Printer FriendlyEfforts to maintain student academic skills in the summer can also take the form of research projects with strong mentoring. At CFWC we have worked to develop and test such a model. For the last eight years, CFWC has created summer research initiatives for Lowell teens in which research-action projects target an issue emerging into regional prominence. UML provides resources in which diverse Lowell High students work with graduate students to research an issue of joint interest to the community and university. Research topics have included new immigrant businesses (1998), youth transportation/youth asset mapping (1999), women owned businesses (2000), the housing crisis (2001), social program cutback (2002), youth program cutbacks (2003), signature outreach areas (2004), sustainability (2005), economic development and the arts (2006), the immigrant experience (2007). In doing this work, we listen closely to what the high school researchers draw from the experience.
One of this year’s student researchers wrote: "This experience has truly changed the direction of my future. I'm more motivated, alert, and interested in excelling in school. I know that I want a career that I am happy with, and my job at CITA has showed me that I must work hard at it to ultimately get what I strive for. I learned how to interact socially with students that are at much older and mature than I am and comfortably integrate myself into their conversations. I learned how to work independently, but still within a group, without anyone telling me directions every step of the way. I learned much more at this job than I ever could have at any-old summer job."