and were selected based on the necessary skills to help youth reach positive knowledge, attitude, and behavioral outcomes.

The program is perfect for professionals in a variety of youth-serving fields and organizations, such as community-based organizations, government agencies, faith-based groups, community recreation and correctional professions, coaches and counselors.

If you are interested in applying for the scholarship, check out CYITC's website and download and complete the application online. There are a limited number of scholarships available. Participants will be notified of their application status by Friday, July 20th.

You can read more online.