New volunteer program pairs DePauw, high school students
By: Katherine Janowski
Issue date: 9/25/09 Section: News
Many DePauw students spend their time volunteering. A new program will now allow them to volunteer in area high schools.
Ellen Dittmore, who has been actively involved in initiating community service at DePauw since the Bonner Scholars Program started some 15 years ago, is implementing "a different kind of program."
DePauw students will go into classrooms twice a week for 45 minutes to an hour, and tutor students one-on-one or in small groups.
"It's an experiment to see if we can get our kids to help students who just need extra help," Dittmore said.
DePauw volunteers have traditionally helped tutor students after school hours, but are now going in to schools during classroom hours.
"We have do to it this way because we have to reach the students where the need is," Dittmore said.
According to Dittmore, a lot of high school students work after school, so tutors are most useful during the day.
Although volunteers are tutoring students, Dittmore said that this is "not homework help." She refers to it as "reading intervention" that focuses on "vocabulary-based instruction."
The tutoring program is an independent program, but gets tutors from DePauw volunteers, work study students and Bonner Scholars. The program does not publicize, itself, but has many people on campus to get the word out to volunteers.
The program usually has 40 student-volunteers a semester, and most continue to volunteer throughout their time at DePauw.
The new high school program is targeting students in the Honor Scholar Program, but many of the honor scholar students say they have yet to hear of the program.
"I hadn't heard about that, but I would be interested in the program if I knew more about it," sophomore Sam Holley-Kline said. Sophomore Katie Logan echoed Holley-Kline's beliefs, saying she "would definitely be interested" once she knows more about the details.
Dittmore said the program's retention rate and positive feedback from the students have helped her gauge its success.
"I know from tutors that they love to be able to feel like they are making a difference," she said.
In addition, Dittmore said the high school students get just as much out of the volunteers as volunteers get out of the students. "The high school is very enthusiastic about this. It's going to be a really good thing," she said.
Ellen Dittmore, who has been actively involved in initiating community service at DePauw since the Bonner Scholars Program started some 15 years ago, is implementing "a different kind of program."
DePauw students will go into classrooms twice a week for 45 minutes to an hour, and tutor students one-on-one or in small groups.
"It's an experiment to see if we can get our kids to help students who just need extra help," Dittmore said.
DePauw volunteers have traditionally helped tutor students after school hours, but are now going in to schools during classroom hours.
"We have do to it this way because we have to reach the students where the need is," Dittmore said.
According to Dittmore, a lot of high school students work after school, so tutors are most useful during the day.
Although volunteers are tutoring students, Dittmore said that this is "not homework help." She refers to it as "reading intervention" that focuses on "vocabulary-based instruction."
The tutoring program is an independent program, but gets tutors from DePauw volunteers, work study students and Bonner Scholars. The program does not publicize, itself, but has many people on campus to get the word out to volunteers.
The program usually has 40 student-volunteers a semester, and most continue to volunteer throughout their time at DePauw.
The new high school program is targeting students in the Honor Scholar Program, but many of the honor scholar students say they have yet to hear of the program.
"I hadn't heard about that, but I would be interested in the program if I knew more about it," sophomore Sam Holley-Kline said. Sophomore Katie Logan echoed Holley-Kline's beliefs, saying she "would definitely be interested" once she knows more about the details.
Dittmore said the program's retention rate and positive feedback from the students have helped her gauge its success.
"I know from tutors that they love to be able to feel like they are making a difference," she said.
In addition, Dittmore said the high school students get just as much out of the volunteers as volunteers get out of the students. "The high school is very enthusiastic about this. It's going to be a really good thing," she said.
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