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Hands on Atlanta
Namaskaram to everyone,
As you may already know, the Georgia Tech chapter of HSC has become
involved with Hands on Atlanta, an umbrella organization for several
community projects, including volunteer projects at the Atlanta Food Bank,
and tutoring for elementary school children. Our chapter plans to be actively
involved with at least one type of volunteer work sponsored by Hands on
Atlanta each month.
This past Saturday, several members in our chapter along with individuals
from other volunteer organizations met at an elementary school to tutor
children in levels KG - 5th grade. The volunteers were split into groups of
three or four and assigned to work with a specific grade level. We were
fortunate to have enough volunteers to work on a one-to-one basis
with the children. We were assigned to first and fifth grade. We
taught the first graders about seeds, the parts of a plant, how
seeds grow into plants, and ended the session by making and
decorating planters in which the children got to plant some flower
seeds and later take home with them. The fifth graders did
mini math and science projects.
I was very surprised to see children volunteering to come to school on a
Saturday morning rather than staying at home to watch cartoons.
Furthermore, it appears that these children arrive at the school as early
as 8:30, even though the session only begins at 9, waiting for the
volunteers to arrive. Many of these children come from dysfunctional homes
where they are often neglected. These Saturday morning tutorial
sessions may be one of the few sources where any of these children receive
individual attention from adults. In many senses, I think the volunteers
in our HSC chapter got as much out of attending the tutorial as the
children did. It was both a fun and rewarding experience, and we hope to
revisit the school soon.
Sincerely,
Jayati
