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Another Great Story from Americorps – How responsibility opened up a shy fourth-grader

Each semester, AmeriCorps’ Project MARS collects “Great Stories” from its members in which they reflect on their experiences mentoring in the classroom and the progress they see students making. This month’s story comes from Lynette Holloway, who works with the Cherokee County school system.

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Serving in a school is something that has opened my eyes in many ways. I have learned that I take a lot of things for granted.

I did not like going to school when I was in elementary school, but I had friends to talk to, I had a mom to go home to and she helped me with homework. And I never worried about where my next meal would come from.

While serving, I have met students who do not feel like they have friends at school. They do not get help at home, so they struggle a lot in school. I have also sadly met students who worried about their next meal.

I serve most of my time in fourth and first grade. With the help of these teachers, I set up a reading buddy program. In this program the fourth-graders and first-graders meet for 30 minutes each week. The fourth-graders read with the first-graders and help the first-graders learn basic sight words.

Student G in fourth grade is very low in his academics in school. When trying to pair him up with a first-grade buddy, I worried he would not be confident enough to help this first-grader. I thought I would try it anyway, and I am so glad I did.

During the visit I witnessed this fourth-grader open up like he never had before. He was teaching the first-grader how to sound out each word, and he was reading with such enthusiasm. After the meeting, I had each fourth-grader write me a half-page paper on what they did and did not like about book buddies. Student G wrote almost a whole page, of nothing but good experiences. He told me he wanted to keep doing book buddies because it made him feel important.

I didn`t think Student G would enjoy this experience, but he enjoyed it and did so good at it. I loved getting to see him feel important. He now knows he is so important and such a great asset to our school.

 

 

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Project MARS/AmeriCorps is supported by a grant from the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service in the Office of Governor Josh Stein.

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