Student Mentors Continue to Encourage Local Schoolchildren

The mentors were Sacred Heart University students, participating in the 18th year of the Jones-Zimmerman Academic Mentoring Program (AMP).

On a recent Monday, after school had officially dismissed for the day, two classrooms on the second floor of John Winthrop School in Bridgeport were occupied by 34 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students and their college mentors. They were studying and doing homework while enjoying some snacks.

Sacred Heart students apply for AMP through the Office of Volunteer Programs & Service Learning when they are sophomores. The Jones-Zimmermann Foundation funds the program, which aims to encourage youngsters to maintain academic success with the help of their SHU mentor. Each mentor works with the same two middle school students twice a week for three years, as the children proceed from sixth grade to seventh, and then enter their teens in eighth grade.

After mentors and students spend the first hour after school on homework and studying, they turn to an enrichment activity for the second hour. If the weather is nice, everyone goes outside to play games, or they work on a craft or get a visit from a guest speaker. Some days are dedicated to field trips—the nine graduating eighth-graders in the group recently went to see The Lion King on Broadway.

Sacred Heart junior Ashlyn Burbano, 20, of Manorville, NY, is one of three student leaders in AMP. The health science major said that, since she began volunteering at AMP, she’s learned how to work with other people and she fully understands the kind of effect she can have on a younger person. “You can really impact their lives,” she said.

Burbano mentors seventh-grader Jayleen, 13, who said she enjoys being part of AMP because it gives her a chance to do her homework and participate in fun enrichment activities. On past days with Burbano, she’s made ice cream, lava lamps and art creations with melted crayons. “Everyone is really nice and helpful,” she said as she worked on a math worksheet.

Tatenda Zenenga ’18, a finance and investment management major, is a graduate assistant who oversees the mentor program. Zenenga, 22, spent many summers working with children at camps. “I always worked with kids and always found that work rewarding,” he said.

Students in the program don’t often enjoy school or understand its benefits, Zenenga said, but AMP helps them realize the importance of graduating and going to college. Through long-range tracking procedures, AMP measures success at improving the graduation rate among academically at-risk students. Zenenga said he is proud that many of the eighth-graders with SHU mentors are moving on to good high schools such as Notre Dame in Fairfield.

From classroom to classroom at John Winthrop, students could be heard talking quietly with their mentors. Occasionally, a laughing fit would break out, but students stayed focused and concentrated on their tasks.

Senior Josiah Hardwick, 22, an education major, started volunteering for AMP as a way to gain more experience with students and to help the community. “There’s the service aspect to it that I really like,” said the Edgewater, MD, native. “I’m being a role model, and that’s a great feeling.”

Hardwick works with John, an eighth-grader. The boy said he likes being part of AMP because he has fun with Hardwick, who helps him with written work. Plus, he said, he enjoys the field trips.

For more information, visit the AMP webpage.

If you are unable to view the photos above, vist the AMP gallery on Flickr.