{"id":2945,"date":"2015-01-09T14:11:49","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T18:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=2945"},"modified":"2015-03-10T16:12:01","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T20:12:01","slug":"patriots-serve-community-afterschool-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/patriots-serve-community-afterschool-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots serve their community in afterschool program"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Mentoring Month is recognized each January to focus attention on the need for and importance of mentors who volunteer their time to assure positive outcomes for young people. VBCPS is fortunate to have many individuals from the community, businesses,\u202fmilitary, faith-based organizations and government agencies\u202fwho mentor students in our schools.\u202fTheir work will be highlighted on The Core throughout January.<\/i><\/p>\n

Jacob Davis has volunteered his time to help elementary school students since he was an elementary school student himself. His mother was responsible for managing the dinners served to W.T. Cooke Elementary students participating in the Care by Community (CBC) afterschool program at their family\u2019s church, Virginia Beach United Methodist.\u00a0Davis, as a third-grader, helped his mom serve dinner every week to students. He saw other volunteers help students with homework and other activities.<\/p>\n

Davis, now a sophomore at First Colonial High School and in his seventh year as a volunteer with the school-church partnership,\u00a0is the one helping fifth-graders with their homework and enjoying a lively game of four square. He worked with kindergarten students in the program throughout his middle school years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like helping others. It makes me happy,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI like that the kids know they have support here and that we will be here for them week after week. We\u2019re reliable, and I know that is important to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cooke<\/a>
Cooke fifth grader J.J. Grayson (center) enjoys spending time with Ben Stahl (left) and Jacob Davis (right). \u201cI like reading with Jacob and Ben because they help me get through the words and understand what I\u2019m reading,\u201d Grayson said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He hopes to continue supporting students after college as a high school teacher and plans to enroll in the school division\u2019s Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow (VTfT) class next year.<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s brother, Zach, and Ben Stahl, both seniors at First Colonial High School, also have served as CBC mentors for many years. In fact, Stahl\u2019s work with the CBC program inspired his Eagle Scout project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that we are the ones with the students for two hours in the afternoon and then we take them home, and the parents never get to see all of this,\u201d Stahl explained, gesturing to church classrooms with whiteboards and rolling carts of books and games.<\/p>\n

So Stahl planned an open house for parents near Valentine\u2019s Day, complete with crafts, classroom visits and a family dinner by Outback Steakhouse. In addition, Stahl conducted research and made a presentation to the parents about the positive impact the CBC program is having on student success.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should see the data,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s making a huge difference. These kids are really learning and improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Jacob Davis, Stahl is considering education as a career, and he hopes to earn one of the coveted VTfT scholarships that guarantees recipients a VBCPS teaching contract after college graduation if they have met all the criteria for teaching at the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live at the beach,\u201d Stahl said, \u201cand I want to do what I can to improve it and help the students who live here.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Stahl notes that he also benefits from volunteering.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids are funny,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cWe always have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Mentoring Month is recognized each January to focus attention on the need for and importance of mentors who volunteer their time to assure positive outcomes for young people. VBCPS […]<\/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":[30,59,45],"class_list":["post-2945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-cooke-elementary","tag-first-colonial-high","tag-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}