Last week was jam-packed with a series of 121 events!
Monday, September 19th marked the first day of our return to a full-time, biweekly tutoring schedule and it turned out to be a great success!
Wednesday, September 21st was the fundraiser at Chick-fil-a. Many middle school and high school students stopped by the Alpharetta branch to grab a quick bite while supporting 121Reach.
Thursday, once again, was another tutoring day. We were all excited to see many new and familiar faces back at the Taylor Road media center!

And we’re back once again!
Following a fun-filled summer and a chaotic first month, 121Reach tutors are finally getting back into the groove of a new school year. With careful guidance from founders Fan and Lydia, the new officers are confident in the continuation of the success of  121Reach.
So, let the academic achievements begin!

Aaaaannd we’re back! After an elongated break thanks to “Snowpocalypse ’11,” 121Reach Hooch is back at Taylor Road and helping our students. Even though we’ve lost some tutors, we’re expecting even more this semester as freshmen are allowed to join in the spring. Also this semester is Officer Recruitment – our senior officers are all leaving! – but we’re excited to interview the candidates and begin showing them the ropes.

The new year is a great time to make resolutions to better ourselves in this coming academic year; some of our resolutions include making all A’s and not procrastinating our homework. Hopefully we see more tutees this semester who are just as driven and want to make this year one of their best too!

Good luck this year!

- 121 Reach Officers

For more about the winners and the competition, click here

Dear Supervoters,

It has been a long, tough 4 weeks…. but we’ve made it through! We cannot even express how much we appreciate all of your support and persistence.

For those of you teachers who rooted for us every time we passed by your classrooms
For those of you we harassed on facebook and chat
For those of you who got your whole classes to vote
For those of you who live out of state–or even outside the U.S.–who voted AND pulled in all your friends to vote
For those of you who gave up your homeroom and lunch to get votes
For those of you who stood by us with support and encouragement
And for those of you who voted

THANK YOU!!!!!


We would also like to give a special thanks to our sponsors Mr. Folkins, Ms. White, and Ms. Sheppard for going out of their way to help us with this competition, from blocking off the whole CHS media center until people voted to broadcasting the competition to all of Fulton County… we love you!

To all of our supervoters, thanks a ton for putting up with our daily reminders, emails, chats, and riddles galore…

We could not have done this without you!!!

As for the results of the competition, Youth Venture has asked us not to publicize anything until they officially notify us April 9th. Stay tuned for the news! The screenshot below was taken Friday afternoon.


Thanks a gazillion,

121Reach Team

Written by Sandra L.

Our first movie day on Friday, Februray 19 was a complete success! During this event, we watched the movie UP while eating popcorn and other little snacks. Rather than having one of those microwave popcorn bags, we had a popcorn machine that made really good freshly popped popcorn. We also provided the tutees and tutors with cute little cookies made by Mrs. White as well as chips, store-bought cookies and drinks. The movie itself taught middle-schoolers a very important moral: our connections with others is what makes life meaningful. It also teaches them that no matter how old you are, you should still follow your dreams. These themes can give our tutees more confidence in pursuing thier own ambitions and goals. Although there were some technical difficulties at times during the movie, everyone laughed it off and continued to enjoy their friday night. This was a great way to end a busy school week and we hope there are many more movie days to come! :]

>>See pictures from Movie Day here!

Vote for 121Reach starting March 15th!

Good news! 121Reach has been chosen as one of the 15 finalists in the nation for Best Buy & Ashoka Youth Venture’s @15 Community Impact Challenge. We are now competing to win a $5,000 grant to grow 121Reach!  March 15 to April 2 is the voting period. Five teams will win $1,500 grants and five teams will win $5,000 grants. We will need all the votes we can get!

How to vote:

1. Set up an account at @15 by clicking here. The site says @15 is “just for teens,” but for the @15 Community Impact Challenge, adults are allowed to sign up and vote. Don’t hesitate to sign up — it’s quick and painless, and all they ask for is your birthday & email address.
2. Vote on @15.com starting from March 15 to April 2! You are allowed to vote for us everyday.

About Super-Voters

Do you want to be a Super-voter? Super-voters are our fans who vote for us everyday! Because each @15 member can vote for 121Reach once a day, voting for us everyday is the best way for us to get a lot of votes. Think of it this way: 40 people voting all 20 days of the competition is the same as 800 people voting once! All you have to do to be a super-voter is to vote for us once a day, every day!

