{"id":3521,"date":"2015-04-13T22:02:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T02:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=3521"},"modified":"2015-04-15T13:00:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T17:00:14","slug":"volunteers-of-vbcps-will-barrett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/volunteers-of-vbcps-will-barrett\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers of VBCPS: Will Barrett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWill Barrett has helped establish an environment conducive to learning that promotes a high level of student success and participation in our afterschool STEM club. He brings out the best in the students through his positive words of encouragement.\u201d <\/em>\u2013 Joseph Whiteside, Green Run Elementary School principal.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7881\"<\/a>It was about three in the afternoon and high school junior Will Barrett was busy at school. He was out in the portable carefully setting up the stations that would serve for the day\u2019s lesson. However, while Barrett is a student at Landstown High School, here he was preparing for his time with students at Green Run Elementary.<\/p>\n

Barrett is a volunteer for the school\u2019s STEM club, where students come after school and work on a variety of STEM projects, including building the school\u2019s robot for the end-of-the-year citywide competition. For the past three years, Barrett has come once a week to help the students with their work.<\/p>\n

His mother is a teacher at the school, and, well, inspired Barrett to lend a hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was kind of like, \u2018Hey\u2026you\u2019re in the academy at Landstown. You know this stuff. You could help them out.\u2019 Hint, hint. Nudge, nudge,\u201d Barrett joked.<\/p>\n

While his mom was the reason he started volunteering, Barrett quickly became attached to helping the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fun program. The kids seem to love it,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cHonestly, I wish I had this opportunity when I was their age. This will already jumpstart them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"edited\"<\/a>Every week, Barrett comes to the school and works with small groups on various projects. He helps the students with their boards. He sets up all the machinery they need for the day. He also cuts all the metal for the students \u2013 so no one gets hurt.<\/p>\n

The experience has given him a new found empathy for his own teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand what they\u2019re going through when kids come up to you and say, \u2018I don\u2019t understand this\u2019 or \u2018Fix this,\u2019\u201d Barret said.<\/p>\n

However, most importantly, Barret said that he has become inspired in working with these young minds each week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an experience that changed my life,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cI have a new outlook on the experiences these kids are having. I remember being in the fifth-grade and barely taking SOLs on computers. They\u2019re building robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s pointed out that there are plenty of students his own age that are at home after school \u2013 hanging out, playing their own video games or, in the case of his Governor\u2019s STEM and Technology Academy classmates, building their own robots, Barrett is indifferent.<\/p>\n

His experience yields much greater results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say I\u2019m going to be changing these kids\u2019 lives \u2013 at least I hope I am,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cNot everyone gets that opportunity. If that opportunity knocks at your door, you should take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find ways you can get involved,\u00a0visit the division\u2019s Get Connected page at vbschools.com\/getconnected<\/a> and find volunteer opportunities available in VBCPS schools. For more information about the Volunteers in Education<\/a> program as a whole, visit the page to learn more about the service of VBCPS volunteers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWill Barrett has helped establish an environment conducive to learning that promotes a high level of student success and participation in our afterschool STEM club. He brings out the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-connections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3541,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions\/3541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}