KCC men’s basketball players mentor kids at Dudley STEM

Members of KCC's men's basketball team serve kids at Dudley STEM School in Battle Creek.

Members of KCC’s men’s basketball team serve kids at Dudley STEM School in Battle Creek.

Editor’s note: The following article was originally published on page 51 of the March 28, 2013 , edition of the Battle Creek Shopper News, with the headline “KCC men’s basketball team mentors at Dudley STEM School.” It’s republished here in advance of the team’s Girls and Boys Spring Basketball Camps, registration for which begins Saturday. Click here for more information about the camps from a post on this blog.

Marlon Allen is talking about success. Standing in front of a whiteboard-sized touchscreen and about 20 elementary school boys at Dudley STEM School, he makes his case for working hard.

“If you practice something and you work at it,” the Kellogg Community College sophomore says, “you’ll have high self-esteem and you’ll reach your goals.”

The presentation is part of a weekly after-school mentorship program that Allen – a guard on the KCC Bruins basketball team – and other men’s basketball players at the college participate in with second through fifth graders for two hours each Thursday.

Each week the team brings the class pizza and the kids and players eat together before two of the Bruins give a short presentation to the group, followed by a discussion and response time when the kids write in notebook journals about the topic of the presentation.

This week’s presentation – titled “The Relationship Between Self-Esteem and Academics” – draws laughs after Christian Covile, another sophomore guard for the Bruins, asks the presenters how self-esteem comes into play when talking to young ladies.

But the laughter dies down quickly, as Covile knows it’s a serious question young boys are thinking about and that the kids, many of whom come from homes without strong male role models, likely want to know the answer to.

“They get really amped when they see us, crazy excited,” Covile says later. “They remind me of me when I was in elementary school.”

Role models

The program is held in the classroom of Essence Williamson, a fourth and fifth grade science teacher at Dudley who last year sought out Melvin McKnight, KCC’s head men’s basketball coach and a close family friend, to participate in a mentorship program with her students that would include successful males in the community.

Melvin in turn offered up his team, and they ran the program with much success with fourth and fifth graders.

“She asked me if I could help her mentor some kids and I said sure,” McKnight said. “She said I’ve got a lot of kids; I said I’ve got a lot of guys.”

McKnight said many of the kids in the program – who are all African-American males – are growing up in homes without a father around, with some being introduced to the adult world of drugs and crime at a young age. The program allows them to see the men of the basketball team – some of whom come from similar backgrounds – making positive impacts in their community.

“This is what these kids need. They need male figures in their lives,” McKnight said.

Darius Holman, a sophomore forward for the Bruins, led the presentation on self-esteem alongside Allen. He said some of the kids have his phone number and will call him up and he’ll stop by the school to check on them. And some of the kids come to the Bruins’ home games and sit on the bench with the team.

“They look up to us. They look at us as role models,” Holman said. “It’s a good program.”

‘That’s progress’

By the end of last year – the program runs from January through the first week of May – Williamson said she saw huge gains in terms of the behavior of the students. She said the students are constantly looking forward to their time with the team – asking about the program as early as September – and that it has a positive effect on how they act in the classroom.

“It’s a big deal to them,” Williamson said. “They want to make this person happy. They don’t want their mentor to get a bad report.”

Williamson said teachers at the school will send her students in the program who are getting into trouble in class, and that she had one student who was being sent out of class two to three times per day for being disrespectful. When that two to three times per day stopped and stretched into a few weeks before the student had another issue, Williamson credited the positive influence of the program.

“That’s progress,” she said.

The program has generated attention within the community, with the Battle Creek Community Foundation supporting it with grants awarded earlier this year and a partnership with Jet’s Pizza keeping the kids fed each session.

Williamson said she had three times the registration paperwork come in for students entering the program this year than last year, when the program began.

When asked what he likes most about the program, 9-year-old Camron, a fourth grader at the school, said he likes that the mentors are funny, and that they work with the kids on their projects, which lately have centered around building a computer.

