Programs
Academic and Innovation
The C.O.O.L.™ Education Project provides passionate volunteers from all majors and backgrounds with the opportunity to make a difference in their community. For those who are willing to commit a year of service to improving the lives of K-12th grade students in central Mississippi, a living stipend is provided monthly and a monetary education award is provided upon completion of their service term. SR1 C.O.OL.™ Educators use their passions to change the lives of others by assisting K-12th grade students year-round (i.e. academic year, Summer recess) with academics and social skills building, college access and success; encouraging, modeling, and supporting social skills development; and working alongside a team or independently to effectively achieve academic and social growth for K-12th grades students.
SR1 implements the Community Oriented Opportunities for Learning (C.O.O.L.™) Literacy Project in Central Mississippi with K-8 grade students who are below grade-level readers. The goal of the project is to foster and improve academic success through reading and writing. The C.O.O.L.™ Literacy Project provides extensive and innovative literacy services using evidence-based techniques that facilitate an increase in reading comprehension, as well as writing skills. Specialized reading times take place to encourage reading in a relaxed environment, while stimulating discussion among the students. Students participate in on-site book clubs to influence collaboration among students and to facilitate communication while making reading a fun group activity.
The Community Oriented Opportunities for Learning (C.O.O.L.™) Entergy Project aims to increase the academic success, social skills, energy management, and innovative usage and promotion of alternative energy sources among K-12 students in Central Mississippi. The year-round project utilizes Entergy’s Nuclear Energy curriculum and LEGO renewable energy robotics to assist the students in understanding and exploring energy sources. Students serve as junior engineers to investigate energy supply, transfer, accumulation, conversion, and consumption while using measurements and data analysis to describe and explain energy outcomes. College visits to Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering and the University of Mississippi’s School of Engineering further promote the project’s goals.
Civic Literacy
Once a year, SR1 participates in the nationally recognized service day, Make A Difference Day in order to improve the lives of others. SR1’s Make a Difference Day activities promote community health awareness and academic knowledge by facilitating events that provide health information literacy, outdoor recreational activities, nutrition education, substance abuse prevention, and STEM activities relating to mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry, genetics, and biology. All activities stem from the organization’s mission of expanding opportunities through education, health, and technology.
Teen Speak is a parental skill building, evidence informed model that teaches motivational interviewing to guide communication with youth about topics such as sexual activity, substance use, and other risky behaviors and support them in making healthy decisions. The impact of the program is strengthened parent-youth relationship and improved communication leading to decreased risky behaviors in youth. Trained SR1 facilitators guide the transition of knowledge into skills for daily adult-teen communication. Teen Speak is delivered in community and school-based settings.
Family & Relationship
Life & Career Skills
SR1 administers a 14-step ACT workshop, which includes a full-length ACT pre and post-test. SR1’s ACT Prep allows students to be in a small group setting to go over ACT material from each subject: English, Math, Reading, and Science. The students focus on two subjects in one workshop session, and alternate subjects each workshop session, so that they can gain a better understanding of each subject. Along with preparing for the ACT, we also focus on college, and have the students look up schools and majors that they are interested in so that they will know what to expect when it comes to requirements needed for potential schools and majors.
SR1’s robotics team, SCARLET (Science Creations Are Real Let’s Evolve Together), helps students gain early exposure to STEM fields. To qualify for the team, students must be in grades 6th-12th grade. The team meets on Saturdays at the SR1 Think Center, and is mentored by STEM Professionals who guide them through the engineering process to successfully build and program their robot. Team SCARLET competes every year in the First Tech Challenge (FTC) competition hosted by the university of Mississippi. Throughout the years, the students have placed at qualifiers, receiving such awards as:
201 Northern MS Qualifier Think Award
Delta Area MS Qualifying Tournament Connect Award
Gulf Coast MS Qualifying Tournament Motivate Award
MS Championship Tournament Judges Award
Healthy Lifestyle
The Community Oriented Opportunities for Learning (C.O.O.L.™) Coalition is a collaborative group of individuals and organizations serving Hinds, Madison, and Scott counties, and is dedicated to improving the health and welfare practices for the community.
