Nazareth Students Play a Role in Celebrating Survivors of Hurricane Maria
A class of Nazareth’s Community Youth Development (CYD) students found out first hand what resiliency and strength mean when they worked with 50 families beginning their new lives in Rochester after surviving Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
The students were part of a celebration to honor the survivors of Maria. The celebration was the culmination of a service-learning project with IBERO, the Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School (EMHS) and the Get Real with Youth CYD taught by Professor Marie Watkins in the spring semester.
“Our students teamed up and attended the charter school three times to learn together: the EMHS scholars (6th grade students) taught the Naz CYD students about Puerto Rico, and the CYD students taught the EMHS scholars about the steps for successful service-learning,” said Watkins. “Together the scholars, teachers, IBERO staff and the CYD students planned the event for families impacted by Hurricane Maria. The focus was upon resiliency and strength of community, youth and families.”
There was dancing, music, and lots of food for the families to enjoy at the celebration.
"The school adopted another school in Puerto Rico that was affected by the hurricane and they had been learning about natural disasters and some of the families that relocated to Rochester and what they're going through so they were really inspired to do a service learning project," said IBERO’S Shalym Nater, in a recent interview with News 8 in Rochester.
It was so successful, the EMHS students involved are hoping to make this a yearly event.
In addition to the learning sessions at the Charter School with the 6th graders, and the celebration with families, Nazareth CYD students also hosted a Fun Day at Naz in April, and invited the EMHS scholars, teachers, and IBERO staff.
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Julie Long | Chief PR Officer | 585-389-2456 or jlong2@naz.edu
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Nazareth Community Youth Development students with Dr. Marie Watkins, (bottom left) and IBERO Staff at EMHS to celebrate the survivors of Hurricane Maria that have relocated to Rochester.