Volunteer Spotlight

GIRIJA MAHAJAN, Educational Programming Specialist

An intergral component of the DREAM DO ACHIEVE model is the outstanding volunteer support our students recieve on a daily basis. Nadir Ijaz, a sophomore at Duke University, has been volunteering at Emily K since his freshman year and is featured in our volunteer spotlight.

What inspired you to start volunteering at the Emily K Center?

Before my freshman year at Duke, I heard about a program called “Project Child,” in which Duke students would tutor younger children at local schools and after-school centers. I had always enjoyed tutoring in high school, so I decided to volunteer. I was placed with Emily K Center, and so it began. Now, one and a half years later, I’m glad it was Emily K.

What are some of your favorite Emily K Center memories?

I remember one time a fifth grader drew me a picture of “Gallon Man” - a way of remembering the number of quarts in a gallon, the number of pints in a quart, and so forth. It was so funny, because I had never heard of “Gallon Man,” and when I told this to my tutee, she proudly drew me one to take home so I wouldn’t forget it. I also remember helping one of my tutees write a rap for a project. It was the first time either one of us had written a rap, so finding words that rhymed and still worked in context was tons of fun. In the end, we both had a blast (even though it was a homework assignment).

How has volunteering at the Emily K Center impacted you personally?

Sometimes, I think we all tend to forget what it was like being a child or a teenager. Through volunteering at Emily K, I can unleash the kid in me! Whenever I enter the front glass double doors, I forget the outside world for 1.5 hours and just concentrate on my tutees. Emily K is honestly something I look forward to every week, and I probably owe a large part of my sanity to it, considering the stress that comes with life as a college student.

How has volunteering at the Emily K Center impacted your academic and or career goals?

I am hoping to go on to medical school, and Emily K Center has really impacted the way I interact with kids of different ages. Although I am still considering many different fields of medicine as possible choices, pediatrics is something I’ve started thinking of recently, probably prompted by my volunteering at Emily K.

February 5, 2010 at 11:05 am | Our Team | No comment

Pioneer Scholars Look Forward to 2010

GIRIJA MAHAJAN, Educational Programming Specialist

The oh-10s are upon us. Check out some of our Pioneer Scholars setting big goals for the new year.

January 15, 2010 at 3:11 pm | Our Students | No comment

Tail Waggin’ Tutors

TREAT HARVEY, Director of Development

Last Friday I was distracted by the sound of happy children’s voices — squeals of joy, actually — emanating from the lobby.  Of course I had to see what was happening out there, so I peeked out.  There were at least 12 of our kids, huddled around something I couldn’t even see.  Michele said, Oh yes, that is Rudy the Service Dog.

Rudy and his trainer will now come to meet with our students every Friday so that our students can read to him.  The program, called Tail Waggin’ Tutors (promoted by Therapy Dogs International), allows youngsters who are nervous about their reading skills to become more relaxed about overcoming their fears while reading to a non-judgmental dog.  It sounds like we have a line-up of young readers who will be practicing their reading skills on Rudy again this week.  This is another excellent example of the Emily K leveraging existing top-notch resources in the community on behalf of our students. 

WRAL did a great story covering this piece of our Pioneer Scholars program.  Check out this link to learn more about two of our student (Ariel and Naida) working with Rudy.

December 1, 2009 at 10:36 am | Our Team | No comment

Triangle Community Foundation Visit

Last week Andrea Bazan, the President of the Triangle Community Foundation paid a visit to the Center.  She had a chance to meet with staff and speak with some of our Pioneer Scholars students.  She has put up a great post (which includes a video of two of our young scholars).  Enjoy!

November 24, 2009 at 3:09 pm | Our Organization | No comment

New Duke Blue Planet Article about the Center

Check out the article on p. 48-49 of the Duke Blue Planet about some of the great freshman that are involved here at the Emily K Center.  For those of you who are Duke fans, the rest of the magazine is a great read too!

