My Nonprofit Reviews

A Call to College is a well-devised, well-implemented program in the Newark OH school system, designed to increase the likelihood that students (and their parents) will come to envision college in their futures. It involves intervening at important moments in the students' school careers to provide age-appropriate encouragements. My experience with the program is as a volunteer in the stage that involves second-graders, called "Reading Rocks at the Library." In this stage, as a resident at a local senior living community, I (and many of my friends) visit with second-graders at the Newark public library, to talk with them about how books are avenues to grand stories, valuable information, adventures, and excitement. (We manage to get references to college in too.) For some of the kids, it's the first time they've been inside the library. They seem to have a grand time, and they're full of questions. I've done this for several years now, and I'm persuaded that the work being done at this first stage is memorable and important for the children.