By CHARLY MARKWART
Princeton Times
July 02, 2009 03:47 pm
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PRINCETON — In the summer months, when local children can typically be found playing at city parks and swimming in community pools, it seems a rare sight to see them instead at school, working on their reading and writing skills.
What's even more rare is to see them enjoying that experience.
But, rare or not, that enjoyment was clear this week on the faces of the 200 first- through sixth-grade Mercer County students participating in Energy Express, a six-week program designed to provide children in rural and low-income communities with fun educational opportunities throughout the summer. This marks the 15th year the West Virginia University program has been available in Mercer County.
“We want the students to think of this as a fun school, rather than summer school, so we try to make it look not as structured as it is,” said Jean Clevers, Energy Express site coordinator at Mercer Elementary School. “The purpose of the program is to provide reading activities to these students, and to keep giving them a good breakfast and lunch throughout the summer. While the program concentrates on low income and reading deficit schools, it is mostly just targeted towards enhancing reading skills.”
Developed in response to studies showing that elementary students often lose reading and writing skills during the summer, Energy Express works through local WVU extension programs to offer reading, writing, drama, art and recreational activities, as well as two healthy meals a day to students in counties across West Virginia. Running from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. each weekday, the program utilizes college students who volunteer through the AmeriCorps program to mentor the participants. Additionally, other community members volunteer to read to the students during the one-on-one reading portion of the program.
“The college students are really the core of our program,” said Clevers. “Somehow they manage to get everything that we are trying to do in there in one day for these students, and that's very impressive. They are just great.”
At Clevers' Mercer School site, eight of those college volunteers have been tasked with leading a total of 64 students through the Energy Express program this summer. At three other sites across the county (Oakvale, Lashmeet/Matoaka, and Bluefield), other volunteers direct similar educational activities, based on weekly themes including family, friends, community, and making the world a better place. AmeriCorps volunteers are rewarded with a small living allowance and a $1,000 scholarship to be used toward their schooling.
“I got involved in Energy Express because I like working with children,” said Cydney Smith, a senior in Concord University's social work program. “In the first two days with the kids, I can already see a difference; I had a student who didn't know how to read, so I sat and worked with her for 20 minutes and she was reading me a whole sentence. It's good to see it making an impact like that.”
Smith, a first-year volunteer with Energy Express, went on to quote statistics clearly supporting the positive difference the program has made for students throughout its existence.
“Studies have proven that students in Energy Express step ahead three months in their skills during their time in the program,” she said. “So, instead of losing three months, they gain it, and they go back to school right where they need to be.”
Educational enhancement is its purpose, but the most unique aspect of Energy Express might be the way its structure actually seems to make participants forget that they are learning anything at all. Absorbed by the fun and excitement of the program's innovative activities, volunteers say their students take steps forward without the rigor and effort of a typical school day.
“The best part for me was yesterday when we went to lunch and my students were asking me what we were going to do afterwards,” said Kristin Mabe, a WVU junior education major. “I told them they got to go home after lunch, and they were disappointed. They said this is the most fun they've ever had at school, and that was really cool to hear.”
For Destiny Stroud, a Princeton Primary student attending the Mercer School program, the first week of Energy Express was nothing but fun. The program activities, she says, make spending part of her summer at school well worthwhile.
“I like this very much, because you have fun,” she said. “My favorite part is when we do the art. This is way more fun than regular school.”
In addition to creative educational opportunities, Energy Express offers another school day component that Clevers says is sometimes lacking in the lives of students during the summer months. Through funding provided by Community Action of Southeastern West Virginia, the program provides daily breakfasts and lunches to all participants.
“They sit down and share a healthy meal together, where they're all served a little bit of everything and they sit until everyone else at their table is done,” she said. “It's a family style setting that a lot of these kids have hardly ever experienced, because it's always fast food or eating in front of amicrowave, these days.”
Between the activities and the meals, one Energy Express volunteers says the program simply gives students the structure and stimulation that they need during the months when school is not in session to provide it for them.
“I think it helps them a lot,” said Olivia Milam, a sophomore at Marshall University. “It's something for them to do, when a lot of them don't have much to do in the summer besides watching television.”
— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.
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