A's & Aces

"providing academic assistance, life skills and tennis to New Orleans public school children"

2010 A's & Aces Summer Reading & Tennis Camp at Dillard University

Thirty-seven (37) children, predominately rising third and fourth grade students, participated in the A’s & Aces Tennis and Reading Camp at Dillard University for four weeks in June.  Our staff of three tennis instructors from nationally ranked college teams were supported by two Jesuit High School service learners and worked with half of the campers individually and in small groups on the courts while the other campers and staff read in the classrooms.   Campers rotated between tennis and reading sessions once in the morning and again after lunch.

Initial reading evaluations were conducted by a Dillard professor of children’s literacy. The program used a wide selection of multi-leveled books for individual reading.  Children read one-to-one with teachers, aloud in small groups and silently together in the large reading room.  Students completed story worksheets and kept journals as part of a “writing to read” approach and stickers were earned to redeem for prizes and books.

Our “Word-of-the-Day” program focused on the vocabulary and concepts of sportsmanship, and examples from the life of Arthur Ashe promoted this theme.  Using this background, campers were able to participate in the USTA’s National Junior Tennis and Learning Arthur Ashe Essay Contest.

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July 2010: Jump Start Camp at Edward Hynes Charter School

In partnership with Edward Hynes Charter, a tennis and learning camp was held for three weeks in July to help 24 students who needed help to “jump start” their third or fourth grade year.  Four members of the Hynes faculty worked in the mornings to improve math and literacy skills and the children enjoyed QuickStart Tennis in the school gym for two hours each afternoon with coaches David Schumacher and Mikhail Vaval.