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CLASS In Action:
Students Making an Impact

With help from NEA Class Grants, Student Program members are positively impacting their communities nationwide. Here are a few examples of chapters who are making it happen:

Wisconsin: After-School Care for "Latch-Key" Kids

More than 1,600 children from Jefferson Elementary School have benefited from the Student Wisconsin Education Association-Stevens Point "Latchkey Program" since it was founded 10 years ago. Free to K-4 students who receive free or reduced-price lunches, the program offers a structured environment for students who would otherwise have nowhere to go or be left alone at home after school. Student Program members plan lessons, age-appropriate games, playground activities, art projects, and learning opportunities for more than 40 children per semester.

"Through Latchkey, we're able to put the lessons we're learning in school about diversity into practice right away," says Katie Krebsach, co-coordinator for the program. "It's invaluable experience that will enable us to reach more students once we have our own classrooms after graduation." Learn more…

South Dakota: Rebuilding After A Fire

More than 150 education students from across the state in 2001 volunteered to help rebuild a rural Plankinton Public School that had been destroyed by a propane fire. Using a CLASS grant, they funded "Pitching in at Plankinton." Student Program members installed bookshelves in classrooms, built a walkway to the playground, and moved equipment to a new play area.

"We kept getting praise from the Plankinton teachers and community, but little did they know that we received much more of a gift than what we gave to them," says Stefanie Shumaker, event coordinator and former president of the South Dakota Education Association-Student Program. "Our lives were touched and changed forever that day. We pulled together and made a difference, which is what teaching is really about." Learn more…

Illinois: Fighting Adult Illiteracy

When Tessa Brown, a senior at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, learned that 40 million adults in America were functionally illiterate, she knew she had to do something to help. "I was shocked to learn that more than 20 percent of the population can't read," says Brown, an avid reader.

"I knew if I could do something to instill a love of reading in young children, I could help curb that figure in years to come."

So Brown, former president of the Illinois Education Association Student Program at John A. Logan College, developed Reading Connection, a program that has been bringing books to low-income children and their parents for three years. NEA CLASS grant funds allow student volunteers to take a classroom of children - many who have never seen the inside of a bookstore or been read to out loud - to a local bookstore every year to choose two books: one for their classroom library and one to take home. Parents and family members also participate. Learn more…