ABOUT US
WHO IS CAROL?
My name is Carol Sobh. I graduated from Rutgers University in 2001 with a B.A in marketing. After graduating I followed my dream of working for a marketing research company and slowly found myself searching for something more meaningful. I decided I wanted to start my own business in retail and successfully did so for 5 years. At one point I had opened a business in the Bronx with the idea that I had found my calling.
As I started to immerse myself into my business I was becoming more and more interested in the lives of the people that I happened to see every day. Many of these people, including single mothers, were struggling to make it with more than one job. As I became closer to these families I found myself fascinated by the children. I would spend hours just conversing with them and found they had so much interest in learning and talking about many things that neither their mothers nor their teachers had time for.
I started reading about what schools were like in the Bronx and many other inner city neighborhoods and slowly came to the realization of the bleak future these kids had within their own communities. So I started an arts and crafts session for free for children in the community once every month. Many of the children lacked personal experiences and knowledge upon which they could learn from. This allowed me to see the lack of support and the inexperience of basic skills.
After attending many conferences on learning and the brain, I realized how important it is to take children outside of their own environments by showing them the opportunities they haven't had the chance to experience, and giving them the confidence to live a happy and successful life.
Starlet Academy is about giving children this opportunity!!! Our mission statement is to educate, enrich, enable and inspire children to be continually curious by experiencing new adventures and explorations.
WHAT IS
STARLET ACADEMY?
Starlet Academy is a nonprofit organization that provides field trips for economically disadvantaged youth from urban neighborhoods.
In the past, schools gladly endured the expense and disruption of providing field trips because they viewed these experiences as central to their educational mission. More advantaged families may take their children to these cultural institutions outside of school hours, but less advantaged students are less likely to have these experiences if schools don't provide them.
A new study released by the University of Arkansas found that visiting an art museum even just one time made students more observant, analytical, empathetic, display higher levels of tolerance and actually retain a great deal of information from these trips- benefits were two to three times larger for low income students.
Much of what we call the "achievement gap" is better described as an "experience gap"- the vast variation in personal educational experiences between many low income students and their middle and high income peers.
We ultimately want to help children find a way to lead happy, meaningful, and productive lives by teaching them how to make better decisions, coexist with others and most importantly bounce back from challenging experiences.
Through the exploration of our trips we strive to help students learn what it means to be a successful human by learning seven character traits: Enthusiasm, Grit, Self Control, Social Intelligence, Gratitude, Optimism and Curiosity.
We have learned so much from neuroscientists in that the brain is entirely malleable! That a set of abilities or strengths are very much changeable through new learned skills that are continually practiced.
Starlet Academy has started working with School #4 in Paterson, NJ. A school that is one in three districts in N.J under "state intervention".
HOW DOES IT WORK?
"EDUCATION is the most powerful weapon
which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela
We will be providing a school bus to pick up a total of 50 students ranging from third and fourth grade students at 9 A.M until 4 P.M every Saturday.
• This program will run from September until June every Saturday during the school year.
• We will be providing students a healthy breakfast and lunch during our trips.
• We will have a 10:1 ratio of student- to -adult volunteers.
• Every child will wear a field trip shirt that will be used to highlight our sponsors.
We will start every session with a two minute meditation period and shortly after be given a journal to write three things they are grateful for. These are habits that fit into becoming a happy and healthy human being.
• They will be given pre-trip instructions to maximize the learning opportunity and students will have time for guided reflection after each conclusion of our trip.
• Integrating academically focused field trips will help deepen their experiences while allowing them to grow more confidently.
Our trips will include: museums, parks, zoos, theatre, concerts, ball games, and career related trips, focusing on having students think about possible career options.
• After six months into the program we will collaborate with the faculty to find out the effects of this program on each student attending.
