More News

Less than 24 hours after moving into the dorms at the University of Maryland, College Park, students in the College Park Scholars Program were already out trying to make a difference in the community.

As part of the Scholars' 13th annual Service day, about 100 freshman and sophomores program participants met on Aug. 29 and dispersed to seven different area schools to help teachers and building services staff and interact with students.

College Park Scholars is comprised of 12 different living-learning programs for Freshmen and Sophomores, one of which is Advocates for Children.

"We're stapling, we're working in the media center, we're in the reading room, we're interacting with kids," said Jim DeGeorge, associate director of the UM Scholars Advocates for Children program. "We're getting to know kids and supporting them. That's why we're here."

Students volunteered at Berwyn Heights, Glenn Dale and Beltsville elementary, College Park's Hollywood and Paint Branch elementary, Adelphi's Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and Laurel's Spring Hill Lake elementary and Northwestern High School in Hyattsville.

Sophomore Kelsey Baker took part in several of UM's Student Advocate activities during her freshman year and said she will continue to volunteer this year.

"I tutor kids from Paint Branch Elementary," she said. "I go to jails and tutor the young men there. I go to developmental clinics and work with kids with disabilities. Getting one-on-one time with the kids and being able to talk to them is my favorite part."

Baker, a kinesiology major, spent the service day at Beltsville Elementary interacting with the students, as did sophomore psychology and government and politics major Sarah Berkey.

"I love seeing the little kids' faces when we go out and volunteer," she said. "They all gave me a big hug. They have so many stories to tell us and they're just so open to other people."

Berkey said she has benefited from the programs she's participated in through the Scholars Program such as tutoring in prisons, charity softball tournaments for special education students at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Loudon County, Va. and giving tours of the UM campus to Paint Branch students.

"I feel like I learned a lot about myself," she said. "It's great to be able to do things for other people, but I sometimes feel like we come away with more than they did. We get to see what [the kids'] lives are like and they get to see ours. We give to them and they give back to us."

At Berwyn Heights Elementary, fifth-grader Lalhlu Puii worked with some scholars students in the classroom while she was labeling the different parts of her computer with classmates.

She said she liked explaining what she was doing to the volunteers.

"They asked us what the parts of the computer were, and we had to say what they are because they didn't really know about it," she said. "I felt like I was the teacher and I had to teach someone else."

Puii said she had fun with the UM students and that she hopes they come back.

"I'd like to work with them more on the computers," she said. "And if they know about the computers, I'd like them to teach me about them."

E-mail Jonah Schuman at jschuman@gazette.net.