Making An Impact
Youth Achievement Foundation Helps Local Community
M. Schuhneman
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: News © 2008 University of Dallas News


Each Monday and Tuesday, a group of two dozen UD students car-pool to one of two elementary schools in the Irving area. They are volunteers with the Youth Achievement Foundation, a nonprofit organization which serves "at risk" elementary students.

Volunteers offer two hours once a week, either Monday or Tuesday, to mentor fifth graders, first helping them with homework related projects, and then to help build self-esteem and good social behavior. The second hour is dedicated to a sport or game followed by a character talk by Ray Vales, head of the Irving branch.

On the first day of mentoring, Vales told the group of mentors that they are more than simply an academic tutor for these children. In some cases, the volunteers are the only people other than the children's teachers who have gone to college. Additionally, some of these children are beginning to receive attention from local gangs. The mentors' job is not simply to help with multiplication but to provide a good role model for the children.

Julia Hogan, a freshman, got involved in the program after she saw the booth at the activities fair last semester and returned to mentor again this semester. "What I like most about mentoring is that it feels like I am giving back to the community. I can use my talents to help others, and these kids need a lot of help," she says.

Her roommate, fellow freshman Brigid Manion, agrees. "Leaving my family for the first time and going to college, I started to realize how much my brothers and sisters have given to me. I was inspired to share some of it with others." Manion adds that it is exciting to see her student, Dahlia, slowly change from a quiet, unassuming girl to one who can comfortably interact with others.

Volunteering is an excellent opportunity to make a difference in the community and it doesn't hurt that it also looks great on transcripts and resumes. Besides, as Hogan adds, there is nothing like playing a game of Scrabble with fifth graders-"Is this a word?"xyz..."