Hello! Our names are Laura McCann and Nora Ahern, this years summer interns. We will use our first blog to introduce ourselves and what we plan on accomplishing this summer!
My name is Laura McCann and I will be a senior at Lehigh University this fall. I have lived in Allentown my whole life, and attended Allentown Central Catholic, where I graduated in 2012. Currently, I am pursuing a bachelors in Behavioral Neuroscience. After graduation, I intend on working in the field of geriatrics. In the past, I have spent my summers working and volunteering at nursing homes. This summer I am excited to be working with children as I intern here at the Volunteer Center.
My name is Nora Ahern and I grew up in Bethlehem, and graduated from Liberty High School in 2011. This past May, I graduated with my Bachelors in Social Work and my Bachelors in Spanish Language and Literature from Temple University. I will be attending the University of Pennsylvania this fall to pursue my Masters of Social Work. I have worked with children for the past eight years. Most of my experience comes from working in low-income preschools in North Philadelphia, where I worked with my peers to implement a literacy curriculum with the goals of making sure every child enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. I am passionate about social justice and educational equality, and believe that the two go hand in hand. I am very excited to be back in my home town working towards the same goals, and training future leaders of our community!
This summer, we are involved with two programs: Book Buddies at the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem (E. 4th Street Branch) and the GoLead one week leadership training institute for high school students, held here at the Volunteer Center.
This week marks our first full week with the Book Buddies Program! We will attend every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning until the end of July. We have 15 kindergarten and first grade students paired with three volunteers from the community. Three groups participate in a repeated read-aloud of the same story three times per week, complete a journal writing activity, an educational game, and a craft related to the storybook. This summer, we also have 15 fourth and fifth grade students. We will be reading Roald Dahl’s James and The Giant Peach in small groups. As we will be reading this book over the course of the five weeks, we will be discussing different literary aspects of the novel, along with summarizing, sequencing, and discovering new words. We are also likely to complete some crafts and creative writing activities along the way!
We are extremely excited for our GoLead program this summer! The program runs July 20th-24th. We have had over 25 applicants to the program this year, making it the most in The Volunteer Center’s history! All of the students reside in the Lehigh Valley, and play large roles in their communities. We are looking forward to meeting our diverse group of students and being inspired by their creativity, organizational skills, and passion for making change in their communities.
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