The College of New
Rochelle and Isaac E. Young Middle School
Launch Global Child Labor Teaching & Curricula Project
NEW ROCHELLE, NY
– On October 19, more than 30 students from The College of New Rochelle
(CNR) and Isaac E. Young Middle School were on hand to welcome teacher
activist, Ron Adams, and four of his students to the official launch of
a collaborative project focusing on the causes and consequences of
Global Child Labor. (Currently, there are 246 million child
laborers worldwide.) Funded by a grant from Teaching Tolerance,
this project was inspired by the model of student activism and service
that Mr. Adams and his students developed at Broad Meadows Middle
School in Quincy, Massachusetts over 10 years ago.
Ron Adams is also
founding partner of the youth organization of the United States Agency
for International Development (US AID), Operation Day’s Work. He spoke
about the original 1995 project in which his students raised $150,000
to open a school in the Pakistani hometown of a 12-year-old former
child slave and Children’s Rights activist Iqbal Masih. His seventh and
eighth grade students from Broad Meadows Middle School spoke about
their work in Operation Day’s work and the importance of service
learning in their lives.
The Global Child Labor
Collaborative Curricula Project is an enrichment program developed by
Dr. Linda Swerdlow, Associate Professor of Education at CNR, and Tony
Martino, Social Studies teacher at the middle school. Through April
2007, CNR education students will meet weekly with Isaac Young students
to teach them about Child Labor, develop service learning projects, and
help them open a chapter of Operation Day’s Work. The middle
school students will also learn about social action elements such as
letter writing campaigns and fundraising activities.
CNR and Isaac E. Young officially launched a Global Child Labor
Teaching Project. Left to right: Linda Swerdlow (CNR faculty member);
Ron Adams (teacher activist); Kim Marino, Rose Fitzmaurice, Chris
Callahan, Tom Bloomer (students from Broad Meadows Middle School); and
Tony Martino (Isaac E. Young Middle School faculty member).
CNR students studying to
be teachers were on hand for the launch of a
collaborative project on Global Child Labor between The College of New
Rochelle and Isaac E. Young Middle School. Left to right:
Heather Wallace (Peekskill), Danielle DeLancey (New Rochelle), Sandra
Kocan (Mamaroneck), Diana Gomez (New Rochelle), Dana Mamone (Mahopac),
Shantia Whitehead (Bronx), and Jillian Ocasio (Bronx).
