Spring Break
Students mentor at middle schools
Mitchell Alan Parker
Issue date: 4/10/07 Section: News
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Michelle Valadez, Joslyn Beard and Michael Hausle spend hours of their time every Friday helping Hoover middle school students publish a children's book to give to kindergartners.
"We teach them how to develop their thoughts, their grammar and their punctuation," said Hausle, a freshman majoring in radio, television and film.
The program, titled Students in Action, was started by the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, a volunteer center entirely run by San Jose State University students.
The center, located on the lower-level of the Student Union, was started in spring 2006 and currently has about 30 SJSU students volunteering in four categories: youth development, environmental health, arts and culture and human services, said Josh Barousse, the program's coordinator who is also a senior majoring in sociology.
Students can volunteer to mentor school kids by helping them with their homework; help clean up parks and do landscaping work around town; tutor homeless children in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library; prepare and serve food to the homeless at Martha's Kitchen; or they can help paint murals and contribute to other public art projects in the downtown area, Barousse said.
The program is also part of the nationwide After School All-Stars program, which began in the early '90s.
Then-President George H. W. Bush appointed Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the chairman of the program, which promoted physical fitness to school kids, according to the program's Web site.
The All-Stars has since blossomed into an expansive, nation-wide after school project that encourages programs like Students in Action.
"I believe it has great potential," Barousse said, adding that no experience is needed to join the program.
Michelle Valadez, who double majors in art and illustration and foreign language, said she originally got into the program to fulfill her major's requirement of community service work.
"I was just going to do it for my class," Valadez said. "But when I heard they were going to be mentoring middle school kids, I wanted to join for that."
"We teach them how to develop their thoughts, their grammar and their punctuation," said Hausle, a freshman majoring in radio, television and film.
The program, titled Students in Action, was started by the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, a volunteer center entirely run by San Jose State University students.
The center, located on the lower-level of the Student Union, was started in spring 2006 and currently has about 30 SJSU students volunteering in four categories: youth development, environmental health, arts and culture and human services, said Josh Barousse, the program's coordinator who is also a senior majoring in sociology.
Students can volunteer to mentor school kids by helping them with their homework; help clean up parks and do landscaping work around town; tutor homeless children in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library; prepare and serve food to the homeless at Martha's Kitchen; or they can help paint murals and contribute to other public art projects in the downtown area, Barousse said.
The program is also part of the nationwide After School All-Stars program, which began in the early '90s.
Then-President George H. W. Bush appointed Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the chairman of the program, which promoted physical fitness to school kids, according to the program's Web site.
The All-Stars has since blossomed into an expansive, nation-wide after school project that encourages programs like Students in Action.
"I believe it has great potential," Barousse said, adding that no experience is needed to join the program.
Michelle Valadez, who double majors in art and illustration and foreign language, said she originally got into the program to fulfill her major's requirement of community service work.
"I was just going to do it for my class," Valadez said. "But when I heard they were going to be mentoring middle school kids, I wanted to join for that."
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