Cedar Rapids program helps students learn over summer

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Congolese refugee Kiruhera Nkingi, 19, feels better prepared for his last year of high school at Cedar Rapids Washington — and life after graduation — because of the classes he’s taking this summer at the Catherine McAuley Center.

Last month, the Cedar Rapids school board approved an agreement with the center — a nonprofit serving immigrants, refugees and women experiencing crisis in Cedar Rapids — to provide 10 weeks of summer programming for students entering high school this fall.

The school district allocated $25,000 to provide at least 25 English Language Learners two full days and two half days of learning each week to mitigate summer learning loss, build stronger English proficiency and literary skills, contribute to students’ personal growth and engage them in the community.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that Nkingi, whose family moved to the United States from Congo in 2019, received a $75 scholarship from the McAuley Center to be a part of his school’s National Society of High School Scholars, which requires a 3.5 grade-point average or higher on a 4-point scale.

Jamie Forster, program coordinator for the center’s Learning is for Everyone, or LIFE, said the students she works are ”sharp“ and ”quick“ to learn.

“I would venture to guess everyone in this room is smarter than you and me,” said Forster, who began her position in May.

The center launched the program In the summer of 2020 for refugee youth. The students met three mornings a week with a focus on English literacy, personal development and community engagement.

The program continued that fall to support refugee high school and middle school students navigating virtual learning during the pandemic. Socially distanced study spaces were created for about 30 students with...