The C.O.O.L.™ Coalition works diligently to:
Provide information regarding substance and drug abuse
Enhance knowledge and skills to strengthen and sustain the Drug-Free Community Program
Change the physical design of the community to reduce and prevent youth substance abuse
Provide support to youth, parents, and the surrounding communities
Reduce access and enhance barriers
Advocate for policy change that reduces youth substance abuse
The C.O.O.L.™ Coalition utilizes resources from the community to help the public understand the factors that lead to drug and substance abuse and thus to prevent its onset.
Outdoor and Recreational
The Go! Wild In Nature (WIN) Project provides students (female, African- American, and Hispanic) and their caregivers the opportunity to gain knowledge of Mississippi’s environmental ecosystem through hands-on experience with Mississippi wildlife and nature. Participants learn preservation of natural biology, obtain safety skills, and broaden their education through a number of endeavors. Students participate in watershed literacy, plant and wildlife ecosystem explorations, and archery through the following programs: Watershed Education at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, activities at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and activities at the USM Marine Education Center.
WATERSHED EDUCATION AT USM GULF COAST RESEARCH LABORATORY The Watershed Education program at the USM Gulf Coast Research Laboratory teaches students and staff evidence-based methods to maximize the probability of watershed literacy and long-term environmental stewardship. Students participate in two separate hands on pre-cruise, cruise, and post-cruise semester activities. Activities include: students learning watershed literacy content, human and natural causes of change in watersheds, map orientation, data collection (GPS location, temperature, clarity, dissolved oxygen, salinity) and data entry skills; students researching local watersheds to learn about cleanups; students monitoring activities and restoration projects; and students visiting Pascagoula watershed to research natural changes (avulsion and channel switching) and compare Pascagoula and home watersheds.
MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE At the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the museum staff provide students the opportunity to take part in the “behind-the-scenes” museum activities, gain knowledge about ongoing conservation research, view museum exhibits, and participate in Museum curriculum learning activities associated with conservation.
USM MARINE EDUCATION CENTER The USM Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs provides classroom and hands-on activities in the areas of conservation biology, habitat conversation, and wildlife conservation. Students participate in the protection of marine animals’ natural habitats in Mississippi waterways through USM’s Mississippi Marine Debris Removal program. USM also host a two-day on-site Coastal Science Camp where students will serve as conservationists. Activities include an introduction to shark biology; data sheet interpretation; how to hold, tag and measure a shark; shark ecological importance and shark species; measurement of water quality parameters; sieve net sampling nekton; dip net sampling of fringe marsh species; and geographic orientation via Google Earth.
ARCHERY Students are trained on the benefits of archery, the 11 safety steps of archery, and the identification of the parts of the bow and arrow utilizing the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) curriculum. Upon successful completion of the NASP curriculum and accurate demonstration of the 11 safety steps, students practice their archery skills for at least eight hours a month. Additionally, through archery, students gain knowledge on bow-hunting requirements, restrictions, safety methods, and techniques necessary for bow hunting in Mississippi.
The SR1 All-Stars, located in Ridgeland, MS, have become one of the highest-ranking and notarized club basketball teams in the nation. SR1 All-Stars club basketball teams include: Ladies 16U and 17U teams and Boys 16U and 17U teams. SR1 All-Stars have more than 30 student-athletes that are currently playing collegiate basketball. SR1 All-Stars participate in the most competitive travel schedule throughout the nation to ensure student-athletes can reach their full college preparatory potential.
SR1 All-Stars is sponsored by SR1, a non-profit located in Ridgeland, MS that provides College Preparatory services, with the goal of helping student-athletes reach the highest level of “College Access and Success” athletically, academically, and socially.