SOCIAL ACTION, COMMUNITY SERVICE, LEADERSHIP TRAINING
February 2016
SAVE THE DATE!
CSO's Community Service Fair
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 4:00 - 5:15
p.m.
Campus Center, rooms 103/4
Meet agency representatives from
around the Pioneer Valley and talk
with dedicated students to learn
about how you can give back to the
community.
For more upcoming events from the
CSO, check out our calendar.
Reflections from Volunteers
CONNECTIONS
Tziona Breitbart,
Board Chair and
Mentor/Tutor
Throughout my time at
Smith, my involvement
in community service
work has been both
powerful and essential.
As a sophomore, I
began to volunteer with
the CONNECTIONS
program in Holyoke at
CONNECTIONS students
the Donahue School,
where I serve as a mentor/tutor for middle school students. Donahue is a public school
in Holyoke with a diverse student body, and many students who are low-income. A
typical day involves tutoring and helping the students with their homework and
enrichment programs. Over the years, I have built relationships with the students and
have been able to connect with them beyond academics. Every time I return from
break or another long absence, I am always surprised and ecstatic when they
remember who I am.
In working with CONNECTIONS I have learned the importance of the program. The
overall program enhances the knowledge, skills, and interests of students, which
inevitably supports their social, emotional, and physical development. It allows
students to have the chance to get the help they need with their homework, but also
engage in activities that they normally would not. The program allows students to find
new interests and skills that they would not uncover in a classroom setting such as
cooking or survival skills. It also gives students the chance to be mentored and ask
important questions that they may not ask otherwise. CONNECTIONS provides a time
when students can connect with adults that are not their teachers or family members,
thereby allowing them to confide in us without any fear.
My time at CONNECTIONS has showed me how important it is for youth to have
mentors and time to just explore new interests. The experience is rewarding,
especially when I observe a student having a breakthrough with his studies or falling in
love with a new topic. This year I have been the tutor for the wrestling club. It has been
wonderful to see the students learn new techniques and implement them in their
wrestling. While participating in the wrestling club, it has been enlightening to see
these students I have worked with for the past years to become leaders.
CONNECTIONS has been incredible because it provides me with the opportunity to
watch both myself and the students at the Donahue School change over time.
A Message from Stacey Funston
Associate Director of CONNECTIONS
The Connections Program in Holyoke would not be the same without its cohort of
dedicated, talented tutors and mentors from the local colleges. Having tutors in the
program allows us to provide more one-on-one support than we would be able to
otherwise, and our students truly benefit from that individual attention. Program data
demonstrates the positive impact these relationships have on students' academic,
social, and emotional growth throughout the year. This year we have seven dedicated
Smith students working at our Donahue Middle School Site, including our fantastic
liaisons. We are so grateful to have this relationship with Smith College!
Kensington International School
Angela Law, Volunteer Mentor
Volunteering as a refugee mentor at
Kensington International School is one of the
most meaningful things I've done in my college
career. I'm incredibly lucky to have worked with
my mentee for two years. As a refugee, she
had to flee political or religious persecution in
her country and make a foreign country her
home. The mentees at Kensington experience
the difficulties of learning a new language and
assimilating to an unfamiliar country and new
environment simultaneously. I have seen my
mentee grow into someone with ambition to do
her best at school despite these challenges.
KIS mentee with Smith mentor
My mentee is an English Language Learner who is more comfortable speaking than
reading and writing. I teach her new vocabulary and help her with sentence
construction, but my fellow classmates and I can only offer as much support as
allowed under the time constraints of our tutoring schedules. We try to do our best in
the positions we have, which means providing academic and emotional support when
we can.
The most rewarding parts of my work are seeing my mentee come to trust me with her
experiences and become more confident in the classroom. I hope I have become a
role model for her to not only pursue college, but also to explore the things she is
passionate about.
As a mentor, I have learned that it is my responsibility to educate myself about my
mentee's background and culture to become aware of issues she faces. I urge anyone
who wants to become a tutor through the CSO to do the same, especially where it
concerns refugee, immigrant or low-income populations.
Homework
House
Veronica Oberholzer,
House
Representative Chair
Every week I tutor a first
grader named Felix at
Homework House, and
every week Felix teaches
me something new about
being a good person. Let
me take you into some of
our tutoring sessions.
Smith tutors read with their Homework House tutees
I am quizzing Felix on his
sight words. He has to formulate a sentence using the word "can," and he's having
trouble putting the word in context. "I can..." I suggest. "I can be your friend!" he
exclaims without hesitation.
Felix and I are playing Memory, turning cards over to find matching sets of pictures.
He's winning, and his pile of matched cards is growing much higher than mine. I would
not be surprised if he was gleeful about beating his tutor, but instead he puts the next
few matches he wins into my pile.
Felix and I are playing Memory. Another child comes over wanting to join the game.
