Registration for Wake UP! Student Empowerment Summit ends Friday

The third annual Wake UP! Student Empowerment Summit is approaching -- March 22 -- and students have until Friday to register.

For the last six months, students from a dozen CMS middle and high schools have been meeting through the Wake UP! program to learn about the state of education in the Charlotte area and discuss ways to improve educational equality.

In December, I wrote about Jayla DeBoles and Jason King, two eighth-graders who took the helm with the Wake UP! initiative at Ranson Middle.

The Summit, hosted by Teach for America, will be at the Renaissance Charlotte Suites Hotel.  Members of The Possibility Project will perform, and there will be time for students to share what they've learned and have community conversations. It's open to the public, but attendees must register, which can be done here.

Field to Fork program announces 15 schools to grow veggies

Students from 15 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will be growing vegetables in the classroom this spring.

Third-graders from Huntingtowne Farms Elementary make
pizzas at a Fuel Pizza location with their own ingredients in Dec. 2012. 

Through the "Field to Fork" program (partners: Fuel Pizza Cafe, Mecklenburg Co. Health Department, Mecklenburg Co. Fruit & Vegetable Coalition, CMS and LandSculptors, LLC), kids will learn about nutrition and grow garden vegetables at their school. 

They'll pick their produce after several weeks and take it to a Fuel Pizza location, where their ingredients will be chopped up. Then the students will make (and eat!) vegetable-laden pizzas of their own creation.

The elementary schools participating this spring:

Albemarle Road 

Bain

Berryhill

Blythe

Collinswood Language Academy

Idlewild

J.V. Washam

Lake Wylie

Lebanon

Newell

Selwyn

Statesville Road

Whitewater Academy

Windsor Park

Winget Park

CMS kids can now compete for "Rocking the Belk Bowl Contest"

Belk's "Rocking the Belk Bowl Contest" is returning for a second year to award Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools a total of $150,000 in technology grants.

The contest is open to all CMS elementary, middle and high schools.

Participating schools have the chance to win one of three $25,000 grants plus $75,000 in cash awards from Belk for improving schools' technology and learning. Some tickets to the Belk Bowl,  a college football game played each year at Panthers Stadium, will also be awarded to some students and staff.

To enter, students must create designs incorporating educational and Belk Bowl themes and display them on school rocks or bulletin boards.

Schools can submit photos of students working on their designs as well as a 30- to 60-second video explaining their school's need for a grant.

Submissions are due by Nov. 16. For more information, email April Smith at April_Smith@belk.com.

CMS hosts Transition Fair for students, parents

Throughout the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system, there are about 500 middle and high school students with special needs.

These students are prepared and given the tools they may need to succeed after high school, but it can still be a challenging transition for parents and students.

But on Thursday, students and their parents will have the opportunity to come together for the 15th annual Transition Fair from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in the East Mecklenburg High School cafeteria.

At the exhibit-style fair, there will be about 30 agencies, colleges and local businesses available to share resources and answer questions.

For more information about the Transition Fair, contact Laura Norris at 980-343-2632, or email laura.norris@cms.k12.nc.us.