Submitted by the Lake Washington School District
Lake Washington School District (LWSD) students continue to work hard to achieve personal success in school.
Through the LINKS volunteer program, students who need extra support have the opportunity to receive tutoring and mentoring from community volunteers. One student may need help with math, while another needs help understanding the plot in a story. In either case, having a volunteer there to help the student can make the difference between whether or not a student understands the material.
At this point in the year, many students are starting to prepare for their advancement to middle or high schools. They may be experiencing added stress on top of their usual workload or are beginning to feel they can’t keep up with the learning pace in their classroom. The added school work can make their daily routines busier and potentially more stressful. It’s these students who would benefit from the support of a volunteer.
LINKS volunteers share the gift of time to support students in schools. Requests for classroom help usually include reading, math, writing and science classrooms. Tutors are needed at Redmond Middle School and Redmond High School to work with students during after-school study programs or one-on-one as an academic mentor. These matches are showing overall success for participating students. LINKS volunteers make a difference in a student’s ability to succeed.
“The volunteer in my class allowed a small group of students to receive extra support in reading and math,” shared teacher Johnathan Hodges. “The students felt very successful when working one-on-one with our volunteer. It is of great value to the students to receive help from people outside of the regular school network of teachers and parents.”
LINKS depends on community support to fill the growing number of volunteer needs throughout LWSD. To learn more about becoming a volunteer, visit the LINKS website at: www.lwsd.org/links. To register for an upcoming volunteer orientation, email Nanci Wehr at nwehr@lwsd.org or call (425) 936-1410 for additional information.
