Summer is over and school is back in. August 1st marked a new school year for all Atlanta Public School students. New teachers, new classmates, and a fresh mind for a new season. Students dove deep into new content from the start of the school year and SCM was there to support them through it.

Typically, we give our students a little over a month to settle into the school year before we start our After-School Program. September 10th was our first day back and students were eager to share with us their experiences thus far. We always start the day off with a devotion to allow students the opportunity to spend some personal time with God. Afterwards, we serve a hardy snack. This time allows for the students to fellowship with new friends, volunteers, and teachers as well as give them fuel for what’s to come next. Once snack is over, students separate by grade levels to complete homework. At SCM, we do not just focus on getting homework done BUT done correctly. We want to see our students excel and at SCM, excepting mediocrity is not the way we do things.

After homework time, students get the chance to express their creativity in an enrichment or blow off some energy during free time. For the past two weeks students have expressed their creativity by telling us all about them. They created All About Me pendants that tells about their favorite things (color, food, subject, animal, sport, etc.). Once final touches are put on them and their pictures are attached, the pendants are displayed in the halls of the facility. This way any visitor can learn about any student. This enrichment is a nice way to break the ice of being a part of SCM.

This past weekend students went on their first field trip of the school year with SCM. The trip was to a special premier viewing of Long Time Coming: A 1955 Baseball Story. It tells the the story of the first racially integrated Little League game in the Deep South featuring Hank Aaron and Andrew Young. Afterwards, we had a dialogue regarding the discussed topics within the movie.

We are so excited to see what new adventures God will take us on this school year. Please continue to pray for SCM, its staff and volunteers, its students, and their families.