Syracuse school children visit SU campus for mentoring/tutoring program

Syracuse school children visit SU campus for mentoring/tutoring programMay 07, 2007SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

Students from five different Syracuse city schools visited the Syracuse University campus Friday, April 27, as culmination and celebration of their yearlong mentoring and tutoring programs with SU students.

The full day of activities included a welcome at several colleges, an organ recital at Setnor Auditorium in Crouse College, storytelling with Francis Parks at Hendricks Chapel, a tour of E.S. Bird Library, demonstrations at the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS), lunch in a dining center — where the SU men’s soccer team joined the groups — and a tour of The Warehouse and the Comstock Art Facility. From Bellevue, Blodgett, Henninger, Hughes and Huntington schools, more than 80 Syracuse city school students participated in six literacy initiatives coordinated and staffed by SU students under the auspices of the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service (CPCS).

“These wonderful programs had great kids involved this year, from both the Syracuse City School District and the University,” says Roberta Gillen, CPCS assistant director of literacy initiatives.

The different programs counted more than 70 SU students from LCS, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and The Renee Crown University Honors Program as volunteers.

Supply chain management major Lauren Sollima coordinated one section of Balancing the Books with 18 Whitman students and 20 Huntington School seventh-graders; the Henninger High School section was coordinated by marketing management major Chelsea Stevenson with 15 Whitman student volunteers and 15 ninth-graders. In the Balancing the Books program, volunteers mentor one-on-one with at-risk teenagers, teaching concepts of financial literacy, reading, writing, math and life skills for career and higher education. In the Honors/Hughes Elementary Tutoring Program, 20 Hughes Magnet School fourth-graders were teamed with 20 Honors Program tutors. Dana Roberts, a communication sciences and disorders and Spanish major in The College of Arts and Sciences, coordinated the effort.

LCS students Christopher Cummings, a computer science major, and Nicholas Stowe, a mechanical engineering major, joined forces as student coordinators for 10 LCS student mentors paired with 14 Blodgett School students in the SRC/Engineering Mentoring Program. In the Bellevue Middle School Mentoring Program, eight Whitman students worked with 10 Bellevue students, coordinated by entrepreneurship and finance major Jason Choi and marketing management major Michael Loiacono Jr.

Design Outfit, a mentoring program introducing high school students to architectural design and construction, was created by fifth-year architecture student Douglas Jack as an Honors Program capstone project. Design Outfit worked with five Henninger students.

The Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public and Community Service promotes, supports, facilitates and recognizes public and community service as a fundamental part of the teaching and learning experience. Service provided by students, faculty and staff covers a broad range of activities, from mentoring and tutoring in the Syracuse schools to delivering meals and building homes through Habitat for Humanity.

For more information, contact Roberta Gillen at 443-3051 or rjgillen@syr.edu.