Inspiring Summers, The Big Lift’s innovative summer program, helps prevent summer learning loss by providing free summer learning opportunities for early elementary students in The Big Lift’s partner districts.
We’re excited to be enrolling students in the 10th annual Inspiring Summers program–a huge milestone! That’s 10 years of summer fun, hands-on learning experiences, and high quality reading instruction that keeps students engaged in learning all year long.
The person making this happen is Caila Parodi, Inspiring Summers Program Director. Get to know Caila and learn more about how Inspiring Summers fulfills an important role in The Big Lift’s approach to supporting reading proficiency.
Q: Caila, thank you for everything you do to make Inspiring Summers impactful for students and families. How long have you been in this role and what brought you to the work?
A: I’ve been working for San Mateo County Libraries leading the Inspiring Summers program for a little over 3 years. I have previous experience working in out of school time programs and partnering with schools to support youth literacy and development. I love that Inspiring Summers increases access to rich summer experiences, builds 21st century skills and helps our kids learn how to read.
Q: Why are summer learning experiences, like Inspiring Summers, so important for students?
A: Children not engaged in summer learning experiences can experience two or more months of learning loss over the summer. Inspiring Summers focuses on building literacy skills and prioritizes children who need the academic support the most, so not only are we preventing summer learning loss but, in many cases, children are making gains in literacy skills during the summer. This is essential to help children read proficiently by third grade.
Q: What is your approach to planning the Inspiring Summers program? What is your vision for the program?
A: One of the most rewarding parts of the program is that kids are developing a love for school, building their confidence and gaining valuable literacy skills. Every summer, families share feedback in surveys that their children are excited to go to school every day during Inspiring Summers: they are eager to get to the program in the morning and are jumping in the car at the end of the day with an exciting story to share. All partners—The Big Lift, San Mateo County Libraries, our partner school districts—have bought into the goals of Inspiring Summer. The STEAM activities led by library facilitators and the enriching on-site and off-site field trip experiences build essential 21st century skills and make the program feel like summer camp. And the intentional academic instruction in literacy and math, explicitly taught every morning by a certified teacher and embedded in all portions of the program, are essential to helping children learn valuable academic, social-emotional, and critical thinking skills.
Q: Inspiring Summers takes place across 7 different school districts and 4 grade levels. How does that work? How do you and district partners make sure each student is supported?
A: It is a collaborative effort. Districts are responsible for enrolling rising kindergarten to rising third grade children in the program based on academic need. Districts hire certified teachers to lead the literacy and math instruction, as well as principals and instructional coaches to lead the program. San Mateo County Libraries hires and provides training for the learning facilitators, who support the teacher with academic instruction and lead the hands-on, child-directed STEAM activities in the afternoon.
Q: How does Inspiring Summers fit into The Big Lift as a whole? How does it support or complement the other strategies?
A: We are all so thrilled there’s a new focus of intentional TK-3 literacy work year-round, and we are already seeing the benefits as we plan for this upcoming summer. Districts are using their mid-year literacy assessments to identify children for the program and are working with their literacy leads to embed 20 minutes of structured phonics instruction daily for all kids in the program. Districts will also be hosting family literacy events this summer, for the first time since before the pandemic, that will focus on sharing at-home literacy best practices with families to continue learning at home after the program ends. We are especially thrilled to continue to deepen our partnership and connection between San Mateo County Libraries and our Big Lift families all year long.
Q: Thank you so much! We are excited to kick off another inspiring summer next month!
A: Me too!