Members of the JRBGC’s GEER program were rewarded for their hard work on Friday, July 22 with a visit to the Georgia Aquarium. The Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta.

It exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than 11 million US gallons of water.

It was the largest aquarium in the world from its opening in 2005 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China.

The Georgia Aquarium remains the largest aquarium in the United States and the third largest in the world.

“It was a first for most of the club members who were awe struck by the incredible facility and its amazing sea animals. Along with their attendance and good behavior, these club members had excelled in the club’s Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) Program.

With this GEER funding, the JRBGC has been able to further enhance their club member’s academic achievement by addressing educational gaps caused by the pandemic.

The program’s goals includes ensuring that 65% of students below grade level will return to grade level by the end of the program, with the other 35% showing progress toward grade-level achievement” says JRBGC Director-Stephen Francis.

Because of great teachers such as CHS Teacher-Amy Hagan (GEER Program Coordinator/teacher) and Southside Teacher-Amanda Gainoous (GEER Program teacher), CHS student tutors (Ja’Cameron Spence & Alyssa Edwards) and Kennesaw State Univ student (Brianna Hopkins), the program has run very successfully this summer,” Francis went on to say.