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Members
of SIFE volunteer at elementary schools Editor-in-Chief
Several
students are making a TREK to help five Joplin-area elementary schools. The
Missouri Southern organization, Students In Free Enterprise, is
volunteering for the Teaching Reading to Every Kid program to help third
and fourth graders at Emerson Elementary, Irving Elementary, Jefferson
Elementary, McKinley Elementary and West Central Elementary. Third
graders receive assistance in reading, while fourth graders learn math. Brad
Conley, junior general business major and SIFE president, said it was
not difficult to get SIFE members to volunteer for the program. There
are a number of people on the SIFE team who really care for children,
he said. Jim
Gray, faculty adviser for SIFE, said the volunteers have been
trustworthy throughout the program. I m
very, very proud of their willingness to take the responsibility, he
said. TREK
began last year when some elementary schools were in danger of losing
their accreditation due to low state test scores. The Joplin Area
Chamber of Commerce decided to step in and prevent this from happening.
Melinda Bayless, Chamber education manager, became the creator and
coordinator of the program. In
2001-2002, 100 people volunteered to be coaches for TREK. The program
won the Phi Delta Kappa education award for southwest Missouri. This
year, 204 people have volunteered as coaches. The program has already
been nominated for the Southwest Missouri Center for Educational
Excellence Program of the Year. The
Missouri State Chamber of Commerce also published this program in its
resource book. Gray
said TREK is being modeled across the state, and to some extent, across
the nation. He also said faculty members at the elementary have
responded positively to TREK. Bayless
believes TREK is working because the community has placed trust in the
program. She said she is thrilled with the community response. There
were questions, but it was so successful last year, that s why it was
so easy to recruit this year, she said. Kudos to the community. SIFE
volunteers coach from 3:10-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday at their assigned
schools. Each volunteer works one-on-one with the same child each week.
The coaches and students completed their fifth week in TREK. The program
began Sept. 16 and will continue until March 13, 2003. Conley
said initially, the children s reactions varied about their coaches,
but now they always look forward to the after-school meetings. So
far the program is going really well, he said. The students are
really warming up to their coaches. Gray
said he expects the relationships between the students and coaches to
continually improve. I
look for these young people to get very close, he said. It is
beneficial to the college student and the grade schooler. The
kids are forming real bonds, Bayless said. Southern
SIFE students participating in TREK include Beverly Kluthe, Mike Davis,
Josh Doak, Conley, Lora St. John, Josh Estep, Elias Bichara, Erica
Johnson, Heather Hilton, Sara Higginbotham, Carter Leffen and Brande
Davis. Each
elementary school decides which students qualify for TREK, based on test
scores. Each child was given a TREK pretest and will be given a midterm
and a post test at the end of the program. Bayless said the students
have already shown dramatic improvement. The
by-products of this program are attendance has improved, she said.
And the test scores validate the program because they have improved
so much. Those
interested in joining the TREK program may contact Bayless by phone at
624-4303 of by e-mail at msbayless@joplincc.com. SIFE
is an international organization dedicated to helping students of all
ages become aware of the concepts of free enterprise, whether it be by
teaching, learning or practicing. It is a nonprofit organization based
in Springfield and has teams on more than 770 college campuses across
the United States and more than 1,200 campuses in 31 countries around
the world. Gray said SIFE is not limited to business majors. |