From Claudia Gay:
This might be helpful; for older students that are looking for scholarships to fill in some community service gaps. Lots of times scholarship committees are looking for something beyond church activities.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me this morning! As you suggested, I have typed up a little bit about the Reading Buddy Reading Program at Robert Smalls. Below you will find additional information about the program, and I have attached a flyer for your review and dissemination!
We are seeking members from our community to commit to reading with an assigned student (known as their Reading Buddy) for 30 minutes each week. This program will have a significant impact on our students, school, and community. A volunteer will ideally remain involved with the student through his or her middle school years. However, if volunteers can only commit to a school year, we definitely won’t turn them away! We would like to see volunteers stay involved with their students as they enter high school, with the idea that this relationship will eventually improve a student’s likelihood of graduation from our feeder school Battery Creek High School.
Robert Smalls is a high poverty school. We know that students at Robert Smalls often enter our school one or more grade levels below their actual grade. Filling the skill gap alone is reason enough for a program of this nature. The additional read aloud time a volunteer will provide will have a meaningful impact on our students’ test scores, grades, and social skills. In an international study of 150,000 fourth graders, researchers found that students who were read to “often” scored 30 points higher on tests than students who were read to “sometimes.” Therefore, we know there is a direct correlation between being read to and student achievement.
It is around this research that we focus our effort: the more students are read to, the higher their achievement will be!
I would be happy to come out and talk you or any groups you think might be particularly interested in volunteering. Feel free to email me at Julia.jaramillo@beaufort.k12.sc.us or call me at 843-322-2585. I look forward to your feedback!
Thank you for your time!
Julie Jaramillo
Parent Outreach Coordinator and Data Analysis Management Coordinator
Robert Smalls Middle School
