Some ISU students are sharing their knowledge through tutoring Iowa elementary students.

Financial Aid, America Reads Challenge and America Counts programs have united to place 51 ISU work-study students in Iowa schools as tutors.

“They don’t put up bulletin boards and check papers; they have direct one-on-one contact with students,” said Alisa Frandsen, coordinator of the project.

Frandsen, graduate student in education leadership and policy studies, said there are several areas project members look at when hiring students.

“We have the students fill out applications, and we looked for several things,” she said. “First, at how flexible the person’s schedule was, the quality of the individual and whether the person would take the initiative. We wanted to send out good representatives.”

Dale Henricks, a retired Roland-Story Community School superintendent, said he heard about the program in 1997 while serving as superintendent and contacted Iowa State for more information.

“The program gives an extra hand to help the teachers in schools around the country. I wanted to know if there was a program that could help my school,” he said.

Henricks, who worked with Frandsen to coordinate the program, said he discovered that a partial program had been started at Iowa State by College of Education faculty. The original program hired only students from the College of Education.

Frandsen said this program differs from other work-study programs.

“Unlike most work-study jobs, this one is fully funded by financial aid. They are the ones that got the program started,” Frandsen said. “Financial aid is a big part of the program.”

Henricks said the program is for students who are eligible for work-study and is run by a Faculty Oversight Committee headed by Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs Howard Shapiro.

Mackenzie Cloud, senior in child and family services, said she was excited about the program because her overall career goal is to work with children in need.

“They told us over and over again that this will be a challenge,” she said. “While I won’t be working with juvenile delinquents, I will be working with kids with a lot of different kinds of personalities, and I think that this will be a great experience. I am so glad I will be able to help, and that I am a part of this program.”

Frandsen said students from a variety of fields participate in the program.

“The students are not just education majors; they come from all across the spectrum, from LAS to engineering, from seniors to freshmen,” she said.

The students will be working with students of a wide range of abilities in schools in the Des Moines, Ballard, Gilbert, Nevada, Roland-Story and Ames school districts.

The students have completed seven hours of pre-service training and will have on-going training for one hour every other week and reflection groups every other week, Frandsen said.

Cloud said she would be tutoring two second-grade, one third-grade and one fourth-grade class.

“I hope this program really comes about in the future. The turnout was amazing, and I hope the program will spread out to other places,” she said.

Michael Kelleher, senior in aerospace engineering, has never worked with kids before, but said he is hoping to come away from the program feeling inspired.

“I don’t really know what to think yet,” he said. “Teachers have come in and talked to us about the kinds of things to expect. I think it sounds like it will be a win-win situation.”