 |
Project
Coach Continues Growth with New Leadership
 Since
its founding in 2003 by two Smith faculty members—Sam Intrator,
professor of education and child study, and Donald Siegel,
professor of exercise and sport studies— has steadily expanded
its programming and number of participants. Project Coach
started with a core belief that sports can act as a positive
vehicle to enhance the lives of children, families and communities.
The program employs elementary-aged students and teens from
Holyoke and Springfield as coaches and mentors, who learn
and develop their leadership and coaching skills working
with Smith faculty, staff and graduate students. The participating
coaches lead their own teams, in basketball, soccer and other
sports.
This year, Kayleigh Colombero ’08
became director of Project Coach, as well as the Urban Education
Initiative. Colombero, who has served as a teacher in Springfield
since her graduation, and was a mentor with Project Coach while
at Smith, recently responded
to questions about her Project Coach leadership.
Gate: What captured your interest
in the position of Project Coach director?
Kayleigh
Colombero:
Having worked for Project Coach as an undergraduate I have
always loved the program and the work it does with teens
and youth in Springfield. After graduating from Smith, I
immediately moved to Springfield, having fallen in love with
the city while volunteering at Project Coach and Gerena Elementary
School. When I began teaching in Springfield, I started to
work for Project Coach part time as an academic advisor for
students at Renaissance school. Then I became the coordinator
of registration and grades for all the Project Coach teens
while I was still teaching. Since I stayed connected to the
program and saw it grow and develop, I always hoped that
one day I could become the director. I saw all the program
had to offer, the way it gave teenagers real responsibility
and leadership skills, and the way students who felt disengaged
by high school lit up while coaching kids in their community.
I also felt like my connections to Springfield Public Schools
and Smith could greatly improve the awareness and community
involvement that Project Coach currently had. I wanted to
be a part of the continued sustainability of the program,
the impact the program had on countless teens, and the leadership
that created and drove such an amazing program.
Gate: In
your view as a Smith alumna, what is the importance of programs
like Project Coach to the college's outreach and partnership
with the local community?
KC: Project Coach and other
community outreach programs attached to higher education
institutions have the ability to utilize an amazingly gifted,
educated and hard-working group of students who can and do
have major impacts on the surrounding communities. Local
communities often are in desperate need of mentors, tutors,
extra after-school programs, youth development programs,
etc. As a former Springfield teacher, I know that the work
is often overwhelming, that there are so many kids who need
more individual attention, and even more teachers who are
struggling to keep up with the workload. By partnering with
schools in local communities or providing after-school support,
college students can help children who are not getting enough
support, teachers who don't have enough time in the day to
get everything done, and school systems working overtime
to close the achievement gap. It seems to me that community
outreach should be every college's top goal. We are coming
to understand as a country that public education is in a
crisis. We need to mobilize all available, educated and motivated
people to help with our education system. I can't think of
a better place to find these people in large numbers than
at colleges.
Furthermore, if colleges truly
want to prepare students for adult life, careers and citizenship,
students should be engaged in community outreach throughout
their college experience. As a student at Smith, my participation
in Project Coach taught me the potential of teens in Springfield,
the struggles the city was having, and how much untapped
capacity the city had. It was responsible for my decision
to do something to help children in Springfield. It was the
reason I lived and taught in the city, the reason I coached
there, and the reason I now run Project Coach. In my opinion,
every college student should have this type of formative
experience.
Gate:
Project Coach recently began providing free dinner to all
participants on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Why is that
an important initiative? What's it like to coordinate?
KC:
Although at times the dinner initiative feels like a logistical
nightmare, it is hugely important to our program and our
participants. By partnering with [food management company]
Sodexo, we are able to provide free dinner to all of our
elementary-aged participants and our teenage coaches. Through
Sodexo, this is also done at no cost to Project Coach. Adding
dinner to our programming ensures that our participants receive
a balanced meal after participating in an hour of homework
help and literacy programming and an hour of sports practice.
Since 97 percent of our elementary-aged participants and
75 percent of our teen coaches come from low-income families,
this service helps families significantly. In order to pull
it off, our participants come in from the gyms at staggered
times, one of our graduate students checks off all students
who take a meal on our spreadsheets, and students sit at
their tables with their coaches to enjoy their meal and wait
to be picked up. The coaches, graduate students, and kids
really value this time to hang out, get to know each other
better, and talk about the day's programming. Also, parents
begin coming in at the start of dinner and many talk with
program staff, coaches, or even their child's teacher (we
employ 9 SPS teachers to work in our program) about how their
child is doing in school and in the program. Overall, the
dinner component adds a lot of value to our programming and
truly helps our participating families.
Gate: What's next
for Project Coach?
KC: It almost feels like it
would be easier to answer what isn't next! We have so many
new projects in the works. This year we added two sports
to our repertoire—volleyball
and rowing. Volleyball was also combined with a new fitness
curriculum and rowing will take place in the new north end
boathouse. In February we have a group of 30 high school
girls from Denmark coming to stay, for over a week, and participate
in leadership trainings with our coaches. We are partnering
with Mass Mentoring to participate in Mentoring Day at the
Boston State House and working with the Springfield Armor
to provide clinics and free games for our coaches. We are
partnering with WNEU to have a volleyball clinic and a formal
end of year banquet at the college. Next year, we are hoping
to increase our numbers of coaches and participants by adding
both dance and art components for the first time. We have
already secured a grant to promote a few of our veteran female
coaches to leadership positions next year. We are truly getting
stronger and developing into a larger program. As always,
we will continue to get the word out at Smith and involve
as many Smith students as possible in all aspects of the
program. |
|
