Community Service Committee
Princeton has a long history of community outreach work, including the Snowden program, and a variety of direct service activities in the Greater Boston area.
If you want to get involved, contact PANE's Community Service Chair, Lisa Mendis '96, at Lcmresults1@aol.com.
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Peter Curry '63 and his mentee, at
a recent Snowden
meeting (thanks to R.C. Smith '63 for identifying Peter!). |
The Princeton/Snowden and Friends Mentoring Program seeks to help a select group of Boston public high school students determine and achieve their personal goals and boost their appreciation for education and learning.
The Princeton and Friends/Snowden High School Mentoring Program is in its 19th year of community service to Boston public high school students. Four teams of alumni mentors meet monthly with students at the Muriel S. Snowden International High School in Copley Square to provide adult support and friendship as well as useful information about school work, test-taking, college admissions, financial planning, and career exploration. Teams, divided by grade level, meet for one class period per month during the school day (7:30-8:30AM) and can also connect for additional tutoring, field trips, and fun outside of school. Each mentor is assigned a small number of students on the team to follow more closely with phone calls and e-mails between meetings. We have a solid core of new and experienced mentors who are already involved this year, but we have slots for a few more interested mentors to build up our existing teams. We also love people who are willing to come once a year to talk about their careers or host interested students at their workplace for informational interviews.
The school year has started, and meetings will soon begin for one of Princeton's longest running alumni community service projects-founded by PANE in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. The Snowden International HS/Princeton and Friends Mentoring Program provides an opportunity for Princeton alumni to get together to support urban, public school youth-while collaborating with other active local alums of all ages (currently ranging from the class of '64 to '04).
Over the years, we have offered many different ways of serving the school-including one-on-one mentoring and tutoring, a book drive, field trips, SAT prep classes, monthly grade-level team meetings, and an annual career fair.
This year our focus will be on 24 juniors and seniors at the school who have been with our program since they were freshmen. We are in the market for alumni mentors of all ages and backgrounds who might be interested in getting to know these students as they prepare to make the leap from the Boston Public Schools to college.
Opportunities abound for taking part in one-time only events-like the career day or a field trip-or for beginning ongoing relationships with students. Items on our agenda for this year include: helping with tutoring and college applications, holding monthly grade-level team meetings, networking with Back Bay residents and businesses to create opportunities for Snowden students, and keeping our organization strong by recruiting new members of varied interests to our steering committee.
We have several new mentors starting this year for whom we'll do an orientation meeting at the school near the end of September. Send us an e-mail to let us know if you'd like to attend, and we'll send further details. It's a great chance to check out the school and see what it's like to incorporate the Copley Square area into your weekday travels once or twice a month.
Wishing you a smooth and happy transition from summer to fall!
The Snowden HS/Princeton and Friends Mentoring Program Steering Committee
| Mary Sweeney Koger '86 | mkskoger@alumni.princeton.edu |
| Murph Shapiro '64 | murshap@comcast.net |
| Lindsey White '04 | lindzi.white@yahoo.com |
Several Princeton/Snowden mentors are making plans to offer the Wired Woods Program, a website design enrichment program for urban students (www.wiredwoods.org) as an after school activity to our Snowden students. If you have an older, simpler digital camera that has been left behind in your quest for the newest technology, we would happily receive it as a donation. Our Snowden students will use the cameras to create website content about themselves, their neighborhoods, their school, and our program using digital photography, photoshop editing, and html. If you'd like to participate in this project, and are available to be in Copley Square from 2-3pm on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon, contact Mary Koger '86 for more information.
Share your educational savvy and your heart with a fine bunch of city kids, and get to know a diverse network of fellow alums (currently from the Class of '58 to the Class of '04). Please contact Mary Koger '86 at mkskoger@alumni.princeton.edu or (617) 964-3495 to learn more about this chance to get involved in the local scene.
The Snowden School is located in the Back Bay, on the corner of Dartmouth and Newbury Streets, and attracts high school students from all over Boston and of many ethnic backgrounds. As one of the Boston Public Schools, funding for student activities and educational materials is limited and morale can often fall prey to the same fate.
The Mentoring Program welcomes new ideas and anyone in the community. If our scheduled meetings conflict with your availability, we still want to hear from you! We look forward to the opportunity to talk with you about your participation in or questions about the program.
Please contact the Snowden Mentoring Chair for more information:
Mary Koger '86
mkskoger@alumni.princeton.edu
617-964-3495