Voluntees take part in 20th Annual Read-In
SAN FRANCISCO
Volunteers range from high school students to business leaders.
Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California, will participate at Bret Harte
Elementary School and said he looks forward to taking part in the citywide
event.
"I believe it's important for community members to join together
to inspire and educate our young people, especially through efforts that
celebrate diversity and inclusion," McNeely said in a prepared statement.
The event serves to strengthen peer-to-peer interactions by
involving high school students from black student unions. Teachers at the
high school and elementary school levels believe that the older students'
reading to younger students communicates the importance of reading and boosts
the confidence of the high school students.
"Students have told me that they feel like this is an opportunity
to become positive role models and to give back to the community they are
growing up in," Latrice Manuel, parent liaison at International Studies
Academy said in a prepared statement. "They feel empowered and feel as if the
community will be taking notice of their input."
Students equally praise the benefit of peer-to-peer interactions.
Asiha Robinson, a high school student at International Studies Academy, said
that by reading to Daniel Webster Elementary students, she is "giving them
positive adult interaction that they may not have normally."
"When I was young, our school sometimes had high school students
visit us and I thought that was cool to look up to them," Robinson said.
Participants will have the option of reading from more than 20
books, including Polly Greenberg's "Oh Lord, I Wish I Was a Buzzard" and
Ntozake Shange's "Ellington Was Not a Street."