Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

Community Engagement Program Benefits Area Residents

Posted
The Community Engagement Scholarship Program (CESP) at Bethel University attracts students who possess a strong desire to help others. Harnessing that energy into a chosen field of study combined with 280 hours of community service annually creates lasting benefits for area residents and students alike. The mission of the CESP is to ‘nurture youth by facilitating an after-school program that encourages physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional growth within the McKenzie community.’ Additionally, every scholar also works with an approved partner organization to provide support and assistance and gain valuable career experience and service hours.
 
Garrett Burns, Associate Chaplain and Director of the Community Engagement Scholarship Program at Bethel University, understands the importance of faithful stewardship. He has led the CESP since 2017 and is proud of the many ways in which scholarship students have volunteered in and around the Carroll County area. The program was started by the Sociology department and the Human Services department around 2010. It was called ARETE meaning ‘the act of living to one’s full potential’ as taken from an ancient Greek philosophical concept. “Actually,” Garrett remembers,”I was a student here at the time when they began the program.” It was primarily composed of Human Services, Sociology and Psychology majors and focused on helping the community through volunteering and disaster response trips. The original goal of ARETE was the result of a community needs assessment survey conducted through the social sciences departments at Bethel University. The survey found that working parents and guardians in McKenzie needed an after-school program for their children.
 
Originally located in the conference room of the Housing Authority on Walnut Circle, the after-school initiative opened to students on three days a week from 3-5 p.m. Specific activities and lesson plans were developed to address the nutritional, tutoring and mentoring needs of up to 24 students annually. The programs were based on established curriculum and literacy measurements as administered by Bethel’s education department. There were 9-15 scholarship students working with K-8 graders. 
 
When the COVID pandemic swept through the country in 2020, in-person tutoring came to a halt. It was at this point that directors of the Community Engagement Scholarship Program began talks with Renee Hobson about the possibility of working together. Renee is a former teacher in the McKenzie Special School District and owner of Two Sisters and a Book, a tutoring service. When physical distancing restrictions began lessening, the new partnership moved into Webb School with much more space and new laptops donated by the Rotary Club. 
 
Today, there are 20 pre-K through fourth grade students attending the popular after-school program. School buses drop students between 2:30-3 p.m. and the little ones are walked over from the Head Start facilities also located in Webb School. During the afternoon, students receive help with homework and enjoy time reading, drawing and working through other educational activities. There is always time for a nutritious snack and, if the weather permits, some exercise outside in the playground. Parents and guardians begin arriving around 4:30 p.m. to pick up their children after work. The program closes each evening at 6  p.m. 
 
Along with Renee, there are eight student scholars from Bethel volunteering as tutors. Each receives the Community Engagement Scholarship and has committed to maintaining a 2.75 or higher grade point average and to perform 10 community service hours per week each semester. Their majors range from human services, education and biology to psychology, music education and nursing.
 
In addition to the after-school program, the Community Engagement Program scholars work in the Carroll County area with approved partner organizations to provide support and volunteer hours. Partners include area churches and childcare centers, United Neighbors, the City of McKenzie, nursing homes, assisted living and rehabilitation facilities, the Carroll County Humane Society and other social agencies. CESP also partners with regional and national organizations dedicated to helping communities hit by disaster rebuild homes, neighborhoods and lives. Some of the groups include Friends in Mission, a disaster response group affiliated with the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in McKenzie, Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to victims of natural disaster, and Eight Days of Hope, a national organization responding to disasters across the country. In recent years, CESP students helped residents in the panhandle of Florida pick up the pieces after Hurricane Michael slammed ashore in October 2018; in Cookeville, Tennessee, after a series of devastating tornadoes crashed into the area in March, 2020, and in Waverly, Tennessee, after 21 inches of rain fell on August 21, 2021 resulting in catastrophic flooding.
 
Whenever possible, the CESP tries to match student volunteers with their working majors, “For example,” said Garrett, “there is a criminal justice major working with the Bells-Alamo police department and a Human Services major helping at AseraCare, a hospice care agency.” Of the scholarships available to Bethel students, the Community Engagement Scholarship Program has the highest retention rate and has proven to be popular. Nearly three-fourths of the scholars currently enrolled in the program will graduate in May 2023. Garrett hopes to begin the recruiting phrase soon in order to attract potential students and prepare for another successful year of community engagement.