Dear Journal,
I had such a great time visiting the Schools of Hope AmeriCorps Project! They have had AmeriCorps members serving as tutor coordinators in elementary schools since 1998 and have gotten A LOT done in the past 18 years. I was able to meet most of the 21 members that serve in elementary schools in Madison, Middleton, and Sun Prairie.
It was a busy week at SOH. In addition to the usual tutoring and volunteer support that the AmeriCorps members are responsible for it was AmeriCorps Week and the kick-off to the Books of Hope Program (more on that later). I visited schools, got a tour of Centro Hispano, and met lots and lots of awesome people.
We kicked off the week with Books of Hope. In less than 4 hours we packed over 700 bags with books, school supplies and activities for students and their families. I wanted to read all the books, but the team kept reminding me that the books are for the kids and that we had A LOT of work to do.
On Tuesday afternoon I sat-in on the SOH Team Meeting which was awesome. I heard about what the members have been up to including delivering Books of Hope bags, heard members share their Pluses and Deltas (positives things and challenges) and do some problem solving.
Wednesday started off with a visit to Mendota Elementary School where I hung out with Kylee a second year AmeriCorps member. With some help from my new friends I was able to report out to the community. I met some fabulous community volunteers, teachers, and lots of scholars who really couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stay at Mendota forever. I was bummed to leave but I had to get to the UW campus to help with some AmeriCorps Week recruiting. I joined Schools of Hope AmeriCorps members and staff at the School of Education to recruit new AmeriCorps members and tutors. It is always fun to talk about AmeriCorps but this was really awesome to be on campus. Folks from the Morgridge Center were happy to see me too and helped spread the word on Twitter about #AmeriCorpsWeek.
First thing Thursday morning, I visited Glendale Elementary to see Jake in action. Jake and I had fun reading with kids and talking with tutors. Then we delivered Books of Hope bags to member Simone at Hawthorne School. Those bags are heavy BUT the kids love the books so it is totally worth it.
On Friday it was back to the Schools of Hope office for the Citizenship Training done by Madison School’s Transitional Education Program (TEP) staff. We learned about the challenges facing kids that are homeless or highly mobile and ways we could help these students.
Whew! I will need a bit of a rest this weekend to catch my breath and rest my weary paws.
Next stop – Spooner to visit the Farm to School program.
In service,
Eli ServieBadger
I had such a great time visiting the Schools of Hope AmeriCorps Project! They have had AmeriCorps members serving as tutor coordinators in elementary schools since 1998 and have gotten A LOT done in the past 18 years. I was able to meet most of the 21 members that serve in elementary schools in Madison, Middleton, and Sun Prairie.
It was a busy week at SOH. In addition to the usual tutoring and volunteer support that the AmeriCorps members are responsible for it was AmeriCorps Week and the kick-off to the Books of Hope Program (more on that later). I visited schools, got a tour of Centro Hispano, and met lots and lots of awesome people.
We kicked off the week with Books of Hope. In less than 4 hours we packed over 700 bags with books, school supplies and activities for students and their families. I wanted to read all the books, but the team kept reminding me that the books are for the kids and that we had A LOT of work to do.
On Tuesday afternoon I sat-in on the SOH Team Meeting which was awesome. I heard about what the members have been up to including delivering Books of Hope bags, heard members share their Pluses and Deltas (positives things and challenges) and do some problem solving.
Wednesday started off with a visit to Mendota Elementary School where I hung out with Kylee a second year AmeriCorps member. With some help from my new friends I was able to report out to the community. I met some fabulous community volunteers, teachers, and lots of scholars who really couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stay at Mendota forever. I was bummed to leave but I had to get to the UW campus to help with some AmeriCorps Week recruiting. I joined Schools of Hope AmeriCorps members and staff at the School of Education to recruit new AmeriCorps members and tutors. It is always fun to talk about AmeriCorps but this was really awesome to be on campus. Folks from the Morgridge Center were happy to see me too and helped spread the word on Twitter about #AmeriCorpsWeek.
First thing Thursday morning, I visited Glendale Elementary to see Jake in action. Jake and I had fun reading with kids and talking with tutors. Then we delivered Books of Hope bags to member Simone at Hawthorne School. Those bags are heavy BUT the kids love the books so it is totally worth it.
On Friday it was back to the Schools of Hope office for the Citizenship Training done by Madison School’s Transitional Education Program (TEP) staff. We learned about the challenges facing kids that are homeless or highly mobile and ways we could help these students.
Whew! I will need a bit of a rest this weekend to catch my breath and rest my weary paws.
Next stop – Spooner to visit the Farm to School program.
In service,
Eli ServieBadger
Comments
Post a Comment