In light of the initial success of YLA as a complement to the 9th grade curriculum, YLA will now play an integral part in Malcolm X. Shabazz High School (MXSHS)’s Summer Bridge, a month-long program during the summer that is meant to introduce incoming freshmen to high school resources, expectations and study habits through academically relevant activities, such as current events assignments, field trips, online research projects and computer classes. 

The theme of Summer Bridge is “the bridge between us all,” a concept which embraces self-expression, self-discovery, tolerance, cooperation, teamwork, community awareness and leadership.  One of the long-term assignments for Summer Bridge participants involves research about the neighborhood and its inhabitants, so that students to feel more connected to community.  They will analyze the diversity and history of the community and learn to respect and share.  In light of their deepened understanding of their community, students will then identify the need for change and improvement in their community and create a plan of action.  In other words, their research will lead them to build a vision.  By taking leadership, students will apply their problem-solving skills to become agents for change.  Summer Bridge involves trips to Ellis Island, Central Park, Rutgers University’s Newark campus, and Seton Hall University.  MXSHS alumni who are now in college have been hired as Summer Bridge tutors.  Leaders in the Newark community, such as incoming mayor Corey Booker, as well as the Three Doctors (three Newark residents who promised themselves and each other that they would go to college, medical school and become doctors), will be invited to speak to students.  At the end of the program, students will write their own mission statements, or code of ethics, and they will form a pact, a sort of contract or bridge, a promise to accomplish their goals. 

During the 2006-2007 school year, YLA will be more widely used among ninth grade teachers and the incoming “Bridge” and “non-Bridge” ninth graders alike.