“They tell jokes and we all laugh,” he said. “We talk about motherboards, like in a computer. And we do it all together.”

For more information about the men’s basketball program at Kellogg Community College, visit www.kellogg.edu/athletics/mensbball/index.html.

Next Bruins Give Back volunteer event is 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 15

A Bruins Give Back participant paints the interior of a Habitat for Humanity house in Battle Creek in December 2012.

A Bruins Give Back participant paints the interior of a Habitat for Humanity house in Battle Creek.

Kellogg Community College students and employees are invited to join together in service as part of the first Bruins Give Back volunteer event of the semester, scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at three Battle Creek area locations.

Bruins Give Back is a volunteer event that occurs three times each semester and is open to all Kellogg Community College students, faculty and employees to participate. Volunteers get a free T-shirt, lunch and, most importantly, the opportunity to become more involved in their community.

A service learning event hosted with the college’s Student Life office and community organization HandsOn Battle Creek, the next Bruins Give Back events are scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and Friday, April 19.

The three service opportunities participants can choose from Feb. 15 are:

  • Community Action, 350 N. 22nd St.: Volunteers will help pack boxes for the food distribution efforts of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
  • The Haven of Rest Ministries, 11 Green St.: Volunteers will serve at the Calhoun County homeless shelter by serving food, cleaning, assembling furniture or decorating.
  • Valley View Elementary School, 960 Avenue A, Springfield: Volunteers will help children make and decorate collection boxes for Read n’ Give, a national book drive that supports community literacy programs.

To sign up to participate in a Bruins Give Back event, visit www.kellogg.edu/socialscience/servicelearning/registerServLearn.html. Participants will receive an email after they sign up asking which location they would like to serve at. On the day of the event, participants will meet at their chosen locations.

For more information about this or future Bruins Give Back events, contact Kellogg Community College Service Learning Manager Kate DeGraaf at degraafk@kellogg.edu or at 269-965-3931 ext. 2211.

Grahl Center students volunteer more than 1,000 hours in fall

KCC students from the SERV 200 class with instructor Ann Lown.

KCC students from the SERV 200 class with instructor Ann Lown.

Students in the first-ever SERV 200 service learning course offered at Kellogg Community College’s Grahl Center in Coldwater served a combined total of 1,019 hours of community service during their fall semester.

As part of the course, 23 students each designed a 20-hour project to be implemented at a local nonprofit of their choice. Course instructor Ann Lown said the class was an awesome challenge for students and a great way to make a difference in Branch County.

“Think of the impact these students have made,” Lown said. “I’m blown away by all the ways they have served the community.”

Student projects included a fundraiser for the Humane Society of Branch County; a Christmas gift fundraiser and event for the Branch County Coalition Against Domestic Violence; a flag football event to raise funds for and awareness of causes related to cystic fibrosis; a bake sale for the Bronson Public Library; a medicine disposal event held in conjunction with the Michigan State Police; the creation of a website for Family Promise of Branch County; the production of care packages for troops in Africa; a healthy meal event for parents; several activities and events held for Beginnings Care for Life Center; increased awareness of the Habitat for Humanity ReStore; math tutoring in local schools; gift wrapping at an Eby-Klein Youth and Family Center event; and a cancer awareness event.

Course organizers said many of the students far exceeded their 20-hour service requirement for the course and that many plan to continue working with the organization they chose after the class has ended.

Josh Englehart, a student in the course, said during his final presentation that he plans to continue the cystic fibrosis fundraiser he completed for the course annually.

“I have the ability to give back and use my abilities to round up more support and awareness for cystic fibrosis,” Englehart said. “Next year my goal is to raise $10,000.”

An expanded service learning initiative that began at KCC this fall requires every student pursuing an associate degree outside of the applied sciences to complete 15 hours of service learning in a course with a service-learning certified faculty member or to complete 24 hours of service learning as part of SERV 200.

