latoya & jasmine group outing basketball team girls from cooking and art holly & malachai

Service Corps reaches Siler City kids
to inspire academic excellence

July 2007 - SERVICE CORPS reaches dozens of Siler City kids to inspire academic excellence. The club was formed by UNC undergraduate student, Kristin Economo, in collaboration with Chatham Together. It is designed to give high school students an opportunity to boost their portfolio for college admissions by showing valuable contributions to their community through service related activities, namely tutoring.

Eleven students from Jordan Matthews' Scholars Latino Intiative (SLI) put in over 100 hours of volunteer time tutoring Chatham Together kids from area elementary and middle schools during the last school semester. This multi-tiered tutoring club involves mentoring and guidance from UNC students who volunteer to work with the JM students, who then tutor elementary and middle school students in Siler City. The JM students engage in peer tutoring when possible and support each other with the challenging load of accelerated classes they must take to maintain their position with the SLI program.

UNC mentors match up with an SLI high school student for 3 years. As long as those high school youth perform to SLI standards they will receive a FULL SCHOLARSHIP to UNC for 4 years, whether they have legal status or not. Some students will be the first to attend college in the history of their family. Christian Campbell, a sophomore and first year SLI participant, says "Scholars Latino is an amazing opportunity for me. Without this, I would not be able to go to college. My parents paid a heavy price to get us all into the United States and I want to return their sacrifices with a college education and good income to support my family. I think some Latino/American kids take this for granted and forget what their parents did to get them here. I want to become something so huge, like the President, so that my family and relatives in Mexico will be proud of me. Tutoring the younger kids through Service Corps has been very rewarding for me. I remember being in the same position as them - having a language barrier and parents that could not speak or read any English. I had to work so much harder than my classmates to get good grades so I understand where these kids are coming from. It makes me feel good to give back through the Service Corps and I plan to do it again next year."

Service Corps will move from the Siler City Community Center to SAGE Academy in the new school year and serve an already challenged population of kids who attend the county's only alternative school (Chatham New School serves suspended and expelled youth whereas SAGE does not). Service Corps will tutor youth from SAGE twice a week for 2 hours and include a photo literacy or art activity into each session. It is hoped that this unique after school tutoring program will be a sustainable one, backed by Chatham County schools and will receive continued support from Chatham County Together and other area sponsors.