My Build It experience
Volunteering with the University’s largest community service project
BY BETH JONES, ‘08
I've had a great experience the past two semesters at Overby-Sheppard Elementary School. My Pi Phi sisters and I volunteer in the first-grade classrooms, helping students with reading and writing and sometimes playing reading games with them. They usually break into three stations around the classroom and rotate every 20 minutes, so I alternate between groups to help all students. If a student needs individual help with a task, the teacher will ask me to read with him or her or assist with a worksheet or activity.
I want to be a high school English teacher (I am an English major and
secondary education minor), but I still love working with younger students. After a few weeks of working with them, I can see the excitement on their faces when I enter their classroom. I am glad to help in any way I can. Often my teacher has other teachers' students in her room and as a result, a lot is going on at once. Sometimes she has an
aide, but often, many students need help at the same time.
I love seeing improvement in a student. Throughout the semester, I notice the students who previously struggled later understand a word or read or write a sentence.
Still, I notice a disparity in their abilities. Some children in the first-grade classroom are fast learners and have already mastered reading and writing, while other students really struggle with reading even basic words. My help, although minimal, hopefully encourages the students to learn.
One student in particular often spoke out in class and disrupted the teacher's lesson. However, he was very interested in my life and asked me where I went to college. When I told him I went to the University of Richmond, he told me that he was going to college too and probably the University of Richmond. Whenever I was in his classroom, he always wanted to show me his work and talk about his skills. While he may have just been trying to impress me, I like to hope that I encouraged him to pursue his dreams. I have loved volunteering at Overby-Sheppard the past two semesters, and I hope to continue in the spring semester as well.
If you would like to connect with the Richmond community through Build It, contact Betsy Kelly in the Center for Civic Engagement at ekelly2@richmond.edu or 484-1609.