Summerbridge: students teaching students
Interview with Justine Stamen

by Carl Herman

Justine Stamen, Director of the highly successful Summerbridge academic enrichment program for low-income, middle school students, explains how volunteers enable bright children to enter top-level high schools, and to develop community service spirit and skills. 


Justine Stamen is the Director of Summerbridge at Riverdale, located in the Bronx, New York City. Summerbridge is a unique workshop in education where academically motivated public and parochial middle school students (grades 6-8) from low-income families are taught by outstanding high school and college students who want to make a difference in education. The program includes two rigorous six-week academic summer sessions, school-year activities, and year-round high school counseling for students and their families. Teachers receive a modest stipend for their internship work. Carl Herman interviewed Justine Stamen for Share International.

Carl Herman: How would you describe Summerbridge?

Justine Stamen: Summerbridge is an academic enrichment program for middle school students. At this point, Summerbridge is at 35 sites in this country, and one in Hong Kong. What unites us all is our interest in students teaching students. Newsweek magazine recently wrote about us: " ... getting younger students into learning and older students into teaching." That says it all.

CH: Why have students teaching students?

JS: The small age gap between students and teachers has proven to be inspiring to the middle schoolers. They think their teachers are young, smart and cool. (They are of course.) Also, there is no reason in the world why a talented high school or college student cannot teach a middle schooler. We work very hard to recruit high school students from the neighborhood to teach in the program. Having teachers from the community adds an element which is too often absent from public and private schools.

CH: What are the academic results for participants in Summerbridge?

JS: To go through the program one must commit to two to three years of six-week summer academic sessions, Saturdays during the school year, and intense high school counseling. In the summer sessions, students study English, math, science, and history each day, and can choose among Latin, Japanese, Spanish and French. They also get public speaking skills, art electives, field trips around the city, and a career development program where we bring in adult professionals to talk about different types of jobs.

We measure the success of our program in a few ways. Do the students stay? We have 92 per cent retention. Where do the students end up? We are interested in Summerbridge students attending high schools that will give them a lot of attention and where the academics are going to be tops. We look for schools where they will be able to experience other types of activities, arts and sports included, that often their families would not be able to offer them: sort of a one-stop shop where they can get as much enrichment as possible. How many of our students end up in such schools? Ninety-six per cent of our kids go on to top academic high schools, and that includes certain boarding schools, certain independent schools in New York City, the top public schools, and top parochial schools.

CH: How many of your students are of lower economic status?

JS: All of our students. That is one of the criteria to get into Summerbridge since it is a free academic enrichment program. We do not want to waste a spot on someone who could afford to go to an expensive summer school or pay for the extra-curricular classes we offer free of charge.

CH: How do your students get into these top private schools? I’m sure the tuition is far greater than they can pay.

JS: All private schools have financial aid. Our students need almost complete financial aid packages. It is very competitive to get these packages, and there is not a lot of money out there, but it does exist. Having top grades and test scores makes a difference: that is part of the reason our students work so hard.

Giving back

CH: What are the interpersonal skills developed in Summerbridge students?

JS: "Students teaching students" sends the message that life is about giving back. The young students quickly aspire to become teachers themselves. Whether they want to be teachers for the rest of their lives or not, most want to come back and teach in the program for at least a year. Community is something we talk about a lot. Some programs tell these students they’re disadvantaged. I tell them as often as possible they are advantaged. They’re healthy, most of them come from families where they’re loved, and most of them have had teachers who gave them their all even if it has not been in ideal conditions (i.e. in overcrowded classrooms). Besides, they’re part of Summerbridge, which is a great place. If they stick with us, we’re going to stick with them and help guide them to meet their goals.

We also have a third-year component that’s optional called ServiceBridge, a service learning program where students work three days a week outside Summerbridge in the Bronx community. One group works in an environmental project; one group works with younger kids, some of whom are homeless, in an educational program; and one group works in a wonderful soup kitchen called POTS (Part Of The Solution). At POTS, they learn about serving people with dignity. These students come back and present a community service symposium for the younger students. Most of them continue with their volunteering after the year is over. We are very proud of this program.

CH: What do your faculty say about why they teach?

JS: Maryam Kashani, a Summerbridge alumnus and teacher who is a current UC Berkeley student says: "Teaching at Summerbridge is surrendering your heart, mind and body for six weeks to an amazing group of kids, and an endless amount of work." They all say it’s very hard work, but there’s a certain feeling they get at the end of the day that makes it worthwhile. I know of no other school where young people have as much responsibility. It’s entirely run by young people. Even the Directors are under 30. At Summerbridge one gets to teach a class or two or three, and co-ordinate activities. If a teacher has an idea that’s going to enrich the kids in some way, she or he can try it at Summerbridge. We’re not so structured here that one can never realize an unconventional idea.

SI: The traditional academic curriculum emphasizes knowledge to be transferred to the student. Does Summerbridge place any emphasis beyond knowledge, specifically on who the student is, how he or she sees life?

JS: In English, math, science and history classes, the students are forced to look at who they are as people. For example, we have a history class called "American Heroes". When students talk about who an American hero is, and what that means to different people, they can’t help but think about who they are. The fact that the teachers are choosing to sacrifice in a big way also makes an impact. The students see the teachers getting so much out of the program in a non-material way. If this does not promote the ethic that happiness is not tied to a dollar sign, I don’t know what does. At Summerbridge, students are learning to feel good about being solid community members.

CH: What is the future for Summerbridge?

JS: In New York City there are one million school children, most of whom would benefit from a program like Summerbridge. There is interest in starting a program in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. We hope this will happen in the near future, because we have three times as many students who apply as we can accept in the Bronx. It’s exciting to know the program exists at 36 sites. However, because our results are so good and because we’re incredibly cost effective (less than $1,000 per student annually), I hope Summerbridge will be replicated in communities all over the country, especially when people see it can work.

For information about Summerbridge, please contact Justine Stamen (Director) at (718) 519-2767, or write to Summerbridge at Riverdale, 5250 Fieldston Road, Bronx, NY 10471, USA.


Carl Herman is a Share International correspondent from Los Angeles, California. This article is from a past issue of Share International.


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