MUSD Summer School programs extend learning for myriad of students

As a 2022 Summer School site for five different programs, Thomas Russell Middle School (TRMS) has got plenty of engaged students and passionate instructors on campus in July.

Inside Jaime Won’s classroom, rising 5th graders are learning to be entrepreneurs by creating their own products or services, naming their companies, pitching their ideas to investors, and devising marketing strategies.

“We made bracelets and bookmarks,” said 10-year-old Spangler Elementary student Hayden Lasqueti, who works with five of his summer classmates on designing their products as well as advertising posters for their company named Athena. “It’s been pretty fun.”

One door down in Nicole King’s classroom, rising 6th graders are researching the history of Milpitas and presenting a report on their findings in front of their fellow classmates. Meanwhile, rising 8th graders in Abraham Resngit’s classroom are finding their voice with help from folks at the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, including Executive Director Dr. Roy Wilson.

“It teaches students how to develop their own voice while building public speaking and leadership skills,” said Mr. Resngit, whose students were joined by peers from outside of Milpitas for this particular lesson to share their perspectives on a variety of issues.

The five summer programs offered at TRMS this year include: Project Based Learning (6 classes); English As a Second Language (ESL) for Newcomers (2 classes); Extended School Year (ESY) for students with learning challenges or neurodiverse learners (5 classes); Summit Learning (1 class) and GirlStart (1 class). This summer, Milpitas Unified School District is serving approximately 175 students.

“PBL is so much fun for the students because there is always an end goal. Kids look at everything they do in terms of that end goal,” said Summer School Principal Andrew Dinh. “PBL allows them to know what the end goal is and creates buy-in from the students.”

Each student or student group finishes off Summer School with a presentation, which is “their time to shine,” Dinh added.

At Summer School, students begin as early as 8 a.m. depending on the program—each one designed to target a specific group of students based on need—and finish up as late as 12:15 p.m.
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In addition to these summer programs, MUSD also offers its award-winning Love4Literacy for K-3, 9th Grade Bridge, EL A-G Courses and High School Credit Recovery. The funding sources supporting this programming includes Expanded Learning Opportunity Program and federal funding for low income and second language learners.