Giving Point
Grade: 5th Grade
School: Beecher Hills Elementary
Kamden Dobbs’ teachers describe him as a leader, a scholar, an athlete, and more. Kamden serves as a lead Safety Patrol and works every day to make sure his fellow Beecher Bees are safe during afternoon carpool. Recently, Kamden was elected the 2012-2013 Beecher Hills Elementary School Student Government Association President.
“Mr. Dobbs is a member of the Beecher Hills Principal’s Leadership Academy and serves as a role model for his peers by being respectful, courteous, and principled,” explains Ovura Crosby, Assistant Principal at Beecher Hills.
Kamden is also a member of the Beecher Hills Junior Beta Club and maintains an A-B average. But, Kamden shines bright outside of the classroom as well.
“I play the fullback position on the Cascade Wolverines 10 and under team, and I play 2nd base and left field for the Cascade Philly Stars,” Kamden said.
As a member of the Cascade Philly Stars team Kamden experienced something most kids his age have only dreamed of, as he played in the Little League World Series in 2011 .
Beyond being a star athlete, Kamden also has “big screen” potential. Kamden played a minor role in the movie “Parental Guidance” and he exercises his vocal chords as a dedicated member of the Beecher Hills Chorus and the APS Honor Chorus.
Grade: 8th Grade
School: Crawford Long Middle School
Kailani Anderson is an 8th grader at Crawford W. Long Middle School who strives to be the best she can be both in and out of the classroom. Kailani is a model scholar at Crawford W. Long excelling in all subjects. Kailani’s favorite subject is Language Arts because she loves to read and learn new words. “Every day I want to learn a new word” says Kailani with confidence and eagerness. She is currently reading I So Don’t Do Mysteries, by Barrie Summy and Airhead, by Meg Cabot. Meg Cabot is her favorite author because she always writes interesting stories.
Apart from her academic achievements, Kailani is originally from California who moved to Georgia with her family in 2010. She enjoys singing, listening to music, and reading when she is bored. Kailani’s future aspirations are to become an actor and singer on the Disney channel which she says hard work and dedication will be the keys to her success.
Grade: 8th Grade
School: Coan Middle School
Zariah is a proactive student who strives to excel in every way she can. One of her most exciting experiences was attending Space Camp this summer. She was selected as one of the Fish & Richardson P.C. Scholarship Winners for the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, where she stayed a week at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. During Space Camp, she was able to further her understanding of math and science by applying it in her mission assignments. She completed two space missions where she set up and fixed solar panels in a simulator of the moon base, and also directly communicated with a shuttle as they were preparing to land on earth. There was also a rocket park where she rode simulators of a rocket and experienced how it’s like to walk on the moon. Zariah describes her space camp experience by saying, “In a week at space camp, I learned so much about space that I never knew. I also made two lifelong best friends, and overall, I wish I could go again.”
Back at school, Zariah continues to be proactive in her studies. Recently, she is a nominee for People to People, which is a leadership program that gives students opportunities to travel out of the country. She’s enrolled in the gifted program for math and language arts, and was on the Principal’s List last year. She’s won several awards this year, including “Best All Around Student in Achievement, Attitude, and Character” and the “CRCT Exceeding Expectations Awards” for reading, math, science, social studies, and language arts. She enjoys being on the Yearbook Committee this year for Coan Middle and is looking forward to attending Maynard Jackson High School next year. Aside from school, her hobbies include baking brownies and cookies, and music through singing, dancing, and playing violin. Overall, Zariah Cain is a great contributor at Coan Middle School and gives credit to her mom as the source of her motivation.
“My mom says that I need to bring home good grades, because if I am proud of myself, then I can be better in life,” Zariah says. She is truly one of Coan Middle’s special students as she shines with her outgoing personality and academic achievements.
Name: Mac Colby
Grade: 3rd Grade
School: Sarah Smith Elementary
GivingPoint is a nationwide community-based youth development organization started in 2009 that inspires a passion for learning and service through cutting edge technology resources, virtual educational modules, and hands on volunteer opportunities.
