By Kalkidan Melaku, Justice and Legal Thought
This community service project is very important because it helps try to end the achievement gap between white students and minority students. America Counts is a program that focuses on making that gap as small as possible by giving students extra resources so they are where they need to be education-wise.
Hello, my name is Kali Melaku and I did a community service project for the Academic Showcase. I volunteered for America Counts at Lewisdale Elementary School, mentoring three fourth grade students in math. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 2-5 pm a group of other mentors/mentor leaders and I go to the elementary school and we meet up with our mentees. Every single student in Lewisdale Elementary are low-income minorities and most of them live within walking distances of the school. Students are split up into small groups with the mentors and they get math homework help from us. After we are done helping them with any problems they have in their small groups we combine all the groups and make one large one. In this large group, all the children play a game that relates to math and helps them practice some of the skills they use in math class or their homework. This community service project is very important because it helps try to end the achievement gap between white students and minority students. The achievement gap refers to the difference in academic performance (things like grades and standardized test scores) between minorities and white students. America Counts is a program that focuses on making that gap as small as possible by giving students extra resources so they are where they need to be education-wise. It is good to have these types of programs, especially in low-income areas, because schools in these areas might not have enough funding to give students the best possible education and that makes them lag behind other students which is unfair.
I was interested in this project because I wanted to learn more about what we could do to change the unfortunate education system that we learned about in MLAW 100. Thanks to this poster, I learned about the purpose of America Counts which is to help American children find extra help to make sure they can keep up with content that is challenging or difficult. Do you have any stories from your experience that have inspired you to continue to pursue helping children?
I was interested in this project because I wanted to learn more about what we could do to change the unfortunate education system that we learned about in MLAW 100. Thanks to this poster, I learned about the purpose of America Counts which is to help American children find extra help to make sure they can keep up with content that is challenging or difficult. Do you have any stories from your experience that have inspired you to continue to pursue helping children?
I was interested in this project because I wanted to learn more about what we could do to change the unfortunate education system that we learned about in MLAW 100. Thanks to this poster, I learned about the purpose of America Counts which is to help American children find extra help to make sure they can keep up with content that is challenging or difficult. Do you have any stories from your experience that have inspired you to continue to pursue helping children?
This project stood out to me because I was interested in volunteering with America Counts last semester but couldn't find the time in my schedule to do so, so it was really cool to see what I could've done and what I might still do in the future. From your poster, I learned about how important it is to provide low-income communities with extra resources as they are just as deserving of a complete education as wealthier students. What would you say was a challenge in your service-learning experience?
Your project stood out to me because I am always to see what service-learning opportunities there are around UMD, and your project seemed to combine a passion for service-learning and mentoring kids, as well as incorporate topics we discussed heavily in both MLAW and CPJT. We learned about education disparities in both of those classes, and your project worked to highlight that and apply it to students in close proximity to us, which is really interesting. Working with these kids first hand, did you see areas in which the school lacked resources and if so, how do you think school officials or politicians should go about addressing that?