MTV Announces October as Education Month, Empowering Students to Prepare Themselves for High School and College Success
20 September 2005 - 5:13AM
PR Newswire (US)
Leading Into A Month of Education-Related Elements On- &
Off-Air, "THINK Over Your School" Premieres September 29 at 10:30
p.m. ET/PT NEW YORK, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV: Music Television
today announced the launch of October as "Education Month" to
encourage and empower young people with the tools they need to
graduate from high school ready for college and work. The network's
think MTV: EDUCATION initiative, which is in partnership with the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is being highlighted on- air
every day in October, featuring long-form shows, PSAs, MTV News
segments and other programming. To lead into the effort, MTV will
premiere THINK OVER YOUR SCHOOL on September 29th at 10:30 p.m.
ET/PT. With the help of MTV, designers, and their principals, and
in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, a
group of Brooklyn, NY, students "THINK over" their lunchroom by
transforming the space into a multi-purpose resource to support
students' academic and creative endeavors. The lunchroom at the
Bushwick campus, which is home to four schools, now offers flexible
spaces that can be used by all students for dining, student
artwork, performances, meetings, and small group work. In addition,
the space now includes new technology tools including digital
projectors, computer stations, and sound domes. The think MTV:
EDUCATION initiative responds to recent statistics on the state of
education in America*. According to the Manhattan Institute, nearly
three of ten public school students, and almost half of all
African-American and Latino youth, do not graduate from high
school. While most students aspire to attend college, only about
two-fifths will make it there prepared for college-level work.
"It's important that we all recognize the alarmingly low high
school graduation rates among American students, and particularly
minority youth," commented Ian Rowe, VP of Strategic Partnerships
& Public Affairs for MTV. "The vast majority of young people
want to, and believe they can, go to college. We wanted to tell the
story of a group of young people who worked with their teachers and
principal to shape their own academic experience and environment."
Schools like those located on the Bushwick campus are part of a
nationwide effort to help more students graduate ready for the
future. Effective high schools feature the new 3R's: rigorous
college-preparatory courses, meaningful relationships between
teachers and students, and relevant hands-on learning that links
the classroom to the real world. "Today, young people need the same
skills for success in college and our knowledge-based economy,"
said Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education, Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation. "With MTV's help, we can empower young
people to stand up for their right to a high-quality education that
prepares them for success in college and work." Boost Mobile
RockCorps worked with MTV to "THINK over" the lunchroom on the
Bushwick Campus. Every student who volunteered at least four hours
in transforming their school earned a ticket to the Boost Mobile
RockCorps concert on September 24th at Radio City Music Hall,
hosted by Lil Jon and featuring the some of the hottest names in
hip-hop: T.I., Fat Joe, Young Jeezy and more. Boost Mobile
RockCorps encourages volunteerism in young people by offering
concert tickets in exchange for four hours of volunteer work with a
non-profit partner. Throughout October, think MTV: EDUCATION will
be featured prominently on- and off-air including new set of PSAs
featuring high school students talking candidly about their
aspirations for college and beyond; MTV News correspondent Sway
Calloway heading back to class as a participant in Teach For
America Week 2005, an annual event during which leaders from all
walks of life spend an hour of their time teaching children from
some of our nation's lowest-income communities; an encore
presentation of MY LIFE (TRANSLATED): COLLEGE DREAMS which follows
MTV News correspondent SuChin Pak as she meets second-generation
American kids and learns how their college dreams may conflict with
their families' cultural expectations (October 1 at 11 a.m. ET/PT);
MTV News reports on young people and their educational aspirations;
and online tools at http://think.mtv.com/, including resources to
prepare themselves for graduation, college, and the workplace.
think MTV: EDUCATION is part of the network's think MTV pro-social
initiative, which dedicated to the issues that young people care
about most. A think MTV icon appears onscreen during programming
that has an online counterpart; think.MTV.com offers a range of
opportunities for young people to learn about and engage on
critical issues at the local or national level. On every page
within the site, young people can search for local volunteer
opportunities, contact their political representatives, and
register to vote. Additional online partners include a range of
non-profit organizations that aim to inform and motivate young
people to get involved in issues of concern. The Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/) works to promote
greater equity in four areas: global health, education, public
libraries, and support for at-risk families in Washington state and
Oregon. The Seattle-based foundation joins local, national, and
international partners to ensure that advances in these areas reach
those who need them most. The foundation is led by Bill Gates's
father, William H. Gates, Sr., and Patty Stonesifer. RockCorps, an
organization that introduces teens and young adults to
volunteerism, and Boost Mobile, a wireless telecommunications brand
dedicated to boosting the lives of today's youth, have partnered to
launch Boost Mobile RockCorps, a groundbreaking national extension
of the RockCorps program. Combining the power of music, community
and volunteerism to breed a new generation of volunteers, the
partnership is exposing young people to simple ways they can
proactively contribute to their community. In exchange for
contributing four hours of community service work, youth volunteers
receive tickets to popular music concerts in their area. MTV
Networks owns and operates the cable television programming
services MTV: Music Television, MTV2, mtvU, Comedy Central,
Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land, VH1, CMT: Country Music
Television, and Spike TV, as well as The Digital Suite from MTV
Networks, a package of thirteen digital services, all of which are
trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also operates and offers
joint ventures, licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby
its programming can be seen worldwide. * Graduation rates: Greene,
Jay P. and Winters, Marcus (2005). Public High School Graduation
and College-Readiness Rates: 1991-2002. Education Working Paper No.
8. NY: Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute.
College aspirations: National Center for Education Statistics
(2005). A Profile of the American High School Sophomore in 2002:
Initial Results from the Base Year of the Education Longitudinal
Study of 2002 (NCES 2005-338). By Ingels, S.J., Burns, L.J., Chen,
X., Cataldi, E.F., and Charleston, S. DC: U.S. Department of
Education. Remediation: National Center for Education Statistics
(2003). Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary
Institutions in Fall 2000, NCES 2004-010, by Basmat Parsad and
Laurie Lewis. DC: U.S. Department of Education DATASOURCE: MTV
CONTACT: Janine Iamunno, +1-212-846-6992, , or Jennifer DeGuzman,
+1-212-846-7175, , both of MTV Communications, or Lindsey
Schiff-Abrams of MTV Networks Communications, +1-310-752-8082, ; or
Ariana Urbont of MTV Networks, +1-310-752-8079, Web site:
http://www.mtv.com/ http://think.mtv.com/
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/
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