311275 Period 4 Production mandates academic support for cast Directors of Blairs theatrical production of African American history,

Sankofa, recently established a system of mandatory academic support sessions every day of the upcoming rehearsals for the 70 cast members. A $3000 Minority Achievement Grant is being provided to Sankofa from MCPS, which will pay for snacks and teacher stipends to compensate them for their participation, according to directors. According to Student Director senior Amie Idriss, academic support will involve a quiet room for students to study and a tutoring room for students to ask teachers and other students questions. The support will be open to all students and not just cast members, according to Director Vickie Adamson. Adamson said since Sankofa directors are organizing academic support anyway, why not give other students an opportunity to get help. One math teacher, one social studies teacher, and a number of English teachers will be involved with assisting students with their homework. Were also working to get students involved as tutors and students who want to be tutors will get Student Service Learning hours, said Adamson. In previous years, according to Adamson, cast members were encouraged to stay on top of their school work, but there was not structured time provided as homework time. There were some problems with people having borderline grades last year, said cast member senior Sarika Ramaswamy. According to Idriss, as the performance days approach and the rehearsals get longer students tend to get tired, they get home late and have no energy to do homework. Adamson said that teachers had approached directors about students whose academic performance was declining as a result of the rehearsals. According to Assistant Director Pamela Bryant, the homework sessions will help students prioritize and manage their time, so that students grades will not suffer as a result of their time

311275 Period 4 commitment to the production. When you do anything through a school, the priority is to be a student, said Adamson. The opinions of cast members on the mandatory homework session vary, as some say the academic support will not be beneficial to them. Cast member senior Mekdes Sisay says that the academic support is a good idea but it might not be as necessary for some as for others. Senior Ariel Blakey said that she would rather not go to the mandatory sessions, as she focuses better at home than in school, and the sessions will not be helpful for her. According to Blakey, a number of students share her opinion. However, according to Ramaswamy and Sisay, most students recognize what the directors are attempting to achieve with the academic support and they think that the sessions will be beneficial to them. Freshman Mariam Jiffar said she appreciates the directors acknowledgment of how much time a show takes up and their effort to make sure we don't fall behind with our studies because of being in Sankofa. Junior Eunice Muchemi, an additional student director, said that most students think that it is a great idea, and will help cast members with managing their time focusing on homework. Muchemi also said that the academic support is beneficial to more than just grades; it will help the cast with bonding, learning how to help one another, and working together. Despite the mandatory requirement, there is currently no penalty for missing academic support sessions, said cast members. ` Sankofa academic support is available to all Blair students every school day from 2:30 to

3:30 starting January 22 and ending February 13. Performance times for Sankofa will be February 14 and 15 at 7:30 PM.