Felix gives her the match in his hand to start her off. For the rest of the game, Felix
makes sure that our piles all come out even.
Felix and I are playing Memory. (Yes, besides schoolwork, just about all we do is play
Memory.) Every time I get a match, Felix exclaims, "Yaaay!" Once again, he has
absolutely no sense of being in it to get ahead.
Felix is so much younger than me, and yet at seven years old he has a more pure
grasp of the concepts of friendship and sportsmanship than I do at twenty. It humbles
me to spend my Monday and Tuesday afternoons with such a big-hearted little boy.
CSO's Partnership
with Homework
House
Tiertza-leah Schwartz,
Community Service
Director
On a typical weekday
afternoon at around 3:00
p.m. Smith students can be
seen climbing into the vans
to head to Homework House.
Homework House volunteers
This fall the CSO recruited
tutors who jointly conduct 70 tutoring sessions a week at Homework House's Chestnut
Street site, working with two students per session. Over the course of one semester,
Smith students provide a total of 2,100 hours of tutoring. CSO has partnered with
Homework House since its creation in 2007. Our partnership combines direct tutoring
with an orientation, training, and reflection discussions to ensure that our tutors can
improve their skills and provide the best support possible to the children.
This partnership has proven to be a wonderful community service option for interested
tutors. As one tutor recently stated: "For me, Homework House is a rewarding
experience. It allows me to help a child who truly needs it and rekindle her love of
learning."
The impacts our tutors' experience vary. For some tutors, it is a chance to help
children like themselves succeed academically. For others, it gives them an
opportunity to utilize the skills they are learning in their courses. For some, working
with the kids is a joy-filled experience that helps them de-stress from a hectic week at
Smith. While for other tutors, it is a challenging experience that helps them to develop
new skills in how to reach a child frustrated by a hard day at school. For all Smith
tutors, it is a rewarding and supportive environment. We have tutors who work for a
semester and others who have been involved throughout their four years at Smith,
which gives them a special opportunity to see their tutees succeed over a period of
years.
Homework House Volunteers
A Thank You from Bonnie Coleman
Winter Gifts Coordinator
"I can never thank you and the Smith women and the
college for your efforts and support over the years. I
just wish that you all could see the joy that you make
possible with your efforts! I am humbled by it every
year that goes by."
The CSO's Winter Gifts Program partners with the
Hilltown Churches Food Pantry to donate and fund
holiday gifts for area children. This year, members of
the Smith community sponsored 71 children.
Learn more about Winter Gifts
Smith volunteers sort donations
Meet the Board
Lisa Guido
Community Education Chair
During my first year at Smith, I was my house's CSO representative. In addition to the
biweekly meetings, I had the responsibility of collecting contributions from my house to
aid in sponsoring a child for whom we purchased holiday gifts through the CSO's
Winter Gifts program. In my second semester here, I was urged to apply for a position
on the CSO Board. After the application and interview process was over, I was
selected as the Community Education Chair. I was thrilled that I would be responsible
for introducing students to the CSO's partner agencies. The planning for my first event
started even before the academic year did, so everything was ready to go for the
Homework House and Kensington International School lunch. It was extremely
successful with over 50 students in attendance! Now that the semester is coming to a
close, I feel like not only has my position introduced me to so many great
organizations and people in the Northampton area, but it has given me life skills as
well. Little did I know upon receiving this responsibility that I would get better at simple
things like making phone calls and writing emails. One of the CSO's principles is that
you should give your community what it needs rather than what you want to offer it,
and I am happy that I could donate my time to help get more Smithies involved in local
community service.
Brianna Halasa
Short-term Project Co-Chair
My name is Brianna Halasa, and I am a short-term project
co-chair on the CSO board. This is my first semester
being a part of the board, and it has been such a
gratifying experience! I have been able to plan and attend
two out of the five short-term projects.
The first of these was at Nuestras Raices, a grassroots
non-profit that promotes urban agriculture and community
gardens. Our volunteer project occurred during the first month of the fall semester,
so it was very warm and great for volunteering outdoors. A group of Smith students
and I attended this project and helped with their fall harvest festival cleanup. We were
able to learn about the ways Nuestras Raices partners with the surrounding Latino
community in Holyoke and the significant impact they have on getting youths and
adults involved in community gardening projects. I hope to work with them in the
future!
The other volunteer project that I helped plan was with the Food Bank of Western
Massachusetts. Upon arrival, our team of Smith students was educated about food
security in the surrounding areas; we then sorted root vegetables to be loaded onto a
mobile farming truck and handed to community members in need. We are planning
another short-term project with them in February 2016, so please look out for flyers to
sign up! While attending these short-term projects do not involve a huge time
commitment, our volunteer groups still make a huge impact, and we have so much fun
working together.
Community Service Office
(413) 585-2793
http://smith.edu/cso/
cso@smith.edu