November 13, 2009 at 5:20 pm | Our Students | No comment

Ten Things You’ve Missed Since the Last Post

 

 

 

 

 

Lauren Gardner, COO

You may have noticed our blog has been silent for a few months.  I thought it was time for an update on what we’ve all been so busy doing.  So here’s what you’ve missed:

1. Five weeks this summer of our Pioneer Scholars kid immersing themselves in academic projects covering everything from dinosaurs to preparing for high school.
2. An amazing elective course run by our DukeEngage students where our kids created their own version of Sports Illustrated (and website)
3. The Chris Duhon Basketball camp with 140 campers working on their skills while meeting some of their heroes. 
4. 80 campers participating  in our summer Justice Theater Project Performing Arts Camp which culminated after two weeks in a full production of Annie for a packed house of friends and family.  The majority campers for both camps attended on full need-based scholarship.
5. Orientation for our Pioneer Scholars where our families were welcomed back, commit to the program, and all of our students got backpacks and supplies.  These students have been at the Center working hard every day since then.
6. Our Scholars to College program welcomed its second cohort.  We now have over thirty ninth and tenth graders working hard every week and committed to going to college. 
7. Our 4th-6th grade girls have taken advantage of the opportunity to stay later on Mondays to learn hands-on math, science and engineering from Duke volunteers through the FEMMES program
8. Middle school girls from across Durham come every Thursday night to participate in the Girls Club where they meet and learn from their Duke mentors about everything from self-esteem to public speaking.
9. We hosted a free basketball clinic in celebration of the first football game between NCCU and Duke.  70 young people in grades 5-8 learned basketball and leadership from Jason Williams and student-athletes from both schools.
10. Many, many, many other moments where our students have learned new skills, set goals, and achieved.  We promise we’ll be better about updating more frequently so that you can keep hearing about all of these little and big moments.

October 15, 2009 at 1:10 pm | Our Organization | No comment

Pioneer Scholars Recognition Ceremony

Lauren Gardner, COO

This past Thursday concluded a great year working with our Pioneer Scholars students.  We celebrate this success annually with a Recognition Ceremony for all of our students, families, and staff.  This year featured a Keynote speech by Danzel Pegram a senior at Northern High School who has been involved with the Emily K Center for the past three years.  He will be attending Elon University in the fall.  I recommend taking the time to watch this two minute video of his speech to our Pioneer Scholars.

The highlight of the recognition ceremony is always the presentation of six special awards given to students who have shown exemplary commitment to Academics, Character and Leadership.  Recipients of this year’s awards include:

 

• Lakewood Elementary School third grader Teymi Pantoja who received the Leadership Award and is described by her tutors as, “very kind and respectful. She has high expectations of herself and always does her best.  She always interacts in an appropriate way with her peers and staff.  She is an absolute joy to teach”
• Durham School of the Arts sixth grader Niadiquay Everette who received the Academic Award for consistently demonstrating academic excellence in all areas.
• Lowe’s Grove Middle School seventh grader Rey Fernando Cruz Castillo who received the Character Award.  His tutors say, “Rey has the freedom to fearlessly be the creative, kind, and funny individual he is; and we know that even when we aren’t there, he will, in his own style, do the right thing.”
• Other award winners include Matthew Woodberry (3rd Grade Lakewood Elementary), Jamillah Carter (8th Grade Brogden Middle School) and Jennifer Lemus Santos (3rd Grade Lakewood Elementary)

May 26, 2009 at 1:26 pm | Our Students | No comment

Citizenship Project

LAUREN GARDNER, COO

Fridays in the Pioneer Scholars program are a little different than the rest of the week.   Students spend the afternoon in two elective sections focused on Career Exploration, College Awareness, Citizenship or Leadership.  Ms. Dawn’s citizenship group has been focused this semester on learning about the science of water in our community.  Students studied the issues around our community water supply and ran an online simulation of our storm drain system.  The group then worked with the City of Durham to be able to label the Emily K Center storm drains with warnings to not litter.  Check out this video which will show you more about their final project: Pioneer Scholars Citizenship Project on YouTube *

* You may have noticed that we now have a YouTube Channel and are going to start using more videos in this blog.  We hope this will give those of you not able to come to the Center a chance to see our students in action.  Look for more videos, interviews, and other info to come in the near future!