About Captains

Captains our are voters who volunteer to inspire others to vote! Some things captains may do are:

• promote voting for 121Reach on blog, twitter, or facebook
• volunteer anywhere with internet to ask strangers to vote
• convince friends and families to be super-voters
• distribute fliers
• make announcements/short speeches about voting
• Etc., etc.! There are sooo many things you can do!

Captains will be recognized at the end of the year. To be a captain, email 121Reach@gmail.com with the subject “Best Buy @15 Captain”

What We’ll Use the Grant For:

Every penny of the grant goes to 121Reach. Here are a few ideas we have:

For more information, visit http://www.at15.com/contests_scholarships/community_impact

****Updates From Our Journey****

4/9/2010

121Reach wins the $5000 grant from the Community Impact Challenge! Thank you to everyone who voted!

4/2/2010

Last day to vote! Get all your friends to vote!

3/15/2010

Voting Begins

2/19/2010

121Reach officers participate in the first @15 Community Impact Challenge conference call on grassroots marketing.

2/18/2010

We have just received a camcorder from Youth Venture in the mail! We will soon create a 60 s film about everything that goes on at 121Reach as part of the competition!

On Thursday after tutoring, I headed down to the Galloway School to hear Chancellor of DC Public Schools Michelle Rhee give a speech on education. I had read tons about Michelle Rhee first in TIME Magazine and then for a self-directed project, and I was incredibly excited to finally see her in person! (In fact, I practically screamed when I heard on the radio that she was part of Galloway’s 40th Anniversary Speaker Series). I didn’t actually get to meet her and speak with her one-on-one, but I was lucky enough to get to ask the last question of the evening, which Chancellor Rhee happily answered.

Chancellor Rhee’s speech was very inspirational, and I guess it particularly resonated with me because I’m so into creating more opportunities for education. Here are a few points I particularly liked & agreed with:

• Courage – Rhee told us the story of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, who had hired her at the start of his term. Most mayors, said Rhee, like to have things nice and quiet — the less political drama the better. Fenty, however, stirred up a political maelstrom when he curbed the power of the DC Board of Education, gave Rhee the reins to make the key decisions, and then stood by her often controversial steps towards reform. Addtionally, at a time when everything in DC was getting budget cuts, Fenty refused a cut for the schools–even though many people were not happy about that decision. Fenty stood his ground, saying it was unfair to make the children carry a burden created by adults.
• It’s OK not to be liked - Everyone had a good laugh at this one, as Rhee recounted all the times people had thrown things at her, cursed her name, screamed at her, etc. etc. :]  Her bottom line was that sometimes the best decisions can be very unpopular. Firing hundreds of teachers and closing down 15% of DC public schools angered countless people. Rhee, however, strongly believed that removing the teachers and schools who weren’t contributing to quality education would be the best route for the children. In this case a thick skin is necessary; otherwise it’d be impossible to move forward.

Whether or not you agree with Rhee’s views/decisions, I think her speech can relate to us all. It always takes courage to do what we feel is the right thing, especially when everyone else disagrees. To have the heart to stand your ground is very admirable!

For one thing, it definitely  relates to us all as tutors, tutees, teachers, and parents. At a tutoring session when your tutee doesn’t want to work, it’s hard to tell her/him to stay on task. I mean, no one wants to be the bad guy, especially when your tutee is looking up at you with those reproachful puppy dog eyes, telling you, “but…I thought you were one of us….” At times like these we need to stand our ground and do what’s best for the tutee, even if it makes us feel a bit like villain. ;]

>>For more info about Chancellor Rhee’s speech, click here

>>For the video of her speech, click here. (You’ll have to wait till the very end for my question haha :] )

On Friday, January 29th, 121Reach held its first event of the semester! The purpose of this event was to inspire tutors and tutees to think about why education is so important to them. This is what the tutoring program was founded on: getting excited about learning! Everyone who attended was given a colorful piece of construction paper where in a letter written to First Lady Obama they would answer any of these three questions:

Why do you think education is important?

What are your goals for the future?

What do you want to be when you grow up and why?

We spent quite awhile trying to think of intelligent answers to send to Michelle Obama. The cards will be consolidated into one giant card and hopefully she will be able to get a glimpse of what 121Reach is doing down here in Johns Creek to further our educational goals. Check out the photos!

Finally everyone finished and the people who remained played an intense game of WAH! What a great way to spend time together, tutors and tutees!

>> For pictures of Letters to First Lady Obama, click here

>> Or check them out on facebook!, click here