FSGWA

On February 18th, we celebrated President's Day with a wonderful visit to the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  We met our bus at the CFSA building in Washington, D.C. on what started as a frigid, windy, early morning. We watched the temperature rise from 11 degrees to 45 by noon.  On the bus ride south, students discussed their desire to follow up with service activities such as Habitat for Humanity and Build-A-House, Melwood Therapeutic Riding, animal rescue and volunteering at nursing homes. We discussed grades and school activities.
 

Luckily, as the day warmed up to become a sunny cool day, we walked the entire campus learning about the many resources and programs offered at this 105 year old public university.

The students of the First Star Greater Washington Academy are simply AWESOME!  We continue to be so pleased with their continuous progress through the curriculum.  Yesterday, we covered a lot of ground and had a terrific day.  Fortified with fresh bananas, juice and bagels, we met at the Mott Community Center and began the day with a review and discussion of our Academy objectives,.  The students offered feedback on what we have introduced so far as well as seeing what was coming in the future.  We moved easily into a more physical activity with Tai Chi offered by our great instructor, Mr. Michael Boudreau Xue Jin Wei, who taught us movements to energize us, focus our breathing (the sun movement) and manage anger.  We really liked punching out the negative energy and pulling in the positive energy.

The Nutcracker Ballet was absolutely exquisite!  The students arrived all dressed up, smiling, and excited to see the performance.  A few students were delayed by a terrible accident on Rt. 66, but we got them seated as soon as they arrived so that they did not miss much.  Students, family members, mentors and social workers all sat in the orchestra section front and center to enjoy every moment. Everything about the show was top notch and the theatre itself was stunning!  We all couldn't get over our amazing seats, courtesy of the Manassas Ballet Theatre and Macy's who sponsored our tickets! We want to especially thank Ms. Jeanette Meyers who made all of this possible by reaching out to us way back in September at the Academy Kickoff with her generous kindness to let us experience the live ballet for the first time for all of our students!  As with most of us who have experienced the Nutcracker, from here on forward, the students will never be able to hear the music without an immediate association with this incredible production.

Good morning,
 

I am pleased to report that we had yet another fabulous Academy event yesterday, December 2nd, 8:30 - 4:00 at the Mott Community Center.  We were overjoyed with the Quantum Learning training we received from Ms. Jessica Smith on the Eight Keys of Excellence: Integrity, Failure Leads to Success, Speak with Good Purpose, This is It!, Commitment, Ownership, Flexibility and Balance.  The session was filled with games, exercises, reading, writing, thinking, sharing and presenting experiences that engaged the students the entire day.  Ms. Jess is an extraordinary teacher who any student would be lucky to have. She kept the students up and moving around, laughing, sharing, communicating with special signals and acronyms and overall learning, learning, learning!

Good morning,
 

I would like to start by thanking Fairfax County for the use of the Mott Community Center for our November 4th Academy event.  The facility is wonderful and offered us everything we needed to conduct our session.  The staff members, Warda and Mervin, were gracious and always available for anything we needed.
 

We had a very full day filled with many curricular areas to cover in order to meet our listed objectives (please see attached).  

Good morning,

It is a bright and wonderful fall day to celebrate our second monthly event at the Alexandria campus of the Northern Virginia Community College, held yesterday, October 20th. Every one of our students participated and were joined by three new students. As students excitedly arrived, they ran to hug us all and each other, jumping and laughing and immediately sharing how much they missed each other. As they waited for everyone to arrive, they decorated small pumpkins that I gave them to take home. They took responsibility to introduce the new students and to make them feel immediately comfortable and welcome. We reviewed what we had agreed to last time about a community based on trust, and then we added the importance of respect in all of our interactions.

Good morning,

We had a FANTASTIC weekend event! The Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center was fabulous! The EDGE experience was beyond our expectations. Our rooms were spacious and the center offered unlimited opportunities. Every single staff person went above and beyond to make our time there perfect. Our nurse, Ms. Morgan, was wonderful. The CFSA and DFS staff, social workers, CASA workers, mentors, foster families, and bio families did all the prep work to get the students there with all the necessary forms, transportation, and supplies. It was about as flawless as it could get. The students arrived between 1:00-1:45 and two came earlier. We had great volunteers to help us complete the Treasure Hunt GMU campus tour, ending at the gorgeous Hylton Center for the Performing Arts. The theatre auditorium was dazzling. When I shared with the students that we have been comped some tickets to the Nutcracker ballet performance in December, they were so excited. I told them that this event is when we get to dress up fancy and one young man said he looked “very fine” in a suit!

First Star Greater DC Academy