While many University of Massachusetts students were preparing for the Hobart Hoedown, an epic annual weekend of partying that this year resulted in 91 arrests, three UMass freshmen held an April 27 meeting in their dorm for students who want to be volunteer tutors in Amherst public schools.
Last October, Kurt Schultz, Seamus Hughes and Sam Mardell formed the University Community Academic Network (UCAN) and eventually recruited 35 student volunteers who visited Amherst elementary schools one or two afternoons a week this past semester to help children having difficulty with their studies.
“When you see the reaction from kids when you help them figure out a problem, or when they’re struggling with homework and they don’t know the answer and you teach them a way to solve it, it’s really exciting,” said Schultz.
Hughes said they started UCAN because “we saw the opportunity to connect students who are interested in volunteering to the schools. It can be intimidating for an individual to call a principal.”
The volume of volunteers in the Amherst public schools has risen dramatically this year due to a collaboration between local colleges and the district. School administrators say the will to volunteer seems to have been present in Amherst for years – they’ve gotten plenty of phone calls from interested people – but a way for people to donate their time and resources to the town’s youth was missing.
This all changed when Amherst College provided $40,000 to fund a new position: full-time volunteer coordinator for the public schools. The position is now funded through December 2012. Kim Stender, a former substitute teacher, was hired for the coordinator position in January.
Amherst College’s participation in the school district is part of its Center for Community Engagement, established in 2007 to provide faculty and students with volunteer opportunities that allow them to apply lessons from the college’s liberal arts curriculum in real-life scenarios.
This past semester, 263 people helped out in the schools, most of them college students. Although an official tally wasn’t available, Amherst school officials say this is far more than last year, when volunteering was informal and there were no records kept.
“The schools have a lot of challenges managing resources and the community has a hard time getting into the schools,” said Superintendent Maria Geryk, who noted that before the coordinator position was created, potential volunteers didn’t know who to call or email. Staffers also didn’t have time to do orientation and conduct criminal background checks.
“Having additional people with expertise strengthens the programs for children in the schools,” Geryk said. “It doesn’t really save money, but it adds value.”
Geryk said Stender’s enthusiasm and organizational abilities have made a big difference in matching volunteers with needs in the schools.
“These students have something special that sets them apart from the stereotype of college kids,” said Stender. “They’ll remember what they did to help others, and it’s going to … make them better people.”
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Altruism may be a part of the volunteer program, but participants say they’re drawing satisfaction and some life lessons from working in the schools.
Schultz, a premed student from Northborough, volunteered to work with children at Wildwood School on Wednesday afternoons this past semester.
“You learn more about yourself giving up time and helping someone else,” he said. “And you appreciate what you have more.”
UCAN’s founders are applying to have their program become a recognized student organization on campus. Stender would welcome this official status.
“This group is a perfect example of how volunteers can be integrated into our schools once the conduit is identified,” she said of UCAN.
UCAN isn’t the only group volunteering, though. UMass women’s soccer coach Abby Shiffler got in touch with Stender in January and said all 24 team members were interested in volunteering in the schools.
“It promotes team building, accountability and selflessness. You don’t realize the positive effects it has until you volunteer,” said Shiffler.
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Amherst college students have also upped their volunteer commitment.
This past year, 46 students volunteered three times a week in a homework-help program at Amherst Regional Middle School, said Karen Lee, assistant dean of students. It has led to some students considering teaching as a career.
“Students go in thinking they’ll do it part time, and all of a sudden, they find they’re really interested in education,” Lee said.
Varun Iyengar, an Amherst College student who helped coordinate the program, said tutoring is a gratifying experience.
“Working one on one with a student over the course of a year, you develop a bond with him or her and get a true sense of satisfaction from witnessing his or her improvement,” he said. “It doesn’t always happen, but I think it’s often a tutor’s greatest accomplishment when you’ve been helping a student along and he finally reaches that ‘aha’ moment, and you know that you’ve made a difference.”
David Schneider, a professor of music at Amherst, said he became worried in 2009 when proposed budget cuts in the public schools threatened to cut the instrumental music program. He has a child in the town schools and felt immense gratitude to the music program at the public school he attended in Berkeley, Calif., he said.
The cuts didn’t materialize, but he got to know music teachers Laurie Rabut and Sue Dunbar and became aware of how difficult their jobs are, he said. He contacted Amherst College’s Center for Community Engagement and arranged for five of his students to volunteer with the elementary schools’ bands and orchestra.
The students helped with tasks like tuning and fixing instruments, “which enabled me to conduct and teach without interruption, for which I was grateful,” Rabut wrote in a student evaluation.
“Everyone who plays an instrument has a special relationship with music, and some haven’t thought about how it could intersect with another desire, to reach out to others,” Schneider said. “To be able to combine a skill and passion they had with a social function was especially gratifying.”
Amherst College student Eliza Peabody was particularly helpful with one student who needed glasses, Rabut wrote. Peabody mentioned the student’s vision problem to a friend whose father works for an eyeglass company. He offered to make the girl a pair of glasses for free.
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Volunteering in the Amherst schools is not limited to college students. Many adults do it too for various reasons – to take an active role in their child’s education, to give back to the community, to network with other parents.
Leslie Arriola has been helping out once a week at the Wildwood School after-school program, assisting children with their homework and reading aloud to them. The youngsters have no idea that she has a doctorate in education.
“The whole program gives me a good feeling,” she said.
On May 23, the Amherst schools held a reception for volunteers. Superintendent Geryk said she hopes it will become an annual event. On each table was a quote from educator Marian Wright Edelman that read: “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”
“This is a small gesture,” Geryk told the volunteers. “You don’t hear ‘Thank you’ enough. We appreciate everything you have to offer.”
Some of the adult volunteers don’t have children in the schools yet. Trevor Baptiste of Pelham joined a committee looking at the Amherst schools’ science program. His son will start kindergarten next year.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide service to the educational system I’ve chosen to put my child in,” Baptiste said. “My self-esteem is tied to how much service I can provide. Some people’s are tied to how much money they make or their status symbols, but part of mine is how much I can offer my community.”
Nancy Reffsin has had six children go through the Amherst schools and has been a volunteer for almost 30 years.
“It’s a really important message to our children to say, ‘I care enough about the school that I’m going to come when they need me,’ ” she said. “It’s a message kids appreciate.”
Kristie Stauch-White moved to Amherst in January and found volunteering a good way to get to know people. She’s now co-chair of the Wildwood School Parent Guardian Organization.
Colleen Osten, the mother of fifth- and ninth-graders, works on the high school newsletter, is co-chair of the school’s Parent Guardian Organization, and helps the schools and the Amherst Education Foundation with grants.
“I get great satisfaction out of doing things that enrich my kids’ lives,” she said. “In this budget crisis, volunteers have become incredibly important to raise funds for things that fall short.”
Volunteers also come from organizations like the Amherst Senior Center, Hillel House and RSVP, a Northampton senior citizen group.
“It’s a win-win for both the school and the town,” Stender said. “We’re really fortunate to have this resource right in our backyard.”
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