Article published by Jacob Posner - The Enterprise - August 7, 2025

BROCKTON — As "Pomp and Circumstance" plays, young people in graduation caps walk proudly across a stage, shaking hands with teachers and receiving their diplomas. Some flash a smile, a peace sign or a wave to family and friends.

No, it’s not high school kids graduating, but 120 elementary school students finishing summer school in late July.

These students completed the Power Scholars Academy, a program to help kids in Brockton at risk of falling behind academically.

The graduation ceremony helps kids recognize that they’ve accomplished something important, Beth Keane, a school administrator who oversees the program, said. The program isn’t just about helping kids catch up, she said, but showing them that knowledge provides “the power to really propel yourself forward in life.”

Academic gains

The Power Scholars model was designed by national education organization BellXcel, and it’s done more than just stop summer learning loss for kids in Brockton, according to Derek Paiva, vice president of the Old Colony YMCA of East Bridgewater. The program is a collaboration between Brockton Community Schools and the YMCA.

Over last year’s four-week session, kids gained, on average, two months of progress in math and two-and-half months in literacy, he said. “Usually, these kids will lose like a month or two,” he said.

Each day, kids learn math and reading in the morning and do activities – like arts and crafts – in the afternoon. They also go on field trips.

“Even though, [in] the second part of the day, they don’t think they’re learning, they are learning,” Paiva said.

Nine-year-old Jessenya Vargas said she likes the program and has done it for the past few years. Students qualify for the program if they are testing below grade level.

“[In] school, we do a little fun, but it’s mostly learning, but this, it has both. It has fun and still learning,” she said, after graduation at Baker Elementary School.

Kids connect with the books in the Power Scholars curriculum because "they're diverse," said Keane, who used to be an English teacher. "They're reading about kids that look like them and feel like them."

‘I am a scholar’

The Power Scholars model recognizes that learning is “a unique experience for every student,” Keane said, which is reflected in the kids’ regalia during graduation.

They wore paper graduation caps, each with drawings they made, and paper sashes with words of affirmation they wrote.

10-year-old Kelis Monteiro adorned her cap with a drawing of her name and a rainbow, and wrote on her sash, “kind, smart, unique, amazing, respectful, beautiful and natural.”

She chose those words because “I believe that I am all of those,” she said with a wide smile.

At one point during the ceremony, the power scholars – all dressed in pink shirts reading “finding my genius within” – recited their “power pledge” in a call-and-response with a teacher on the stage.

Their voices, high and exuberant, filled the room.

“I am a scholar, I am the future, I am intelligent, I am unique. When the time comes, I will be a leader. When there is injustice, I will take a stand. I will be ambitious because I am and always will be a power scholar, an educated leader for life!”