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CUEST EDITORIAL
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Despite his soiled record, I will always
admire that Bill Clinton encouraged me to vol
unteer. In a speech given in 1999, he encour
aged all ot us to give back to our community,
saying, "Service to one's community is an
integral part of what it means to be an
American. (We must) work to ensure that all
Americans have the opportunity to make
the most of their own lives and to
help those in need."
Unfortunately, most of us have
lives so hectic that it seems as
if there is no time to spare for
volunteering, despite its bene
fits. Additionally, the most help
less members of our society, the
children, are the ones that face the
greatest need. However, there is a program
here in Clarke County that allows you to ful
fill your civic responsibility that requires only
a few hours of your time each week. This pro
gram is very beneficial to the students in the
ACC school system and is integrally rewarding
us well. It is a program in desperate need of
volunteers, a program that would benefit
greatly from your participation. This is the
Athens-Clarke County Mentor Program.
The ACC Mentor program began in 1991. It
was created to help boost the high school
completion rate of Clarke County, which in
1999 was a whopping 56 percent (Georgia
School Report Card, 1998-1999). Its mission is
to pair trained community volunteers with
area school children who show potential but
r need support, guidance and attention that
their primary caregivers and teachers are
unable to provide.
The requirements of the men
toring program are simple. After
completing the application and
attending a two-hour training
session, you are paired with a
child with similar interests to
yours. You and your student
interact weekly on a one-to-one basis.
Your role as a mentor is to be there for your
student regularly, showing interest by lis
tening to your student's concerns, supporting
your student and caring, as you would for any
friend. You can assist your student with
homework; often students need more one-on-
one interaction than their teachers are able to
give. Many of our students are in desperate
need of one-to-one tutoring, especially in
reading. Last, you are to be a role model to
your student, representing what the real
world can be like, and why it is crucial for
him or her to stay in school, especially in
light of the current economy, which suffers
from a lack of skilled workers.
The Clarke County School System needs
mentors desperately and would greatly appre
ciate your involvement. Without additional
support from the surrounding community, it
has become increasingly difficult to educate
the children who enter the public school
classrooms of today. Often these children were
bom into poverty, and, unless we defeat the
odds stacked against us, they will merely exist
to die in the same
circumstances in
which they were
bom. Many of these
students come from
families that are
unimaginably dys
functional, and they
receive little or no
personal attention,
which is crucial to
healthy development. Most have not been
raised in an environment with any respect for
education and probably never had anyone to
read a book to them when they were younger.
All have been raised in front of the television.
Many of these students are not even profi
cient in English. To compound the challenges
faced by educators, between the Hispanic and
African-American students exists jitter ani
mosity, which will develop into gang violence
if we do not have help from you, citizens of
Athens, to promote tolerance among our stu
dents. We need mentors of all ages and colors
to model what ■* caring place our community
could be, with a little TLC.
Athens is a unique place; in many aspects
it demonstrates at least some of the more pos
itive aspects of what a community should be.
But our community can become even stronger
if like-minded fellow citizens will become
actively involved in strengthening our schools.
Sadly, our children's primary role model is the
mainstream media, and its message does not
focus on principles of education, citizenship or
tolerance. However, you can convey this mes
sage to our students by
being a part of the ACC
Mentor Program. Show
our students that you
care about their future,
about the future of
Athens, as well as the
future of American
society. Seize the
influence from the
mainstream media and
corporations by being proactively involved in
our society's future. Your participation could
make all the difference.
If you would like to participate in the
Athens-Clarke County Mentor program, please
attend the meeting to be held Tuesday,
September 12 at 6 p.m. at the Clarke County
Board of Education building, located at the
comer of Dougherty Street and College
Avenue. For more information, you can con
tact Trudy Bradley at 549-6800.
Deirdre Sugiuchi
The Clarke County
School System
needs mentors
desperately...
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