UP students volunteer in various ways at nearby Roosevelt High School
By Lisa McMahan
Students looking to make a difference in the Portland community don't have to look far.
The University of Portland's relationship with Roosevelt High School in North Portland is growing, and with it, a need for more volunteers.
As the Moreau Center community volunteer coordinator (CVC) for Roosevelt High, junior Jamie Kerr helps place UP students in volunteer positions at the high school.
There are currently 17 UP students working at Roosevelt to help high school students with their schoolwork. Of these, 11 students are employed through work-study.
Their efforts are a part of the larger SUN Community School program, which provides educational, recreational, social and health services to schools across Portland.
Danielle DeMarco, SUN School Coordinator at Roosevelt, says there are about 100 students coming in for help each week.
She has seen the academic tutoring program grow tremendously since it began three years ago.
"That's 100 students that were doing God knows what," DeMarco said. "It's such a safe place for them to be."
In addition to providing a safe place for students to spend their time after school each week from Monday to Thursday, the program provides students with the ability to recover school credit from classes they have failed by using PLATO, a computer-based credit recovery solution.
"It has helped lower the amount of failed classes," DeMarco said.
UP tutors are placed in a classroom and work with a lead tutor who is hired by the school district.
They are not responsible for discipline and are there mainly to support the lead tutors, DeMarco said.
The tutors typically work with the same group of students in three classrooms at Roosevelt. The classrooms correspond to the three separate high schools on the Roosevelt campus.
By placing tutors in the same room each time they volunteer, Kerr hopes to foster relationships between the high schoolers and UP students.
"These kids are really hardened and they don't open up right away," Kerr said, citing relationships she has built over the past six months working as the Roosevelt CVC.
The tutor placement also varies depending on the students' majors, although they may help with different subjects on any given night.
"As tutors, we really help with everything," Brian Walsh, a junior elementary education major, said. "We're there to help with whatever the students need."
Walsh, along with a handful of other education majors at UP, is volunteering his time at Roosevelt to fulfill the service requirements for the university's School of Education.
"It's more than what a volunteer opportunity might be," Moreau Center Program Assistant Michelle Chang said. "It's more of a real-life valuable experience for students."
Kerr conducted a performance review in December and found that the tutors valued the relationships they built with students throughout their time volunteering.
"A lot of them said that their favorite part is working with the kids and getting to know them," Kerr said.
The volunteer positions do not come without challenges, however.
Sophomore nursing major Brooke McAllister enjoys working with Roosevelt students, but finds that it can be difficult at times to keep students on task.
"The most challenging aspect is probably trying to motivate them to want to work on their homework," McAllister said.
She volunteers at Roosevelt three days a week, and, in addition to tutoring students, she sometimes helps supervise children whose parents are taking beginning English classes, another program offered by the SUN program.
The program is free for adults who wish to learn English as a second language and takes place Monday and Wednesday nights.
"A lot of parents have said, 'the only reason I can come to this is because you have day care,'" DeMarco said.
Kerr is still looking for volunteers to help with childcare at the school, as well as volunteers to assist with other SUN programs.
One of these programs is a music studio that takes place on Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
"A background in music is preferred," Kerr said, although this is not mandatory.
Students volunteering with this particular program would help supervise and assist Roosevelt students with instruments.
Other volunteer opportunities that need to be filled include tutoring after UP's spring semester concludes. This is because Roosevelt's school year does not end until June 15.
In addition, DeMarco is seeking volunteers to help with a six-week summer school program at Roosevelt that begins on June 18.
"Volunteering is pretty flexible as long as students can do a consistent schedule," DeMarco said. "We could really use help with this."
Students who wish to get involved in any of the opportunities at Roosevelt High School should e-mail Kerr at kerrj11@up.edu.
"Roosevelt is less than a mile away, and you get to work with high school students," DeMarco said. "It's a great way for UP students to get to know their community."
