Enroot Students Intern at Cambridge Community Television

Lights! Camera! Action! Cambridge students enjoyed an evening showcasing the videos they created at CCTV as part of their internship experience. Students received certificates for their video productions and amazed the audience, which included CCTV staff and Enroot staff, with their creativity and hard work! By participating in the internship, students get experience, training, and exposure to everything that makes a television station function. Students experience anything from live cable-casting, media production, computer lab supervision, training and education, and many administrative responsibilities. And just this week, two students, Harry and Biruk, both received the CCTV Youth Award at CCTV's annual event which was held as a Zoom event.

Check out:

Aman Khalifa's video "Unaccustomed Earth"  
Valeria Mendez's video "My Crazy Life"
Biruk Endale's video "The Fear"
Harry Jean's video "When I First Started Working at CCTV"

Exciting Updates about Scholarships and Summer Programs for Our Students!

All three Somerville High School (SHS) Enroot students who applied for the SHS SPARK Summer Scholarship 2020 were selected to receive scholarship funding towards a summer program of their choice. Two students will attend the Harvard Pre-Medical one-week summer intensive program. And our third student will attend the one-week Harvard Business Academy summer intensive program.

The SPARK Scholarship offers students the opportunity to experience a broad range of academic and career possibilities. SPARK helps students realize that their place in the world is determined by their efforts and success, and not by their backgrounds. 

We are so thrilled to share that the teachers, college counselors, and department heads on the SPARK selection committee were really impressed by what our students have done with Enroot. Student applications where they wrote in detail about seminars and the work that they do with their mentors and tutors especially stood out. The committee also counted in a student's favor that he or she had sought extra help from Enroot staff. One student included in his application the resume he worked on in seminar with his mentor although this was not asked in the application submission, and this really impressed and stood out to the committee. 

Sophia, our Americorps Ambassador of Mentoring through Mass Mentoring Partnership, works tirelessly to support students as much as she can. She encouraged students to apply for the SPARK Scholarship and sent the application to mentors to also encourage students to apply and offer help. Sophia also offered extra 1-1 help to students during school and over February vacation week and supported students.

In addition to the SPARK Scholarship, four Enroot students applied to the Biogen Community Lab Summer Program and were accepted! 

We are so excited for our students and proud that they are pursuing these amazing opportunities. 

Victory for Enroot students on the Somerville High School Robotics Team!

Highlander Robotics, the Somerville High School FIRST Robotics Competition Team, participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition where each year teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in the year's competition. FIRST -- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -- uses a robot challenge to build STEM skills and interests among students. 

The robot named Obi Munch Kenobi-was designed, built, programmed, tested, and driven by Enroot students on the Highlander Robotics team. A Somerville High School (SHS) junior who is a second-year Enroot Leadership Cohort student, served as the robot operator. And another student, a SHS junior who is an Enroot Emerge Cohort student (and Explore Cohort student last year), served as the human player. 

Enroot’s SHS students finished the qualifying rounds ranking in 7th place out of 38 teams advancing them to the quarter-finals where the top eight teams competed. In the quarter-finals, our students defeated the team that finished 4th in the qualifying rounds advancing them to the semi-finals being a part of the top four teams and won the Engineering Inspiration Award. This award is the second most prestigious award in FRC for students’ outreach to middle schoolers, participation in community events, and presentation before FRC judges. 

We are so thrilled and proud of our students making it to the semi-finals and winning this prestigious award from FRC!