Student helps at local Crack Prevention Center

Several GC&SU students are working with the Crack Prevention Center to help area children better their educations and their futures by keeping their focus on schoolwork and off drugs.

Allison Wood, a freshman early childhood education major, is a student in Dr. Joe Devitis’ “Education in Today’s Schools” class.

Devitis announced that each student was required to do a minimum of 20 hours of community service to pass his class. Options included tutoring at the Boys and Girls Club, teaching at the Early Learning Center, helping with homework at the Crack Prevention Center and doing observations in a public school.

When Wood heard the options, she made her community service decision by choosing the one few students seemed interested in.

Her choice was to volunteer to help area children with their schoolwork at the Crack Prevention Center in Milledgeville, which is sponsored by Vaughn Chapel.

“These kids need help, too, just like all the others,” Wood said.

When she began her volunteer work a couple of weeks ago, she realized why most of the students turned down this opportunity. As she and two other student volunteers drove to the center for the first time, they realized that they were in an unfamiliar area. Wood graduated from a private school and has never had any black friends. Wood calls the area she works in ten hours a week “the ghetto.” Still, the students decided to stick to their commitments.

The Crack Prevention Center was a result of members of Vaughn Chapel deciding to help kids with their schoolwork. By keeping the children busy and off the streets at night, the church members decided that students would have a better chance of staying in school and staying out of trouble.

Wood and two classmates work from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday of each week. The children they work with range in age from 5 years to 15 years. On any given evening there are 20 to 30 children at the center.

The student volunteers and four or five parent volunteers work with the children on their homework. Wood and the others have been helping students with math, science, spelling and social studies.

Another volunteer from Devitis’ class is freshman Allison Gesualdo.

“I like volunteering there because I can see how smart the kids are. But they need encouragement, and that’s what I give them,” said Gesualdo, a middle grades education major.

The third GC&SU volunteer at the center is Laura Yerden, a freshman early childhood education major. Yerden said she is also glad she chose this volunteer project.

“Crack Prevention is a great place to get experience working with all different age groups,” she said.

Wood and her classmates are working to fulfill a large need.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Baldwin County is one of the counties that needed such a program. In 2000, Baldwin County had a graduation rate of 72.6 percent, lower than the statewide 78.6 percent.

In addition, Baldwin County public schools recently released a student survey that showed 55 percent of students in grades 6-12 reported using alcohol within the past year, 37 percent of students in grades 6-12 reported using tobacco products within the past year and 27 percent of students in grades 6-12 reported using illegal drugs within the past year.

The volunteers at the Crack Prevention Center hope to increase the graduation rate in Baldwin County and to decrease the numbers of students using alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs.

However, working with these children has already begun to impact them.

Wood said her work with these at- risk children has already influenced her life. Before, Wood knew only that she wanted to teach lower grades, but she was not sure exactly which grade. Now that she has been working mostly with fourth graders at the center, she has decided that they are the age group she would like to teach.

“I always wanted to teach, and I really like little kids,” Wood said.

Wood said she is glad she chose to work at the Crack Prevention Center because she feels it gives her the chance to teach kids that they can reach their goals, just like she is working towards her goal of becoming a teacher.

She wants to let the children know that if they work hard, they can be whatever they want to be. Wood said she finally knows the meaning of the age old clich?, “to teach is to touch a life forever,” on a personal level.

Wood said she plans to continue her education at GC&SU in part because of the experience. She is grateful to have the hands-on teaching experience she is getting from working at the Crack Prevention Center, and she is looking forward to her in-classroom experiences beginning her junior year.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 21 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry