Bengal News West Reporters
Students from grades 7 through 12 rushed through the big wooden doors of Lafayette High School to get ready to participate at the Saturday Academy.
As kids signed in at the front table, they received a free breakfast and sat as they waited patiently to start learning on this Saturday morning.
Volunteers from all over Western New York set up and got the classrooms ready for activities. Lafayette High is one of the four Community Schools in Buffalo that are open on Saturdays for activities such as sports, music and cooking classes. High School students are able to take SAT prep classes on Saturdays to help prepare for the standardized test.
The Saturday Academy at Lafayette started in October and will be held every Saturday throughout the school year from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Saturday academy helps the kids to learn even on the weekends.
“Kids that attend the Saturday Academy tend to also attend school and vice versa,” said Zena Mtiranyabigara, Community School navigator. “So we want to connect the students during the week to the Saturday academies and also the academy activities that we go over on Saturdays give them their community achievement during the week.”
The Saturday Academy is not only for students, but it’s for the parents and the community as well. Parents are invited to parent learning courses that are open to everyone in the community.
Volunteers come in to help out the kids during the Saturday academy activities. Diana Leiker, a deacon with the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York said St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and at St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church came together to help the refugees feel that this is a place where they should feel safe.
“The whole premise to give refugees a place to practice English and meet some everyday Americans in a non- threatening environment,” Leiker said.
Leiker and her volunteers feel the need to meet with these children and to get to know one another. The volunteers prepared lunches for the children at the academy and created a game so everyone could get a chance to talk to one another by asking them a question.
“What we want to want to do it let the refuges know they’re welcomed and give them a chance to meet some people,” Leiker said.
The Saturday Academy is free and it is encouraged for families to come and participate. The kids that participate are from all over Buffalo, and not just the West Side. Free transportation is given to the kids who lived too far away to walk to Lafayette High.
“Sometimes we also have parents who come for activities that involves parents and also the community members so this is open for everyone, the students and the parents,” Mtiranyabigara said.
The academy is a place for students to learn new languages and Lafayette has many students who speak different languages. Lafayette High Principal John Starkey spoke over the loud speaker during the academy in different languages for all students to understand.
Buffalo School teacher, Evelyn Arent, said that teaching is her passion and the kids mean a lot to her.
“These kids are learning English and they are in high school,” Arent said. “They’re struggling but they are willing to learn.”
Arent said that the program for the kids focuses on their culture and finding their identity. The community involvement is one of the reasons why the Community Schools run today. The faculty, volunteers and the families and all work together to make the children’s time at school fun on a Saturday.
