Students volunteer for reading corps

Adapting to a new environment can be a difficult task for some. Changing states and attending a brand new school can be even more challenging. For some students, conquering the uncomfortable means accepting the new environment, and volunteering has been a rewarding experience as they become more involved in the Bloomington community. It has become their avenue to a comfort zone in a brand new surrounding. \n"I did it to escape reality, to get out of school for a little while," said sophomore Jonah Paul about his volunteering experience. "It's like I am giving back to the community, basically, doing something I love."\nThe Indiana Reading Corps, a volunteering organization, provides a sense of community to many students. It is affiliated with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Bloomington. The Corps was developed in 1996 after former President Bill Clinton enacted his "No Child Left Behind" policy.\nThe Indiana Reading Corps provides a free tutoring service to struggling elementary school students, grades one through six, with reading and comprehension skills. Volunteers work either at the Indiana Reading Corps itself or at Templeton Elementary School. There are about 50 students in the program. Broadview Elementary School was involved last year, but there are not enough volunteers this year to provide the service, Reading Corps volunteer coordinator Laura Beth Wayne said.\nThe benefits of the tutoring service are astounding, she said. \n"Ninety-one percent of students that were tutored increased by one reading level, and 60 percent of the students increased by two reading levels," Wayne said. \nThese levels are because of the one-on-one attention that the students receive, Wayne said.\n"It was good because it was from a student-to-student basis," sophomore and IDS employee Sarah Kanter explained. "We can really help the kids understand more. When a teacher teaches, he teaches what he was taught in school, and we teach it from a different perspective."\nWayne said these statistics provided the basis for the Indiana Reading Corps being one of the only fully funded governmental programs in Indiana after the recent cuts this summer. \nTo become a reading tutor, a volunteer must fill out an application. After reviewing the application, the Corps does a background check and interviews the applicant.\n"Annually, there are about 10,000 hours of service that are provided to the students," Wayne said. "With that much time volunteered, a relationship with the students is created, and not only are the volunteers just a tutor, but a friend that the student can feel secure with," Wayne said. \nFollowing this, if accepted, the volunteers learn a teaching method that was developed in Kentucky called "Reaching Coaches." It is an interactive method where the volunteer asks the student questions before the story to entice him or her to read it, during the story to keep the student interested and after the story to gauge comprehension. The student is required to keep a journal and summarize the story afterwards, as well as keep a vocabulary list. \nAfter learning the methods, the volunteer is matched up with a student with whom he or she will work until the end of the service. The time requirement is 30 minutes twice a week or an hour-and-a-half twice a week for the after-school program. Volunteering at the Indiana Reading Corps is open to those of all ages, yet 95 percent of the volunteers, Wayne said, are college students. \n"Across the state there are 2,200 volunteers and about 2,500 students tutored each year," Wayne said. "But there are not enough tutors for the students. The majority are female volunteers, and I'm trying to gain more interest from male volunteers. Anyone interested?" \nFor more information on volunteering, contact Laura Beth Wayne at lwayne4481@hotmail.com.\n-- Contact staff writer Sabina Bhasin at sbhasin@indiana.edu.