GAMBIER, Ohio — Kenyon College students who started classes last week are busy with more than just their own studies these days — many are helping to make school better for local K-12 students, too.
Whether it’s volunteering their time at local elementary schools, mentoring gifted students, or helping high schoolers with the college application process, members of the Kenyon community are giving back to younger students in Knox County.
Between 150 and 200 students typically volunteer each semester at Wiggin Street Elementary in Gambier, just down the street from the College. They assist teachers by preparing instructional materials, organizing classroom resources and even providing one-on-one tutoring and small group support.
“This additional support allows the student-to-adult ratio to decrease significantly, creating opportunities for more personalized attention, improved academic outcomes, and stronger student engagement,” said Wiggin Street Principal Christy Grandstaff.
One such volunteer, Amelia Russell, is a sophomore who enjoyed serving as a math tutor for first graders last year.
“It was a really great experience,” said Russell, a biochemistry major from Cleveland who is hoping to expand her involvement this year by bringing to the school the national Girls on the Run program, which combines life skills learning and physical activity. “I have always enjoyed working with children, especially in areas of my interest.”
The newest effort to help local students will kick off this fall and focus on high schoolers. Known as BEACON (Building Educational And College Opportunities Near Gambier), it is a college preparation and advising program for first-generation Mount Vernon High School students. Initiated by Kenyon students in collaboration with the College’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the program aims to help high school seniors navigate the college application process through tutorials and one-on-one mentorship.
Kenyon sophomore Laney Tullius — a first-generation college student from Barlow, Ohio, in rural Appalachia — founded the group as an opportunity for her peers to help first-generation students from local high schools access higher education.
“Most people in my community didn’t go to college, so there weren’t a lot of people to reach out to. … Going through the application process was incredibly hard,” she said. “When I got here at Kenyon, I felt like the education was amazing. I feel like it’s changed the trajectory of my life already, and I want other people to have that.”
Kenyon students help out at other local schools through collaborations that the College’s Office of Community Partnerships has established. Two Mount Vernon elementary schools — East and Dan Emmett — brought students to Kenyon’s campus in the spring for special, college student-led programming that included square dancing, a meet-and-greet with international students, and a soccer clinic. Wiggin Street aims to take part this year as well, according to Julie Brodie, director of the Office for Community Partnerships.
“It’s a pretty cool opportunity for the kids to come on campus and engage with Kenyon students and in different kinds of activities,” she said.
At Pleasant Street Elementary School in Mount Vernon, Kenyon students lead activities as part of an afterschool program. Kendin Basden, a senior from Bermuda, organized three soccer clinics in the spring at the school — first by himself and then with a few fellow athletes. A member of the men’s soccer team who plans on working professionally as a coach, Basden said he will resume the sessions on a more frequent basis this academic year because he feels it’s important to give back to the next generation.
“One thing I learned when I fell in love with soccer is that it gave me a lot of things to look forward to,” he said. “Just to have people involved and on their feet and with a smile, I feel like that’s a pretty powerful thing to offer them.”
A student worker for the Office for Community Partnerships, Basden also helped deliver donated school supplies for local students last month as part of a collection the office coordinated with Liz Keeney, a Gambier resident and retired associate director of student accessibility and support services at Kenyon who has led the effort for years.
In all, Kenyon faculty, staff and community members donated thousands of dollars worth of supplies. This included hundreds of pencils, markers and notebooks, as well as 150 scientific calculators and over 2,000 sheets of construction paper. Carloads of supplies were delivered to Wiggin Street, Mount Vernon Middle School, Knox County Career Center, Knox County Head Start and New Directions, which also received 22 backpacks full of games, crafts and supplies.
Other efforts at helping K-12 students in Knox County focus on student mentoring. Julian Lane, a Kenyon senior from New York City, is the student liaison for the Knox County Genius Hour Symposium, previously known as Bright Minds.
He’s loved volunteering for four semesters with the initiative that provides mentoring to gifted elementary and middle school students in Mount Vernon, Fredericktown, Centerburg, Howard and Danville as they research passion projects.
“It really is one-on-one,” Lane said. “You get to go into the mind of a bright, curious fourth grader or seventh grader, and it’s just a nice place to be.”