{"id":179674,"date":"2010-01-14T10:15:19","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.compact.org\/?p=9339"},"modified":"2010-01-14T10:15:19","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T15:15:19","slug":"returning-the-favor-pownal-students-check-out-svc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/179674","title":{"rendered":"Returning the favor: Pownal students check out SVC"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in the Bennington Banner <\/em>and is reprinted with permission.<\/p>\n

BENNINGTON, VT: About 30 elementary school students from Pownal visited Southern\u00a0Vermont College Wednesday to get feel for a college campus, alongside 15 of their\u00a0mentors and friends.<\/p>\n

The visit was a reversal of what has happened once a week for the semester in Professor\u00a0Eric Despard\u2019s Quest for Success freshmen class: The college students have visited\u00a0Pownal elementary School, where they act as role models to children from grades\u00a0kindergarten through sixth grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great project for both the college kids and the children because it allows two\u00a0different age groups to form a connection,\u201d said Amy Balawender, who is a senior course\u00a0apprentice for the class. \u201cI think it\u2019s good for us college students because we get to be in\u00a0a different environment and it\u2019s a good way to be responsible and be a good mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class of SVC students split up at the beginning of the school year, with two college\u00a0students interacting with kids from each elementary grade during lunch and recess.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus on the project is service learning and to expose them to small children and to\u00a0help them understand their role in the community,\u201d Despard said.<\/p>\n

Despard said the first-year program began because the elementary students were in need\u00a0of positive influences, and he believed there was much the college students could take\u00a0from the interactions as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really look forward to going there every week, they really connected with these\u00a0students,\u201d Despard said.<\/p>\n

SVC freshman Gina Kemper said she\u2019s really enjoyed getting to know the second-graders\u00a0she\u2019s formed a bond with and that it\u2019s true she and other students look forward to visiting\u00a0to play games with the kids at recess or help them with their schoolwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an experience that I\u2019ll take throughout my life,\u201d Kemper said.<\/p>\n

And the elementary students get just as much from the experience, said Mary Natalizia,\u00a0the coordinator at Pownal and an art teacher at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always amazed how much our students idolize the college students,\u201d Natalizia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you can do any kind of generation pairing like that it\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natalizia said through watching the interactions since the program began in September\u00a0she has seen the college students become more comfortable at the elementary school\u00a0where they now seem to fit right in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always magical when you see the interaction,\u201d Natalizia said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, elementary students from each grade ate in the college cafeteria where\u00a0many said they were impressed with the larger selection of food and then toured the\u00a0campus with their mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go to college here because it\u2019s awesome,\u201d fourth-grader Carrigan Moresi said\u00a0after finishing lunch.<\/p>\n

SVC students Ashlee Thomas and Shifa Sheikh read the story of the wishing well to<\/p>\n

Pownal Elementary students, at the base of the cascading fountains behind Everett<\/p>\n

Mansion.<\/p>\n

\"quest1\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in the Bennington Banner and is reprinted with permission. BENNINGTON, VT: About 30 elementary school students from Pownal visited Southern\u00a0Vermont College Wednesday to get feel for a college campus, alongside 15 of their\u00a0mentors and friends. The visit was a reversal of what has happened once a week for the semester in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}