The course will be offered at the Grahl Center again this spring, with classes beginning on Jan. 25. Organizations interested in participating with KCC students in future service learning projects are encouraged to contact Grahl Center Director Bobbi Gagnon at 517-278-3300.

For more news about Kellogg Community College, view our latest press releases online at www.kellogg.edu/daily/category/press-releases.

KCC softball players help area kids help their community

Mackenzie Kendall, 19, a centerfielder studying early childhood special education at KCC, helps a second grader with a worksheet.

Mackenzie Kendall, 19, a center fielder studying early childhood special education at KCC, helps a second grader with a worksheet.

Nearly 20 Kellogg Community College softball players were among a record of more than 60 KCC students and employees who signed up to assist with community projects as part of the college’s Bruins Give Back volunteer event in December.

Ten or so of the players spent the recent Friday morning working with students in Karen Frye’s second-grade classroom at Fremont Elementary in Battle Creek, where they helped the kids make snowman Christmas ornaments to be delivered to families moving out of a local homeless shelter so they would be able to decorate their new homes for the holidays.

Mackenzie Kendall, 19, a center fielder studying early childhood special education, said she thinks it’s important for the team to give back when they can.

“We like to do things for other people,” said Kendall, who’s accumulated more than 500 hours working in classrooms since her junior year of high school. “It’s important to make other people feel important.”

Genna Baushke, 20, a psychology major who plays middle infield for the Bruins, also said volunteering is important.

“It really puts you into the community and helps you see what’s going on,” she said.

Across town, another group of softball players worked with students at Urbandale Elementary, where second-grade teacher Kathy Decker’s students were busy crafting ornaments of their own to bring to the local senior center down the road.

The kids are involved in service learning projects with the residents at the center each month, and Decker said it’s good for the kids to see the older KCC students spending time in their community.

“The kids know that they’re giving back,” Decker said. “It’s huge. After they’re here we discuss that they’re volunteers and what giving is.”

Russ Bortell, head softball coach at KCC and an enrollment services representative for the school, joined his team helping the kids at Fremont. He said the gains that come to the team through serving others are felt long after the actual volunteering has ended.

“It’s team-building,” Bortell said. “And the rewards they get are something that they wouldn’t get in the classroom. … I feel like we benefit far beyond the people we’re helping.”

For more information about the softball program at Kellogg Community College, visit www.kellogg.edu/athletics/softball/index.html.

Bruins Give Back volunteers serve community in Battle Creek

KCC professor Julie Roberts, left, helps pack boxes with donated food during the Bruins Give Back event held in October.

Editor’s note: The following article was originally published on pages 38 and 40 of the Nov. 15, 2012, edition of the Battle Creek Shopper News, with the headline “KCC students give back to low income families.” It’s republished here in advance of the last Bruins Give Back volunteer event of the semester, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 14. Click here to register to volunteer for the event online on KCC’s website.

Julie Roberts tapes the bottom of a cardboard box and hands it to a woman to be filled with food – peanut butter, canned goods, pasta and apple juice – and then repeats the process again and again, as she has done all morning and will continue to do for the next hour.

The boxes are being packaged for distribution by Community Action for the federal The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and this batch will help supplement the diets of low-income people in two of seven Michigan counties Community Action serves.

The sheer number of boxes, stacked more than head-high on pallets placed throughout the Battle Creek warehouse, speaks to the real need for assistance in the region.

Roberts, a professor at Kellogg Community College and coordinator of the college’s Physical Therapist Assistant Program, is serving with around a dozen of her PTA students as part of Bruins Give Back, a volunteer event held three times each semester to give KCC students and employees an opportunity to serve in the community.

Robert says she encouraged her class to participate as a way to engage in an activity together as a group outside of class. As volunteers, she says, they likely get as much out of the experience as those who benefit from their services.

“The sense of giving back to the community gives you that feeling of satisfaction,” Roberts says. “I’ve been blessed in many ways, and I think it’s important to give back.”

