Lanesborough & Williams Partnership Annual Report

Center for Learning in Action partnership with Lanesborough Elementary School

Annual Report 2022-2023 

The Lanesborough Elementary School partnership with Williams is in its eighth year. With 56 Williams students engaging with Lanesborough students this year was an all-time high for partnership connections. Academic connections flourished with 21 Williams students pursuing fieldwork placements and research under the guidance of a Williams professor. Lanesborough Fellows and After School Tutoring paid programs launched in spring 2022 and had their first full year in 2022-2023. 16 Williams students worked 415 hours, focusing on bilingual support and after-school tutoring. It was also a banner year for volunteering. Service projects by the Williams soccer team and women’s volleyball team brought 19 Williams students to Lanesborough Elementary. Additionally, Lanesborough Elementary students visited Williams at Hopkins Forest, the planetarium, the Williams College Museum of Art, and a dance workshop at the 62 Center for 5 field trips of active learning. A successful partnership year with lots of collaborations! 

 

Stats:

• 56 Williams students engaged at Lanesborough Elementary in 2022-2023
  • 21 Williams students academic fieldwork (2 with PSYC 372, 7 with BIO 11, 1 with PSCI 21, 5 with Cynthia Holland, 2 with Cynthia Guo, 4 with Eliza Congdon)
  • 20 Williams students volunteered (1 with AST, 9 with soccer clinic, 9 with volleyball team, 1 ZAW)
  • 16 Williams students served in paid positions
    • Fall: 1 Student Leader, 10 Fellows (5 bilingual support, 6 Classroom Helpers, 6 After-School Tutors)
    • Spring: 1 Student Leader, 10 Fellows (3 bilingual support, 2 Classroom Helper, 7 After-School Tutors)
• 5 field trips to the Williams campus
• 185 elementary students served
• 18 applicants (15 fall, 3 spring)
• 415 hours worked 
• Orientation: Initial meeting with Jacob Chen and Nolan Pratt on Sept. 28, 2022.  Created an orientation document, then shared it with future hires on a rolling basis.
• End-of-year surveys: 3 out of 11 responded for fall; 6 out of 11 responded for spring

Testimonials:

“Working at Lanesborough was a nice break from the purple bubble. It was only during these few hours that I could connect with people of different age groups. Campus mostly has young adults and professors, and I’ve missed the intergenerational community from back home. Additionally, while I was a fellow this was the only place in which I could share my language by talking in Spanish with the kids. Overall, I think this has been really helpful to my mental health by giving me a space that felt like home.” – Emily Flores ‘26

“It is nice to be able to work with people and students outside of the Williams community. It also feels nice that I am making a positive impact on someone and passing forward the help I received when I initially learned English as a second language.” – Jacob Chen 2023.5

“Thank you for allowing this program to happen at LES! I think it benefits all my students. I am happy to host students next year!” – Andrea Rotter, Grade 3, bilingual/classroom support and BioEYES

 

Successes:

• Bilingual support: Williams students supported the Spanish-speaking students in Grades 3, 4, 5, and 1 and a Mandarin-speaking student in grade K.
• General classroom support was provided for Grades 4, 5, & library/media. 
• After School Tutoring ran every Tuesday from October to May.  Seven Williams students were hired each semester to support this program and at least 3 showed up each week on a regular basis.  Elementary attendance ranged from 4 to 11 students each week. Grade 4-6 teachers were supportive and appreciative of the program.  Robert Bradley, Grade 6, served as the LES staff coordinator.
• Two students in Susan Engel’s PSYCH 372 course were placed at LES: Grace Kim with Barb Fisher in Grade 1 and Tim Gore with Anna Mello in Grade 4. It was a great experience for all. LES teachers would be interested in hosting PSYCH 372 students again in the future.
• Manuela Sanchez-Decotto did a January internship working with Spanish bilingual students via WS Course PSCI 21.  Noah Oltman, ELL teacher, provided direction, guidance, and support.
• Eliza Congdon and four Williams students pursued CALF lab research projects over the course of the year with Grade 1 teachers, Barb Fisher & Connor Hadley.
• Cynthia Guo and two Williams students conducted development research with PreK, K, and 1st-grade students.
• Over Winter Study, Bio 11 BioEYES brought seven Williams students and zebrafish to Grade 3.
• Cynthia Holland and five Williams students piloted a National Science Foundation-funded birdfeeder experiment program with Grade 5. The question was “Does grape flavor taste bad to the birds that visit bird feeders?” Williams students presented the project to 5th graders, then helped them make feeders out of plastic bottles. The feeders were located outside Grade 5 from January through the end of April, with a trail camera recording wildlife visits.
• Jacob Chen organized a field trip for Grade 4 to Williams College which included a Sankofa dance workshop, a visit to WCMA, and a planetarium show.
• 4 Field trips to Hopkins Forest with Grades K, 1, 4, and 5 to study Ecosystems & Food webs, Geology & Erosion, Maple Sugaring, and Comparative Habitats & Life Forms. 
• “Zoom Around the World” had one virtual presentation for LES and WES on November 18 by Camily Hidalgo from Paraguay.  
• Soccer clinics were held six times between January and May with the kids in the after-school program. True Pham, Jacob Rivet, and Noah Kroninger were the organizers of the soccer players.
• Sidra Wohlwend and Kami Israelski organized nine members of the women’s volleyball team to remove old leaves and weeds from the pre-k/kindergarten playground and the interior courtyard for a service project on April 7. 
• The Culture and Climate Collaboration group continued work in Lanesborough to ensure a climate and culture of empathy, accountability, and belonging of each student. Williams support for this initiative will be provided as appropriate.  
• Fellows and Tutors had driver’s licenses and were willing to drive others from campus to LES. Some ride coordination between Williams, MGRHS, NAPS, and LES was possible with hired drivers.

Cynthia Holland’s birdfeeder project with Grade 5

 

Sankofa Dance Workshop with Grade 4