VOTE FOR COACH K AND THE EMILY K CENTER - VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN!!!

We are proud to announce that Coach K has named the Emily Krzyzewski Center as his selected charity in the Infiniti Coaches’ Charity Challenge. Forty-eight top college basketball coaches will participate in the challenge which invites fans to vote for their favorite coach over an eight week period. Voters can cast their ballot through ESPN.com’s link to the Infiniti Coaches’ Charity Challenge and can vote for Coach K each day. Infiniti will contribute more than $300,000 to selected charities, with one winner receiving $100,000. Without Coach Krzyzewski’s support, the Emily K Center would not be able to offer 1,500 students and community members each month the opportunity to learn, convene and grow, or conduct its academic K to College Model, a program designed to help students achieve in school and gain entry to college.

January 20, 2012 at 10:50 am | Our Organization | 1 comment

Joseph Advances to 2nd Round of JROTC Academic Challenge!

Congratulations to Emily K Scholars to College Junior Joseph Celestin for advancing to the second round in the JROTC Academic Challenge! Joseph was part of a four person team from Hillside High who competed in a 75 question Junior ROTC competition. More than 1300 JROTC programs from across the country took part in the challenge. He finished in the top 50%, which qualified him to advance to round two to be held this coming February. Joseph has been at Emily K for the past three years and shows character and determination through this effort. If the team he competes with finishes as one of the top 40 in the next round, they will go to Washington, DC in June to attend a leadership symposium and compete face-to-face. We are proud of you Joe. Good Luck!

January 11, 2012 at 2:30 pm | Our Students | 1 comment

Waffles in the House

Emily K seniors gathered at the Center during their vacation for a waffle breakfast get-together. Staffers Ashlea Hitchcock and Girija Mahajan served up the waffles with high octane maple syrup from donor, Ralph Smitten.  College acceptances and scholarships were the major topics of discussion, followed closely by after-Christmas sales at the mall. The group agreed to ‘Just Say No’ to senioritis in the upcoming second semester. Hard work and focus will take them to graduation and on their way to college!

December 30, 2011 at 10:07 am | Our Students | 1 comment

Emily K Students Jazz it up with the John Brown Orchestra’s Little Big Band

It was a fond farewell to 2011. Emily K Pioneer Scholars finished their last day at the Center for this year with a program fit for a king.  Or, maybe a President. John Brown and his 11 piece Jazz Orchestra conducted an educational performance for the Scholars and shared that one of their most recent gigs had been for President Obama in Hawaii.

“We are excited to be here, too,” John said, “Sometimes when we do educational performances it will be the first time the kids have ever heard jazz instruments. Who knows, the next Dizzy Gillespie might be out in that audience.”

John is the Director of the Jazz program at Duke University and the leader of the band. He and his orchestra are committed to bringing the big band sound to student groups all over North Carolina. It is a mission they believe in so strongly that they manage to fit it in around their non-volunteer professional performances.
“We introduce each of the instruments individually to the kids, and then we get them involved in the music.”

And the students did get involved. They had an opportunity to ask questions, which included asking how much some of the instruments weighed, and how long it takes before a musician is good enough to play in concerts. The students also learned that even the familiar strains of Sesame Street and the Flintstones intro music can be jazzed up by the big band sound.

Executive Director, Adam Eigenrauch commented that it’s easy to tell that you’re reaching kids with music when the air guitar, air drums, and, in this case, air horns, come out. The program ended with John promising that he and his fellow musicians would return next year and students left with toes tapping on their way to learning even more at Emily K come 2012.

December 16, 2011 at 1:29 pm | Our Students | No comment

Emily K Star Michele White Celebrates Her Birthday in Style!

Today marks another exciting milestone in the life of the Emily K Center as Communications Coordinator Michele White celebrates her birthday. Staff gathered in the Board room to share a few laughs and a “spot of tea” with the birthday girl.

When asked what she liked most about Michele, 2nd grader Arianna said, “I liked doing reading with Ms.Michele. She’s very nice and I hope she has a great birthday!”

2nd grader Kevin added his wishes too.  “Merry Christmas… I mean Happy Birthday!  I would like to give you something special - that could be something like earrings or maybe a shirt but I can’t because I don’t have a car to go get them.  I liked being your student!  You’re exciting!”