Getting involved

A few miles southwest of the warehouse, a handful of KCC students are helping Battle Creek Area Habitat for Humanity workers remove a wheelchair ramp from a Battle Creek area residence, with the materials to be reused or recycled for the benefit of a future recipient of Habitat services.

Among the volunteers is Jade Bolden, a Legacy Scholar taking general education classes at KCC who spent her morning lifting boards and pulling debris from the dirt below the half-dismantled ramp.

Bolden volunteered a lot through HandsOn Battle Creek when she was in high school at Battle Creek Central, and enjoys the work because it helps her make connections in the community and “shows who you really are,” she says.

“When you’re doing it just to get paid, your heart’s not really in it,” she says. “But when you’re doing it to help someone out, your heart is in it.”

For Mike King, construction manager for the Battle Creek Area Habitat for Humanity, the value of volunteer work is simple: He says it drives the organization.

“With the volunteer work we can offer products or housing or ramps or repairs at a much more affordable rate for people of low income,” King says.

He cites as an example a wheelchair ramp the organization recently installed for an individual for $800 after another company gave the person an estimate of more than $12,000 to complete similar work.

“It’s good to have people involved,” King says.

Community support

In addition to working with Community Action and the Battle Creek Area Habitat for Humanity, other volunteers are working with students at Springfield Middle School to craft dog toys for the Humane Society of South Central Michigan and others are working at the nonprofit Woodlawn Preschool planting flowers, sanitizing equipment and helping prepare materials for teachers.

Pattie Walter, executive director of Woodlawn, says such volunteer work is necessary in order for the organization to function in its role in the community.

“In order for us to be able to provide services at a reduced cost, we have to rely on community support and volunteers,” Walter says. “We’re very fortunate the community supports us greatly.”

Brad LaRochelle, a warehouse manager at Community Action whose daughter attends KCC, echoes Walter’s sentiments when he emphasizes how important volunteers are to what the organization does.

“We are a very volunteer-based organization,” LaRochelle says. “Without them, we don’t work.”

LaRochelle praises the KCC students and staff who’ve spent their morning filling and stacking boxes in the center of the warehouse for their efficiency. They’ve nearly done enough work before noon to account for the first two food distributions of the seven the organization will need to complete starting in November.

“They can come anytime they want,” he says, laughing. “They’re awesome.”

Bruins Give Back is a Kellogg Community College volunteer event that occurs three times each semester and is open to all KCC students, faculty and employees to participate. A service learning event hosted with the college’s Student Life office and community organization HandsOn Battle Creek, the next Bruins Give Back event is scheduled for Dec. 14. For more information, visit www.kellogg.edu/socialscience/servicelearning/projects.html.

Members of KCC baseball team give back to their community

Nearly two dozen Kellogg Community College baseball players spent a recent Friday morning packing boxes of food and working with elementary school students to make blankets for veterans.

Sophomore centerfielder Jake Miller was among the players at the headquarters of Community Action, where the team helped package 900 boxes of food for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to distribute to low-income people in the region.

“It’s huge,” Miller said of the team’s effort. “It’s huge for the community and it’s huge for our baseball team. Everyone respects our team more because of this.”

Miller and the others are no strangers to volunteer work. Team members volunteer weekly at the area nonprofit student-athlete support service New Level Sports, helping youth with their homework, playing games and eating dinner with them and sometimes just hanging out with them to talk about their days.

“It’s always fun helping those kids out,” Miller said. “They always have rough days at school and we help cheer them up.”

On the other side of town that Friday morning was Derek Yoder, who, with another group of players, was assisting Renee Purdy’s fourth graders at Urbandale Elementary. They made blankets and cards the kids would later take to veterans at the local Veterans Affairs facility.

“Whenever opportunities come up we usually take advantage of them and help out where we can,” Yoder said. “It’s really important. It gives us a chance to get out in the community.”

