The Johnsonian

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: News

Danielle Pushia, junior, sits in front of Dacus Library with Branden, a student at Northside Elementary in Rock Hill. Pushia and Branden spend an hour together each week.

In the span of one hour, a student can obsess over a fantasy football lineup, attempt to track down his advisor for fall scheduling, go stand in line to buy an overpriced latte or make a difference by mentoring a local child.

Winthrop's S.O.A.R. program partners with the Rock Hill School District to tutor "at risk" children, hoping to decrease student dropout rate and increase student achievement.

Al Barron, senior history major, works with the mentoring program through S.O.A.R. and spends part of his week mentoring middle and high schoolers at the local Teen Health Center near campus. The staff at the Teen Health Center focuses mainly on equal opportunity education and offering a positive atmosphere for teens.

"The main focus is advocating for children's rights," Barron said.

On Saturdays, the high-school students and their mentors meet for a group discussion on real-life concerns and problems followed by a one-on-one talk.

Danielle Pushia, junior special education major, has been involved with S.O.A.R.'s mentor program since September and spends four afternoons a week tutoring 8-year-old Branden from Northside Elementary. With all the hard work they put in, the two have fun at the West Center after Branden's homework is done.

"The West Center is an incentive," she said. "He likes to come play basketball and rock climb, so he wants to do his work."

Pushia and Barron agree that things are going well with S.O.A.R.'s program but encourage more Winthrop students to join in the cause.

"It is the responsibility of those that are educated to give back," Barron said.

The students in the RHSD mentoring program are "at risk" and fall in lower socioeconomic groups. Forty-two percent of Rock Hill students qualify for the government-supplied Free and Reduced School Lunch program, putting almost half of local children in the "at risk" category, according to the district's Web site.

Barron said the "at risk" students are often from single-parent homes and are more impressionable in terms of drugs and alcohol usage. These students need stable figures, such as mentors, in their lives, he added.

The school district asks for adult volunteers to spend one hour each week with a child, believing it to raise school retention rates and decrease disciplinary infractions.

"Everyone talks about a legacy they want to leave," Barron said. "If you plant that seed in someone else, what you do will live on."

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