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AmeriCorps helps the community

Kump Education Center is sponsoring AmeriCorps members who will serve as mentors at Elkins Middle School and North Elementary School for a third school year.

We are also adding a new AmeriCorps member who will serve with us part-time and with Preservation Alliance of West Virginia part-time.

Jeanne Johnson begins her third year with the Kump Education Center STREAM mentoring program offering academic coaching to boost performance for at-risk students in grades 4 and 5 at North Elementary School.

Ms. Johnson’s caring approach helps students gain confidence by building academic skills they will need to be successful in the 21st Century. They focus on future job opportunities using skills in science, technology, engineering and math with special activities like programming NASA robots. Ms. Johnson’s students will also learn to value their Appalachian traditions by playing mountain dulcimers.

Two new AmeriCorps members will join the STREAM coaching team at Elkins Middle School. Coaches encourage students to set meaningful goals, to earn better grades and to explore future career opportunities in STEM subject areas. William Gartmann, a Youth Build leader, will be one new academic coach, and we are still interviewing for a second position at EMS.

Sharell Harmon will be our first AmeriCorps Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV) intern.

She will help us organize our records, keep in touch with our volunteers, post Facebook and Website entries regularly, and increase public access to Kump Education Center with tours and events. Ms. Harmon is the mother of three young children, and she wants to make history more fun for young families.

Ms. Harmon and the Kump Education Center Board are talking about celebrating the 140th birthday of Gov. Herman Guy Kump on Oct. 31 with an event called “The Ghost of a Good Guy.” It will be a happily haunted house full of historical facts that remind us of the ways government helped people overcome the deep economic problems of the Great Depression while H.G. Kump served as governor.

Having AmeriCorps members who bring their positive energy to Kump Education Center is one way we can see the good effects of government in our local community.

AmeriCorps allows people to find meaningful work in situations where local employers cannot pay more employees.

Older AmeriCorps members offer their knowledge and experience while they augment their retirement incomes.

Younger AmeriCorps members gain knowledge and experience while they learn new job skills and build their resumes.

We all learn and grow the economy in this process.

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