SONYC After School

Welcome to the CSS Community! Since 2015, the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood has partnered with Columbia Secondary School to implement completely free SONYC  extended day and afterschool programming for 6th-8th grade students.  Activities are taught by a mix of CSS faculty and outside professionals who help our students to explore new ideas, develop new skills and grow beyond the classroom. This collaboration is part of what makes the CSS experience unique!

Although the Y's SONYC program is funded by the Department of Youth and Community Development, it is truly an extension of the CSS community. In addition to providing "traditional" afterschool classes, we support school wide events, social emotional learning spaces like advisory, and executive functioning programming for students and families. 

Curious to find out more about our SONYC Afterschool elective offerings? Here are some sample descriptions from classes we've run in past cycles:

GUITAR 101: Learn to play the guitar! This elective, designed for beginners, will teach the chords, rhythms, and techniques that will let you play this versatile instrument. By the end of the year, students will be able to choose and perform songs. We’ll be combining guitar with singing, so singers interested in learning guitar are especially welcome

INTRO TO VIRTUAL REALITY: This course is all about virtual reality and game design using Cos. Students will build skills in web VR through the teaching of web development basics in HTML and JavaScript, two of the web’s most important languages. Finally, students will create their own VR apps from scratch, observe their work through Google Cardboard goggles, and have opportunities to share with family and friends!

INTERMEDIATE SWIM: This class is open to students who have some swimming background and are proficient in the fundamentals of swimming specifically in freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. The focus for this class will be will be stroke enhancement and improving stamina.

Please email the SONYC Director for more information at sonycdirectorcss@columbiasecondary.org.