The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Students ‘SEE’ community

This is the fifth in a series of nine stories about community service organizations on campus.

A service organization dedicated to teaching may offer something for students to learn as well.

Students Enhancing Education is a program enabling Marquette students to volunteer by tutoring and mentoring young people in Milwaukee said Liz Fernholz, a coordinator of Students Seeking Education.

Some students have expressed interest in joining the program.

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“Tutoring is beneficial not only to the younger students in the program, but also helps the students of Marquette relate to the younger people in their community,” freshman Joe Kano said.

Despite the enthusiasm; however, there has been a decline in membership. Luckily, this is not due to disinterest in the program.

“As a board, we have discussed the factors behind this decline,” Fernholz said. “Is it simply that Marquette students aren’t involved in community service?

“On the contrary, more and more are getting involved; however, most of them are doing it through Service Learning.”

While these two opportunities do provide a conflict of interest, the board is looking into connecting the two services rather than giving up. There is still interest in the program and there are still children who could use the help, Fernholz said.

There have been significant changes in the program following a decline in membership.

In order to reconstruct, the board decided to continue tutoring and mentoring at three of the original six schools, Fernholz said.

The schools include 8th Street School, behind Straz Tower, 21st Street Writing and Publishing School, located at 2121 W. Hadley St., and Grand Avenue Middle School, located at 2430 West Wisconsin Avenue.

“Often, I was paired with a student named Tu who was severely learning disabled and could not learn the material on his own,” said Rebecca Kennedy, a board member of SEE. “He struggled with very simple concepts and it was a challenge for me just to get his attention, much less try to help him understand the material.

“However, by the end of the semester he began to recognize me and look forward to our weekly meetings together.

“He taught me so much about urban, inner city life and the small cocoon we live in at Marquette.”