h
NEWS
WEDNESDAY
NDVEMDER 3D, 2016
I
i
Elon Volunteers! helps mentor Cummings High School students
Ashley Bohle
Broadcast News Director
@AshleyBohie
The graduation rate from Hugh
M. Cummings High School — lo
cated in Burlington — is 67 percent,
according to
Hugh M.
Cummings
High School in
Burlington is a
Title I school,
meaning
there is a high
percentage of
students who
get free or
reduced lunch.
U.S. News and
World Report
lists minority
enrollment at
93 percent.
U.S. News
and World
Report.
Located
in the eastern
part of the
city, its racial
and socioeco
nomic status
es set it apart
from the six
other high
schools in
the area, but
Elon Univer
sity students
are trying to
make a differ
ence.
Elon se
nior and Elon
Volunteers! Hugh M. Cummings
High School LINGS Program Coor
dinator Hanna Smith-Benjamin said
the students rely on their teachers
for an education, but don’t have the
help or resources they need to keep
pursuing their education.
“A lot of these kids come to school
and both their parents work maybe
multiple jobs, and so they come to
school to and hang out.”
Cummings High School in Bur
lington is a Title I school, meaning
there is a high percentage of students
who get free or reduced lunch. US.
News and World Report lists mi
nority enrollment at 93 percent.
Smith-Benjamin mentors rough
ly 20 10th grade English students at
the high school.
“It’s kind of a rambunctious class.
They’re very outgoing and loud,”
Smith-Benjamin said.“They’re not
always being pushed for college, but
bonds [that] come from this. And
for me it’s pretty phenomenal to see
the community coming into our
community and them interacting so
fluidlyr Dean said.
Compared to the Cummings
LINCS mentoring program, the Cin
derella Project had 70 student volun
teers show up to their first meeting
this fall. Dean says about 80 percent
of those students are freshmen.
She and Smith-Benjamin are
both worried about freshmen volun
teer retention.
This obstacle is difficult to over
come in Smith-Benjamin’s eyes, but
she said that she tries to foster her
relationships, no matter how small
the number.
Keeping partnerships
Elon University students and their Cummings High School mentees find clothes during The Cinderella Project.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK
to pass their classes and to come to
school.”
She provides more than home
work help, inquiring about their so
cial problems, too.
Struggling for retention
Only two new volunteers from
Elon — both freshmen — were re
cruited at the fall Organization Fair.
“It is hard to get more volunteers
at Cummings rather than organi
zations like Boys and Girls Club
or Positive Attitude Youth Center
(PAYC) because they work with
younger kids, and so it’s a little less
intimidating and a little easier to
work with them,” Smith-Benjamin
said.
Because of the close ages,
Smith-Benjamin says Cummings is
a “hard community partner” to bring
Elon students into, and volunteers
have to be willing and open-minded.
“Most of these kids aren’t at the
levels that they should be. Or at the
level that their grade is and even in
this 10th grade English class, they’re
doing drastically different things
than I was,” Smith-Benjamin said.
Students are working on their
grammar, finding claims and read
ing short stories, not perfecting sen
tence structure and reading more
complex literature like Smith-Benja
min said she did at her public high
school in Arlington, Virginia.
The main goal for these students
is to pass their standardized testing
at the end of the year. Smith-Ben
jamin said that’s why Elon students
play a crucial part in mentoring
these students, pushing them to suc
ceed in their academics.
“It’s been kind of a hard LINCS
project because I think a lot of peo
ple are scared of high schoolers,”
Smith-Benjamin said.
She added that it is “a little dis
couraging” to have so few volunteers
from Elon.
“I want to do everything I can,
but I am just one person,” she said.
Heightening the retention rate
of volunteers is also hard because
Elon students are always changing
their schedules. But The Cinderella
Project, another EV! program, has
larger success rates for keeping Elon
students engaged because they have
only one workshop in the spring.
The Cinderella Project involves
Elon students mentoring high
school juniors and seniors on prom
day.
“Mentoring for our program spe
cifically is oriented toward young
women empowerment,” said junior
Caroline Dean, The Cinderella Proj
ect Conference coordinator. “It’s see
ing that through women who have
already been through the experienc
es that you’ve been through so they
can help guide you through the diffi
culties of high school.”
Elon students help the high
schoolers pick out dresses, jewelry
and shoes and find beauticians to
do their hair and makeup for free
at Elon. The volunteers provide
transportation to campus and lead
workshops on prom safety, bringing
in SPARKS for peer education. And
there’s even an a cappella perfor
mance.
