RSVP hosts education awareness

By Mariella Schweickart     1/28/10 6:00pm

This week, the Rice Student Volunteer Program gave students the opportunity to participate in a different educational system. The fourth annual Education Awareness Week, organized by the RSVP Education Committee, included events ranging from a trip off campus to help autistic students to an on-campus presentation by State Representative Ellen Cohen. The Education Committee is headed by Will Rice College sophomore Liz Jackson and Wiess College senior Mimi Arnold.

The goal of the week, according to Arnold, is to broaden Rice students' awareness of educational issues.

"[We are] trying to spark discussion about education reform, different types of education and how to improve the system," she said.

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Education Awareness Week began Monday when students volunteered at the Avondale House, a school that serves children and adults with autism. Volunteers spent time with students in their classrooms, helping with projects and specific subjects.

The goals were both to educate the volunteers about autism and to create awareness about educational opportunities for disabled students, Arnold said.

Lovett College freshman Sara Nowak said volunteering at the Avondale House was an eye-opening experience because she was able to work with people with different levels of education.

"I worked with a little girl who was probably about 7 or 8, and she had no verbal skills at all," Nowak said.

Arnold said she spent the morning working with children on their motor skills.

"I worked with [one girl] on manual skills like squeezing a ball and picking up things," Arnold said.

Nowak, who said she had never heard of the Avondale House before volunteering, was excited to see that by the end of the volunteer session the girl had begun picking things up by herself.

"I learned that the amount of extra time that kids with special needs need is a lot more than our public education system can give them," Arnold said.

The student volunteers also learned more from the increased exposure to Texas-based educational systems.

Tuesday's event featured a panel at Keck Hall with two principals and a teacher, each of whom represented different types of schools in the Houston area: one from a charter school, one from a private school for low-income students and one from a public school. Topics included the pros and cons of varying types of schools, education reform and how each type of school differed from the others.

On Wednesday, Rice students had another volunteer opportunity, this time tutoring elementary school students. For the event, the Education Committee partnered with One-on-One Mentoring, a Rice organization independent of RSVP that pairs a Rice student with an elementary or middle school student for tailored tutoring sessions once a week.

Jackson said this allowed Rice students a "preview day" of what it is like to mentor.

"Hopefully [the event] will inspire students to keep going with One-on-One, and keep volunteering, to keep mentoring and get them interested," she said.

The final event, held Thursday, was a presentation given by State Representative Ellen Cohen. Cohen, who represents Bellaire, West University, River Oaks and sections of Meyerland and Montrose, including Rice University, was named to the Texas Committee of Higher Education in the 81st Legislative Session, which ran from January to June 2009.

Jackson said that each of the five major committees of RSVP, including the Environmental Committee, Hunger and Homelessness Committee, Children's Committee and the Health Committee, plan an awareness week during the year. These weeks include volunteering and learning opportunities to increase people's awareness of issues and spark discussion that exist in each area.

The next awareness week will be organized by the Children's Committee Feb. 8-12.

Students interested in volunteering can visit the Education Committee's calendar of events on the RSVP Web site, rsvp.rice.edu/education-committee.

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