MARCY — SUNY Polytechnic Institute was recently awarded more than $1.4 million from the New York State Department of Education through a Liberty Partnership Program five-year grant to serve at-risk secondary school students in the region. Using a mixed-model school and after-school based effort, the program will serve hundreds of students in grades 5-12 to […]
MARCY — SUNY Polytechnic Institute was recently awarded more than $1.4 million from the New York State Department of Education through a Liberty Partnership Program five-year grant to serve at-risk secondary school students in the region.
Using a mixed-model school and after-school based effort, the program will serve hundreds of students in grades 5-12 to facilitate positive outcomes and decrease the chances of students deciding to drop out of school. The program will recruit and select at-risk students to participate, employ family engagement and case-management strategies, and engage students in goal-setting and activities, according to a university news release.
SUNY Poly students will serve as mentors and provide program participants about various vocational careers they might schools. Participants include students from Little Falls City School District, Herkimer Central School District, Central Valley Central School District, Dolgeville Central School District, Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District, and Mt. Markham Central School District. SUNY Poly will work with Mohawk Valley Community College and SUNY Morrisville to sponsor summer career-oriented sessions including robotics, health professions, agriculture, and computer-oriented camps.
“I am proud that SUNY Poly will spearhead this effort and am thankful to the New York State Department of Education for fostering our ability to provide a continuity of services throughout a student’s secondary-school progression to help address factors that might otherwise contribute to their dropping out of school, diminishing positive life and career options, and harming their sense of subjective well-being,” SUNY Poly Interim Dean of the College of Health Sciences Joanne Joseph said in the release. “We look forward to partnering with school districts as we assess and meet the needs of students who are impacted by challenges related to rural poverty, in addition to the ramifications of COVID-19 lockdowns, in order to assist them in completing their high-school education and preparing them for the workforce.”
SUNY Poly’s Marcy campus, founded in 1966, has more than 3,000 students and offers 30 academic programs for undergraduate and graduate degrees.
The Liberty Partnership Program, established in 1988, works to address the high-school dropout rate in New York by providing a continuity of services throughout a student’s progression through secondary school for those identified as at-risk of dropping out.