Students at The New Schools at Carver have participated in GivingPoint to log their volunteer hours, compose projects, apply for grants which go towards school dues, proms, etc. and help the students network and make great scholastic, travel and professional connections. Students at Carver have traveled abroad and have started their own non-profit organizations through GivingPoint. The students are given a great opportunity to become young social entrepreneurs through logging in their community services hours and fundraising for community service projects they create with GivingPoint.
Ansley Colby, CEO of GivingPoint: “Through working with Dr. Darian Jones (Principal of Carver HSR) and through his leadership, GivingPoint is fully in partnership with Carver and the kids have done a great job of volunteering over 200 hours just in the last two months. I have to brag about Dr. Jones. GivingPoint was started three years ago. We attended a meeting in which we asked for the names of some principals who really cared about their students, who wanted to get their students more involved in the community and wanted to use GivingPoint to help their students develop their character, develop their civic resumes, and use their experiences to get into college. Dr. Jones was at the meeting and he immediately raised his hand and said ‘I want this. I want for my kids. We are going to do great things together with this.’ He truly, truly cares about these children and works with us to make sure they have great experiences through GivingPoint.”
Dr. Darian Jones, Principal Carver HSR: “GivingPoint is a great program. The thing I love about it is it really ties our kids into service oriented projects, which we know helps our students realize the value of doing good things for others before the reward comes to themselves. At Carver through GivingPoint, we go beyond the standard 75 hours required which is very powerful when we are applying for Gates and other scholarships. Our kids over the past three to four graduating classes have received a considerable amount of Gates Scholarships and it’s largely due to their community service hours and service learning hours.”
Nyaboke Manchini, Director at GivingPoint: “The kids at Carver are definitely my favorite. They are always ready for any community service. There are two gardens here that they have worked very hard on. They’ve helped coordinate, dig, plant, even when it was 100 degrees outside. So they are very helpful and they always love to get online, blog about their experiences, some have went to China and had great experiences. I just learned about a student who spent a year in Senegal. It’s amazing. These opportunities they have that I never had when I was in high school. They are just taking full advantage of them.”
- Students who participated in service-learning activities in high school were 22% more likely to graduate from college than those who did not participate.
- Research shows that students who participated in service-learning scored higher in reading and science achievement than students who didn’t participate in service-learning.
- 77% of students in service-learning programs say that service-learning had a big effect on motivating them to work hard.
Congratulations on all the hard work, efforts and positive results from the students and faculty at The Carver High Schools and GivingPoint!
APS Cool Kid: Ruqiyah Mukarram Combines Passion for Public Service with Love of Science
Ruqiyah Mukarram is currently a junior at The New Schools at Carver School of Health Sciences and Research. In her own words she talks about her love of science and future career plans.
Cesar Chavez once said, “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” I became interested in the medical field when I was in middle school. During my seventh grade year, I took life science and discovered the nervous system. I developed the urge to explore the heart of a human. However, after discovering the expenses of it, I decided to order the heart of a cow instead.
Towards the end of my middle school career, I learned about the Fulton County Global Youth Leadership Program. In the Fulton County Global Youth Leadership Program, they take students that attend public schools in Atlanta to various countries to study abroad. However, my goal was to study abroad for a year, and they only allow their students to stay for a certain amount of time. Therefore, I made it my goal to get to Senegal, West Africa. I created numerous fundraisers and sent letters to organizations and companies, and raised $13,000. On July 27th my sister and I departed to Senegal, West Africa. I stayed in a village called Medina Baye, where I volunteered at a clinic. At the clinic, I delivered and vaccinated babies, treated flesh wounds and treated patients with malaria. Through GivingPoint, I was able to record more than 200 hours of community service. Today, I have more than 600 volunteer hours logged through GivingPoint.
Through Carver School of Health Sciences and Research, I am able to enhance my knowledge in medicine because of their curriculum and programs. In the future, I plan on getting my Doctorate degree, specializing in the brain, and becoming a neurosurgeon at Stanford University.