May 11, 2009 at 12:54 pm | Our Students | No comment

Leaving a Legacy

KARMAN KENT, Program Support Manager

To cap off the year, we like to thank our Pioneer Scholars volunteer tutors with a brief Recognition Ceremony.  While we still have another month to go, the majority of our volunteers from Duke University are in the process of finishing classes, taking final exams and heading off to distant lands for the summer.  While our hope is that the majority of them will return for the Fall 2009 semester, we have a large amount of college seniors with some pressing life decisions to make.  The Recognition Ceremony is a special way for our students to personally thank volunteer tutors for the time and energy they have invested in the Emily Krzyzewski Center. 

With this only our third year of Pioneer Scholars programming, we have had some amazing volunteer results.  Of the 252 total volunteers who’ve donated their time to the Pioneer Scholars program in the past three years, 47% have been with us for more than one semester.  This spring we had a record high of 93 volunteer tutors, 54% of whom had volunteered at the Center in the past and 46% of whom were new volunteers for the Spring 2009 semester. 

This year, we fashioned special volunteer plaques to recognize the volunteers who have tutored during the 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 fall and/or spring semesters.  These plaques are meant to serve as a visible sign of the volunteer community formed at the Emily Krzyzewski Center each year.  The plaques will be featured in the upstairs hallway to remind volunteers that they will always be a part of the Emily K Center team and are an integral part of what we do. 

For the 2008-2009 school year we also made a special note of those volunteers who served on our Volunteer Leadership Council (VLC).  The primary goals of the VLC are to improve the experience of volunteer tutors and promote awareness of educational inequities in Durham.  These volunteers served as advocates for the Center and helped create an environment conducive to becoming a movement in volunteerism.

Finally, we developed a special plaque for those we deemed “Dream-Do-Achieve” volunteers who have served as tutors for four or more semesters.  We were blown away when nearly 20 were recognized this year for this special achievement.  These people have been reliable, enthusiastic, and committed to the mission and vision of the Emily Krzyzewski Center.  Their influence will reach far beyond this year or even the past three years.  Instead, it is our hope that our volunteer tutors will understand that because they have touched the life of a child, they have left and continue to leave a legacy for generations to come.

April 21, 2009 at 2:33 pm | Our Team | No comment

Bitten by the Leadership Bug

KARMAN KENT, Program Support Manager

Over the past three years we have been lucky enough to have some amazing leaders in our midst.  Last week, I was invited to attend the presentation of Duke University’s most prestigious campus-wide honors for leadership and service.  It was inspiring to be in a room with such innovative scholars committed to social change. 

Gregory Akinbiyi, Allison Bell, Aubrey Bonhivert, Anders Campbell and Leah Fisher have all contributed in amazing ways to the Emily Krzyzewski Center.  These five volunteers assisted with tutoring during our Pioneer Scholars program, interning in our Summer Scholars program, coordinating Crazies Who Care volunteers, initiating the FEMMES (Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science) program for our 4th-6th grade girls, raising money and awareness for the Emily Krzyzewski Center, and more.  Their outstanding contributions have made a huge impact on our students and programs that will not be forgotten.

Gregory, Allison, Aubrey, Anders and Leah were recognized at the Student Affairs Distinguished Leadership and Service Awards program through Duke University for demonstrating the following qualities: recognition of selflessness, generosity of service, nobility of character, outstanding commitment to the ideals of service-learning, understanding the responsibility of effective citizenship, establishing a sustainable vision for a new student organization, building alliances through collective engagement, and demonstrating an ongoing commitment and outstanding contributions to community partnerships.

The integrity and strength of character of these volunteers has been undoubtedly clear in both the campus and community settings.  We are pleased to congratulate them on their successes and wish them the best of luck in the future.  It is evident that these college seniors have been bitten by the leadership bug and are destined for greatness.  We hope that our students will follow in their footsteps and aspire to give back in the amazing ways these five volunteers have.

April 21, 2009 at 2:21 pm | Our Team | No comment

Next Page »