Yesterday I began my fifth year as a volunteer as part of
the Academy 4 ministry through our church.
I was one of the one hundred plus volunteers who mentor 4th
grade students at a local public elementary school near our campus.
If you are not familiar with Academy 4, allow me to share the
history. The ministry grew out of St.
Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
The congregation had a desire to partner with a local elementary school. They desired to connect with students of
families that were underserved. They
focused on fourth grade because educators have identified that age as being crucial
in both the social and cognitive development of children. The idea was simple, to provide every fourth-grade
student with an adult mentor. Today the
program reaches over three dozen schools.
In the case of our church, our partnership with the school
goes back over a decade. We provide
backpacks for students, collecting winter coats, support the faculty and staff
with prayers and also assist with a mobile food pantry that visits the campus
on a regular basis.
For Academy 4, about half of the volunteers are church members,
with the balance coming from our two partner schools, Prince of Peace Christian
School and Creekview Senior High School in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school
district. There also are mentors who
come from the community, including officers from the Dallas Police
Department.
It is an amazing program, and it warms my heart to see the excitement
in the eyes of the children when they run into the room each month to connect
with their mentors. The ninety minutes
they spend one-on-one with their mentor includes time in a workbook developing
life skills and then thirty minutes of hang-time playing a game together.
I am committed to Academy 4 for a number of reasons. For starters, it is a ministry of compassion. Secondly, it communicates to the students
that there is an adult who cares about them.
Lastly, it is a cross-generational ministry, not only in the
relationship between the adult mentor and the student, but in the fact that
high school students are partnering with adults to make a difference.
I should point out that there is now a Leaders 5 program
that allows students who have gone through Academy 4 to mentor a first-grade
student. There is also a parent program that
relates the same skills to adults,
I would encourage you to check out Academy 4 and getting
your local congregation involved in the program.
Find out more at www.academy4.org
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