On September 24, 2008, 16 first-year students worked with 32 fifth-grade students from Mott School and Columbus School – two public Trenton elementary schools. This day was the first of several relating to the TCNJ Youth Development Program, a grant-funded program focusing on helping  fifth-grade students meet the state goal on the NJ ASK5 in the spring of 2009. 

As part of this grant, students from Mott School and Columbus School participate in college sponsored experiential learning activities that develop their core content knowledge and skills, additionally making them more aware of professions and college programs and enhancing their belief that college should be a part of their future 

Sixteen first-year students who had identified Education as their community-engaged learning issue participated in this program. Seniors Liz Moody, Leanne Hershkowitz, and Brittany Aydelotte helped organize the day, while Paula Figueroa, the Bonner Center Associate Director, worked directly with Sharon Coates from Columbus School and Judy Wilson from Mott School to facilitate further planning.

The first-year students worked in groups with the fifth-graders and conducted interviews with them, learning about their heroes, their likes, dislikes, and their goals – goals that ranged from learning to fly to passing Language Arts. Afterwards, the first-year students put together books for each one of the fifth-grade students. Each child’s booklet was personalized with his/ her interview, interviews of the college students, and hand-written letters from the college students he/she worked with during the day.

As with all CEL days, service and learning are combined.  First-year students learned about the challenges facing Trenton public schools and were able to see, through charts and graphs, the disparity between test scores realized in Trenton and those state-wide. In addition, Tabitha Dell’Angelo, professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at TCNJ, addressed the students, summarizing that students in Trenton benefit most from mentorship and high expectations – two relatively simple, low-cost factors. In a city where $20,000 is funneled into each student’s education, first-year students from TCNJ were interested to see that students respond most positively to mentorship.