Elk Class

Elk Class @ Kalmia Housing Site, Boulder

The Elk Class launched in Fall 2016 and currently serves 50 Dreamer Scholars who are now in the 7th and 8th grades. These Dreamer Scholars will graduate high school in 2026 and 2027.

Program Director Karla explains a typical day: “We provide in-school support for majority of students then after school we offer a wide variety of activities Mon-Thu while providing homework/reading time, some students might get time with specialized math/reading tutors. We have collaboration with CU Engineering for providing STEM curriculum once a week and our Healthy Together (H2G) effort, funded by the City of Boulder, with YSI allows students to be physically active 90 min per week. Some other activities can involve art, social-emotional, piano class as well as playing and socializing. Fridays we do our small groups that focus on fun activities: hiking, swimming, mini golf, ninja nation, movies, etc. basically it’s our fun day.”

When asked what makes Elk unique, Karla says, “One important piece is that we have students from multiple schools and from different grades (8th and 9th grades) in which 95% are Spanish dominant speakers, and we run out of a community center from one of the Boulder Housing Partners (BHP) sites in Boulder.”

Elk has a number of items on their wishlist including tablets/ipads (10) to allow students to do some online reading as they use those types of learning systems at their schools. They also have a need for new volunteers who would love to work with these middle-school students.

Site Staff

Karla Alvarado, Program Director

Kalmia Housing Site | 720-295-5541 |Karla.alvarado@ihaveadreamboulder.org