CLEVELAND — A summer school program in Cleveland has garnered a lot of buzz for its innovation.

What You Need To Know

  • The Summer Learning Experience helps students catch up or get ahead

  • The district says about 8,000 students enrolled in the experience

  • This year, the purpose is even more important after a 2020 school year that saw unprecedented challenges for students and their teachers

 

As students make their presentations to a row of judges, Joshua Davis and his friend Shemar Hale wait patiently.

“The vegetables we sell are like tomatoes, we sell eggs, collard greens, corn and other things like that,” Davis said. 

When it’s their turn, they take the stage and present their Farm Fresh Foods business idea.

“Hatching chickens compares to coming up with our business plan because it took us 21 days to come up with our business plan and 21 days for our eggs to hatch,” Davis told the judges. 

The judges then asked questions about the project.

“Could you identify anything you would have done differently in starting the plan for your business?” asked Jennifer Carpenter, the chief nursing officer for Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

Davis said he is proud of how far they’ve come.

“When we (were) in our school, I was doing other things, bad things, like, I wasn’t supposed to do. But when I came to this school, I got the right friends and the other things and she’s a good teacher,” he said.

They’re just two of about 8,000 students who enrolled in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Summer Learning Experience. The program helps students catch up or get ahead. That’s especially important after a year of hybrid learning.

On this day, students are presenting their final projects for the Chick Quest. Some students even brought the chicks they hatched.

Jennifer Carpenter is one of the judges recruited to help.

She said she hopes the projects will inspire a new generation of professionals.

“We’re really excited to see that the kids not only dove in, used collaboration, but I think each of them came out with a positive experience and possibly some thoughts about what they might do in the future,” said Carpenter. 

And while Davis didn’t take home first place for this year’s competition, he’s leaving with new confidence of what he’s capable of hatching.

“It’s really fun. It gets my head in the right direction instead of the other direction,” he said.