“I’ve seen the relationships and
Senior Ally Nylen, EV! executive
director of communication educa
tion, said the relationship Elon and
Burlington share at Cummings is
beneficial for both communities.
“They anticipate Elon students
coming out and volunteering,” NyT
en said. “And we invite them onto
campus for other events to really
strengthen that partnership.”
For Nylen, mentoring is a mutu
ally beneficial partnership, one that
both Smith-Benjamin and Dean
have experienced in distinct capac
ities.
Nylen said she sees that there is
interest for people to get involved in
organizations, but long-term com
mitment is hard, — especially since
Elon students are often actively in
volved in many organizations. For
now, the leaders are focusing on cre
ating impactful change in their men
tees and in themselves.
“Tm not afraid anymore to go
out into our community,” Dean
said. “I feel very empowered getting
to know these young women and
knowing that they will be the young
women that they continue to devel
op and love in this community. And
in some way, I’ve been a part of that.”
Working for the same team
Town of Elon Police,
Elon University police
share unique bond
Emmanuel Morgan
News Editor
@EMorg3n704
I I The chaos in Columbus, Ohio,
' early Nov. 28 was a clear reminder
to Town of Elon Police Chief Cliff
Parker of why his staff and the Elon
University Campus Safety and Po
lice Department rely heavily on
each other.
In the early stages of the Ohio
State University attack that injured
11 according to various sources,
both the university and Columbus
police departments acted swiftly,
throwing away jurisdiction re
quirements and working together
to respond to the situation. Because
of the severity of the incident, oth
er agencies were called — includ
ing the FBI. Parker said if a similar
situation were to happen on Elon’s
campus, an identical approach
would be taken.
“More than likely, if we were
to get a call about an active shoot
er, there would be a response from
multiple agencies,” Parker said. “But
if in terms of an initial response
right here, we would absolutely re
spond to the campus to support the
campus police and vice versa.”
Parker admitted that an active
shooter is a “worse-case scenario,”
but on a weekly basis, the Town of
Elon and the university police will
ingly collaborate. Though the uni
versity police’s jurisdiction is the
campus and the Town of Elon’s juris
diction is the remainder of the town
outside of campus, the two organi
zations share a radio and constantly
assist each other on calls when offi
cers are busy. During Homecoming
weekend, multiple Town of Elon po
lice reports said their deputies aided
the university police because of the
high rate of activity.
But while they both assist each
other, they also respect each other
enough to carry out their jobs har
moniously. Because campus police
work directly with the Office of Stu
dent Conduct,
Parker said
Even though his team gen
Town of Elon eraUy doesn’t
police and deal with stu-
Elon University
|. 1 1 j When needed,
police have had
different goals, Uce can access
they still work information
together for through the
the good of the
—nit,,
Act and other
privacy laws that can’t be disseminated
to anyone else.
Likewise, campus police normal
ly wouldn’t deal with minor domes
tic disputes or civil matters. Parker
said because each department is ac
customed to their distinctive groups
— campus police being college stu
dents and Town of Elon Police being
normally older adults — they will
not overstep their boundaries. Ac
cording to Parker, each department
has its own goals and missions and
neither want to interfere with that.
“We have different departments
that we work in and our customer
service tailored to our specific com
munities,” he said.
With bigger crimes, if something
involves both the town and the uni
versity, Parker said that they would
work together after they find the
common thread. The police chief
used a stolen laptop as an example,
saying that would be handled by
campus police, but if something else
was stolen in the town, detectives
from both agencies would pitch in
during the investigation.
“I call it ‘force multiplication,’ so
that if our officers need assistance,
we have immediate assistance from
our partners, including for joint in
vestigations,” Parker said.
Parker said the relationship both
organizations have is strong —
something not common in other
cities. He works closely with Elon’s
Director of Campus Safety and Po
lice Chief Dennis Franks and has
meetings vffth him almost every
week. Because of this, he thinks he
and his staff are primed to contin
ue working well with campus police
because they get along.
“Their staff and our staff are
friends,” Parker said. “We know
each other and we work with each
other because we have common
interests. Personally, I feel like the
relationship we have is excellent. To
be realistic, that’s not going to be re
flective across the country.
“They’ll do what the law re
quires, but they don’t have good
personal relationships. In my opin
ion, that is not effective because you
have to like each other in order to
work well.”
Sophomore Connor Quinn
said he really appreciates having
two police departments looking
out for him because of the added
sense of protection.
“I’d say it definitely adds an extra
element of security knowing that
along with campus police, the Town
of Elon Police is right next door,”
Quinn said.