Purdy said they were expecting volunteers as part of KCC’s Bruins Give Back volunteer event, which is held three times a semester at area locations, but they didn’t know the volunteers would be student-athletes until they arrived.

“We didn’t know they were coming, and when they walked in in their blue (KCC) shirts the kids were excited,” Purdy said. “They’ve been awesome. They’ve done 20 quilts in an hour and a half.”

Nine-year-old Isaac Turner said he was excited the players stopped by. Usually his class would be spending that time studying, Turner said.

“This is better than reading because we’re doing things,” he said.

And the kids weren’t the only ones enjoying themselves.

“I’ve never made a blanket like this before in my life,” Yoder said, fabric draped across his lap. “But it’s been fun.”

For more information about the baseball program at Kellogg Community College, visit www.kellogg.edu/athletics/baseball/index.html.

For more information about the next Bruins Give Back events, which are scheduled for Dec. 14, visit www.kellogg.edu/socialscience/servicelearning/projects.html.

Register now for Nov. 9 Bruins Give Back volunteer events

If you’re looking for a way to get more involved in your community, serve with fellow Bruins and get a free lunch and T-shirt in the process, Bruins Give Back is for you.

Bruins Give Back is a volunteer event that occurs three times each semester and is open to all Kellogg Community College students, faculty and employees to participate.

A service learning event hosted with the college’s Student Life office and community organization HandsOn Battle Creek, the second Bruins Give Back events are scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, Nov. 9.

Participants have four service options to choose from:

  • The Haven of Rest Ministries, 11 Green St.: Volunteers will help clean up after a meal, help set up for a meal and help serve a meal.
  • Urbandale Elementary, 123 N. Bedford Road: Volunteers will help fourth graders make fleece blankets to give to a community partner.
  • Homeless Health Fair, 11 Green St.: Volunteers will help organize the 2012 Homeless Health Fair by packing bags of food for the homeless to take with them as they leave the fair. Participants will meet at Haven of Rest.
  • Community Action, 350 N. 22nd St.: Volunteers will help pack boxes for the food distribution efforts of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

To sign up to participate in a Bruins Give Back event, visit www.kellogg.edu/socialscience/servicelearning/registerServLearn.html.

Participants will receive an email after they sign up asking which location they would like to serve at. On the day of the event, participants will meet at their chosen locations.

For more information about this or future Bruins Give Back events, contact Kellogg Community College Service Learning Manager Kate DeGraaf at degraafk@kellogg.edu or at 269-965-3931 ext. 2211.

Pictured above, Bruins Give Back participants pack boxes for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) at Community Action during the first Bruins Give Back events of the semester in October.

Free T-shirt + free lunch + service = Bruins Give Back

If you’re looking for a way to get more involved in your community, serve with fellow Bruins and get a free lunch and T-shirt in the process, Bruins Give Back is for you.

Bruins Give Back is a volunteer event that occurs three times each semester and is open to all Kellogg Community College students, faculty and employees to participate.

A service learning event hosted with the college’s Student Life office and community organization HandsOn Battle Creek, the first Bruins Give Back events are scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 12.

Participants have three service options to choose from:

  • Community Action, 175 Main St., Battle Creek: Volunteers will help pack boxes for the food distribution efforts of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which are scheduled for November.
  • Woodlawn Preschool, 1175 W. Territorial Road, Battle Creek: Volunteers will help finish filling in the mural painting on the outside of the school building.

To sign up to participate in a Bruins Give Back event, visit www.kellogg.edu/socialscience/servicelearning/registerServLearn.html.

Participants will receive an email after they sign up asking which location they would like to serve at. On the day of the event, participants will meet at their chosen locations.

For more information about this or future Bruins Give Back events, contact Kellogg Community College Service Learning Manager Kate DeGraaf at degraafk@kellogg.edu or at 269-965-3931 ext. 2211.

Pictured above, Bruins Give Back participants volunteer at the Food Bank of South Central Michigan in Battle Creek in April.