VISTA volunteers

Addressing poor educational performance, hunger and other issues related to poverty, Jim Hurley has spent the last nine months coordinating service projects aimed at helping the community.  As an Americorps VISTA volunteer hosted by Northwestern State University, Hurley arrived in Natchitoches last November committed to fighting illiteracy, improving health services, strengthen community groups, and other service endeavors.

AmeriCorps VISTA is the national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. Founded as Volunteers in Service to America in 1965 and incorporated into the AmeriCorps network of programs in 1993, VISTA has been on the front lines in the fight against poverty in America for more than 40 years.  Volunteers commit to one year of full-time service at a nonprofit organization or local government agency.

"We've had an enthusiastic response from a few faculty members and community agencies, but in the future, I'd like there to be more student involvement," Hurley said. "Ideally, student groups and organizations would come to [NSU Director of Service-Learning] Steve Gruesbeck and I with ideas and then we help them construct a project."

Faculty members and community organizations that will begin service-learning projects in the fall will be a tremendous asset to the community, Hurley said.

"Not only have they  got great ideas to address the community's needs with cohorts of students, but they have patiently gone through the necessary steps to create successful service-learning projects," he said.

With three months left, Hurley has several important projects that will begin with the fall semester, engaging NSU students and faculty in several service endeavors.  Slated to begin this semester are:

* A reading program held in conjunction with the Kid City program at L.P. Vaughn Elementary in which students enrolled in English 1010 with instructor Lori LeBlanc-Sewell will volunteer one hour per week to help students with reading and school work.

* A water-quality project in which students enrolled in Biology of Fishes with Dr. Jonathan Akin in which will take samples from local water sources to test levels of contamination.  The project will raise awareness of health risks and provide solutions related to eating contaminated fish.  At the project's conclusion, students from the course will teach students from Dr. Mike Cundall's NSU Tutor program who choose to participate in the project.

* Volunteer work with the Council on Aging and Natchitoches Philadelphia Center in which students from Dr. Jon Croghan's communications course will volunteer with the COA or the NPC.  While volunteering, participants will advocate the needs and services of agencies to the community.

* Engaging students in the Presidential Leadership Program. Hurley will address this group of students selected to facilitate service-learning projects about the difference between service-learning and other service work, offering examples of past projects and how projects an be developed. Hurley hopes a group of five or six students will commit to a project.

*A service-learning workshop for NSU faculty in which Hurley will discuss how to incorporate service-learning into course syllabi, and documenting student hours and outcomes of learning.

Hurley said there is also a need in the community for providing children and teens with more after-school and weekend programs.

"Over the past several months, the majority of my service has been addressing elementary education and health. Since my mission is to help people out of poverty, I've worked with NSU faculty to develop or enhance programs that will tutor kids who are considered at-risk or performing below grade level," he said. "We hope that with the support of the free food programs developed by the Central Louisiana Food Bank, kids and teens will be nourished and ready to learn when they go to school. However, the community still needs to do more to address truancy and school dropout rate by providing kids and teens with more engaging opportunities so they will remain productive."

For more information or to contact Hurley about a service project, e-mail him at hurleyj@nsula.du <mailto:hurleyj@nsula.du> .