Happy Birthday to a very special member of our Emily K Center Team!

***Michele White is the author of 99% of our blog posts so we decided that on her birthday she should get to enjoy a break from writing and instead be the “star” of a post!  She enjoyed it and we hope you do too!***

December 8, 2011 at 2:33 pm | Our Team | 1 comment

Celebrating our Volunteers!

Students and Staff at the Emily K Center would like to recognize our amazing volunteers today, December 5th, International Volunteer Day.  Designated by the United Nations in 1985 as a day of international observance, we too celebrate the contribution volunteers make to society.

At Emily K our volunteers are a wonderfully diverse group. They are university students, having come from (depending on their semester and their schedule) Duke, UNC, NCCU and NC State. They are community members, some who have lived in Durham all their lives and view their work at EKC as a continued investment of time and commitment to their city and their neighbor families. Others have just moved to the area and hear that great work is being done at the Center. They want to put down roots and we are a great place to do just that.

Some of our volunteers work with the students every single week. Others helps with our events or our administrative endeavors. Still others offer their expertise in a particular skill area such as theater, technology, drama or sport.

Over the past five years we have had more than 700 volunteers gift us with their time at the Center. It is wonderful that a particular day has been set aside for recongititon, but at the Emily K Center, we don’t need to be reminded of how integral our volunteers are to our effort. We celebrate you each and every day. Thank you. The Emily K Students and Staff.

December 5, 2011 at 10:16 am | Our Team | No comment

Terrific Translators

Firsts are always exciting and this week Emily K celebrated another first.

A few of our students in high school are serving as translators for parent meetings, which take place at the Center after students receive their first report card every fall.  Spanish speaking scholars have generously offered to donate their time to facilitate conferences with some of our families.  They volunteered to take part in an orientation and then began offering their help for the meetings of younger students.

It’s a win/win. They are glad to be of service at their own Emily K Center. And we are proud of their abilities and their generosity.

December 1, 2011 at 3:03 pm | Our Students | No comment

Kleyser Applies to Governor’s School

While Emily K seniors are completing their college applications, junior Kleyser is making an application of his own. Kleyser, a student at Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College High School, was nominated by his school to take a rigorous exam as a qualifier for North Carolina Governor’s School. Kleyser passed the exam at Early College, which then moved him to the next phase of the application - writing the required essays.

As of last week Kleyser’s application is complete and has been submitted. Emily K wishes Kleyser good luck in his quest for a spot, knowing that even to be considered is an honor!

November 29, 2011 at 9:49 am | Our Students | No comment

Emily K Students 903 For Coach K!

Emily K students took time out from the work at hand to share in the congratulations of Coach K’s 903 win. Taking up a good part of the 2001 Final Four floor that serves as our gym, almost 70 students and staff members stood in the formation of a 903. Volunteer Marissa Streyle offered her photography services and showed first class patience as we worked to clearly become a 9, a zero and a 3 from a distance.

Lesson Learned #1 – the number nine was the easiest for some reason.

Lesson Learned #2 –Emily K Scholars are unmatched in terms of study skills but we need a bit of work on parade formation.

Congratulations Coach K. If we work as hard in the classroom as you do in your preparation we will become championship winners too!

November 21, 2011 at 4:37 pm | Our Team | 2 comments

Famous Jazz Musician to Give Educational Workshop at Emily K

John Brown is coming! That’s the word on the street. The famous jazz musician will make a much-anticipated visit to the Emily K Center for a program that will be part mini-concert, part workshop and all fun.

John is a bassist, a composer and an educator. He’s been performing professionally since his teens in the U.S. and abroad with artists like Wynton Marsalis and Diahann Carroll, as well as giving performances with the North Carolina Symphony. John constantly seeks opportunities to work with students and to study himself. He’s attended the Lincoln Center Institute in New York City and is now a certified instructor using their model of music instruction.

John has been selected by the North Carolina Arts Council to assemble performing groups connecting arts and education, so children are exposed to and have the opportunity to make music. The program is expected to be lively, interactive and a fitting end to a successful first semester of programming at EKC. Can’t wait for your visit John!

November 18, 2011 at 1:05 pm | Our Team | No comment

Next Page »