Deering High School student volunteers are playing a vital role in
helping Presumpscot Elementary School students improve their reading and
writing skills – and the school is looking for more volunteers to help
its English language learner students.
Recently, Presumpscot
School redoubled its efforts to bring the community into the schools to
make a difference in the lives of students. Community volunteers are an
essential part of school engagement and achievement at Presumpscot.
In
the fall, the school partnered with Starting Strong, Portland's
campaign for grade-level reading under the umbrella of Portland
ConnectED, to expand its recruitment of volunteers. ConnectED is a
community coalition convened by Mayor Brennan that strives to provide
educational support for Portland students all the way to postsecondary
completion.
Starting Strong Project Director Jennifer Burns of
United Way of Greater Portland facilitated a new partnership with
Deering High School students enrolled in a Global Issues course.
As
a course requirement, students volunteer in the area of literacy. In
December, five Deering High School students – Beatriz Dubon, Dylantha
Musanerwa, Emma Alcorn, Jacob Tosi, and Tabitha Williams – began
supporting readers, writers and speakers in kindergarten and first grade
classrooms. They received training in supporting both emergent readers
and English language learners and jumped right in to help Presumpscot
students.
Presumpscot also has another volunteer opportunity
available. It has joined forces with Goodwill Industries of New England
to bring the Multilingual Leadership Corps AmeriCorps Program to
Presumpscot.
The program is designed to increase academic
engagement among English language learners through school skills
support, mentoring and community engagement programs. The school is
looking for three Student Engagement Specialists to work 300 hours
between now and August 2015.
In exchange for the work hours, AmeriCorps members will receive an $1,195 education award.
Deering High School student volunteer Jacob Tosi helps a Presumpscot student improve her literacy skills.
Presumpscot first grader Lula Wilson gets some literacy help from Deering
High School student volunteer Tabitha Williams.