Since the COVID-19 pandemic, elementary schools have been struggling to get their reading and writing levels back to what it used to be. The pandemic has had a huge impact on both the social and academic levels of elementary school students. Schools have been working hard to try and reverse these low levels, but are in desperate need of volunteers as elementary school staff struggles with shortages. Carmen Moore, a sophomore Bonner Leader at Averett University, volunteers at Forest Hill Elementary School in Danville, Virginia. Becoming a Bonner Leader and volunteering at a local elementary school was a no-brainer for Moore as she has been researching social issues within school systems since she was a high school student.
“My senior project in high school worked around diversity, equity and inclusion within the school system,” Moore said. “This was never something any of my schools focused on, so it became a very important topic to me. As I became a Bonner Leader at Averett, I choose to continue to volunteer within education as it is something I’m very passionate about.”
Moore has been volunteering at Forest Hill Elementary School ever since she became a part of the Bonner Leadership Program at Averett University. The Bonner Leadership Program is a 4-year community based leadership program at Averett University. Bonner Leaders volunteer in the local community and respond to economic, social and cultural challenges that impact the quality of life in those communities. While doing meaningful service work, Bonner Leaders try to contribute to a positive change in their community.
During Moore’s two years at Forest Hill, she has seen the struggles of both student and teacher firsthand while volunteering with different grades at the school as a teacher-assistant. Results of SOL, Standards of Learning, testing have gone down drastically since the pandemic. She has noticed that the children especially at their young age, and with their learning deficit need a lot of one-on-one attention. However, it is just one teacher in a classroom with at least 25 children, and if they are lucky, a teacher-assistant like Moore herself.
“Coming in this year, Forest Hill has been focusing a lot on trying to improve their SOL testing results,” Moore said. “Looking in the classroom, there is only one teacher with 25 students but every student needs one-on-one attention to get them back up to grade level from what happened during the pandemic.”
To help students get the one-on-one attention they need and support teachers in the classroom, Moore has set up an after school tutoring program in which Averett students volunteer as a tutor at Forest Hill. Moore is looking for as many students as possible that would be willing to volunteer, so the program can grow and eventually help other elementary schools in Danville as well. The ultimate goal is for the program to help students raise their SOL test scores and improve their learning deficit.
“New volunteers are always welcome and much needed,” Moore said. “Students can join the tutoring program by sending me an email. The volunteers would tutor any grade between 3rd and 5th on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour starting at 3:15pm at Forest Hill Elementary school.”
Contact Information Carmen Moore:
