Carey Alumni Awarded $60k Grant For Work With City Youth

Main navigation Johns Hopkins Legacy Online programs Faculty Directory Experiential studying Career assets Alumni mentoring program Util Nav CTA CTA Breadcrumb Carey Alumni Awarded $60k Grant for Work with City Youth For some academics, connecting with disengaged college students can be exhausting. It may be particularly exhausting in locations like Baltimore's internal-cities, the place students face extenuating challenges inside and out of doors the classroom. Brian Gerardo knows this. He skilled it first-hand as a teacher at REACH! Partnership School in East Baltimore. The problem inspired Gerardo, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Maryland Institute College of Art's joint MBA/MA Design Leadership program, to start out an after-school club impressed by a private ardour: hip hop dance. “I knew that constructing strong relationships was one of the simplest ways for me to provide the absolute best education for my students,” Gerardo said. “Hip hop dance was one thing I was really thinking about, and so I thought I would share that passion with my college students to help me construct relationships I could leverage within the classroom.” The program was met with rav e evaluations, raising attendance rates and engagement stage among Gerardo’s students. Other teachers started asking for Gerardo and co-founder, Cynthia Chavez, a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Education, to host workshops at other schools. What began with 4 college students blossomed into the Baltimore Dance Crews Project, a nonprofit that has reached 1000's of Baltimore youth. Last month, the nonprofit, led by Gerardo as govt director, was awarded a $60,000 grant by the Open Society Institute of Baltimore as part of its 2015 Community Fellows program. The group awards the funds, to be distributed over an 18-month stretch, to local social entrepreneurs to assist develop or launch initiatives addressing issues in Baltimore’s most underserved communities. The funding alerts a seminal moment for Gerardo and the nonprofit, as it'll enable him to fully dedicate himself to rising and enriching the number of programs provided by Baltimore Dance Crews Project. Going full-time with the nonprofit has been Gerardo’s aim since enrolling in the Carey Business School and MICA program in 2012. Gerardo says his schooling has played a key role within the success of the program by giving him the necessary abilities and strategy to take the nonprofit to the following stage. “One of the largest issues I realized was tips on how to assume creatively about the challenges we face; to be able to think through an issue from a human-centered design method,” he mentioned. “We have to ensure we're designing options with individuals in mind, and that the people we work and serve are creating the options.” To be taught more about Baltimore Dance Crews Project,click right here. To learn more in regards to the Open Society Institute of Baltimore’s Fellowship program,click on here. Posted one hundred International Drive