Southeastern Regional is proud to share that six students have participated in the second year of the Black Outstanding Smart and Successful (BOSS) afterschool program.
The BOSS afterschool program runs during the fall semester and is offered to all juniors and seniors, and again in the spring to all freshmen and sophomores. In the afterschool program, students learn about black women who have made a significant impact or discovery in the fields of science, engineering, technology, mathematics or the arts, correlating with STEAM fields. Students learned about Marie Daly, Valerie Taylor, Mae Jemison, Ava DuVernay, Shirley Jackson and several others.
After the first week of the program students are put into pairs or groups to present on a chosen woman in the particular subject area. Students engage in "brain challenges" each class before their presentations. Students are asked to identify a problem in their city that they would like to fix and use Legos to design the city, displayed with the problem solved. Other brain challenges include creating innovative uses for common household items and students are tasked with explaining to their peers how the items they chose will work.
In the last week of the program, students researched and presented a chosen black woman who they had not already learned about during the program.
Junior Laloni Voltaire, junior Charlize Santiago, junior Isabela Plummer, senior Amari Gerrior, senior Tianna Dias and senior Nelissa Duarte presented their final projects.
"I was very proud of the attentive research that each student shared," said BOSS STEAM Exploration Program Coordinator Jacqueline Jones. "I learned some new information myself! It's our hope that each student believes that anything is possible and that they are capable of achieving it."
The next cohort for the BOSS afterschool program will begin March 19 for freshmen and sophomores.
Elizabeth Kalaijian, John Guilfoil Public Relations LLC
Academic Supervisor, Math and Science JoAnne O'Brien, student Nelissa Duarte and BOSS STEAM Exploration Program Coordinator Jacqueline Jones for the BOSS afterschool program. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School)
Academic Supervisor, Math and Science JoAnne O'Brien, student Issa Plummer and BOSS STEAM Exploration Program Coordinator Jacqueline Jones for the BOSS afterschool program. (Photo courtesy Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School)