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Clayton High alum spearheads SLPS volunteer program
(by Beijing Zhu - June 23, 2010)
A Clayton High graduate is directing a project that connects kids, colleges and communities in St. Louis.
Elad Gross, who graduated from Clayton High School in 2006 and recently graduated from Duke University, initiated the project in 2008. The project became the Education Exchange Corps, an organization that partners with St. Louis Public Schools to improve educational opportunities for at-risk children.
“I like to work with kids and see the project as an opportunity to be beneficial to them,” Gross said.
The organization places college students in elementary summer school classrooms as teaching assistants who help out in one-on-one, small group and overall classroom settings to improve the children’s academic performance.
In the past two summers, the EEC had over 100 full- and part-time volunteers work with more than 1,000 kids. This summer, students from Duke, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the University of Missouri-Columbia, St. Louis University and Washington University will volunteer at four sites, including Gateway, Lexington, Froebel and Jefferson Elementary.
The teaching assistant program started June 14 and will run through July 2, followed by an enrichment program from July 5 through 23 that the EEC hosts to have college students take the role of instructors and teach classes on their own.
Gross explained that the reason they focus on a summer program is based on studies of summer learning loss, the things kids forget over the course of summer.
“The program is research-based targeting that takes advantage of summer break to aid kids who are way back,” Gross said. He said he hopes that it will benefit underprivileged kids in particular, keep them interested in school and narrow the academic gap.
Gross emphasized the flexibility the project offers to both the volunteers and the children.
“We are not inserting teachers. For college students, the assistantship brings them the perspective of connecting with kids and allows them to stretch into the teaching field while experiencing less stress,” Gross said, adding that the program provides college students with the opportunity to engage in a classroom and see if they like teaching before devoting full commitment to it.
“For kids, it is educational in that they get the attention they might otherwise not get in a regular classroom,” he said. “Since we deal with individual students, it allows us to target each kid and thus improve class environment.”
Gross said that he was excited to recognize a news photo of a boy he once tutored who was the biggest troublemaker. In the photo, the boy stands with the school principal and another student to witness an honor being awarded to the school.
Commenting on their partnership with SLPS, Gross said that it’s a good experience and their relationship is set. “Instead of reforming the education system we work with it,” he said.
Maureen Nolan, volunteer services specialist of SLPS, said that they started to work with the organization three years ago and it has brought wonderful resources to them. “The college students are very helpful, hardworking and sincere. They want to make sure every child they recruited gets help, ” she said.
Last fall, the EEC launched a pilot program for the regular school year and will soon expand into a year-round model.
In the long term, Gross said that they plan to spread the project to other cities such as Chicago, New Orleans and New York once they get St. Louis covered. “The flexibility of the program enables us to tailor it to public schools of different districts,” he said.
The project network would also make it possible for public schools nationwide to collaborate with each other to solve some common problems in student administration, Gross said. “For example, the problem of student mobility,” a phenomenon of students switching to different schools for reasons other than grade promotion, “may exist in several schools and through the research network, they can work together to find out the causes behind the problem.”
Katherine Filaseta, a junior in international studies at Washington University, explained her interest in joining the summer program, saying that she has never worked in a classroom before and wants to find out if she likes the environment.
“I feel like the program helps kids to understand the joy of learning and find a reason to come back to school,” Filaseta said.
Ameerah Collins, a St. Louis University senior, joined the program as a medium to influence kids. “You know, you can have positive influence on kids and let them feel that someone cares about them, especially those inner-city children who do not receive enough attention,” she said.
Collins acknowledged that she herself has learned valuable lessons from the program. “Before that I only cared about myself. The program connects me to the community and I feel I’m doing something to not only better the kids but myself as well,” she said.
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