SMU Students Volunteer Virtually During the Pandemic
Every Thursday evening, after school dozens of middle and high schoolers from the Vickery Meadow community gather at Sam Tasby Middle School with the Eagles Scholars program. Snacks are served and numerous languages are spoken throughout the cafeteria while the program director Janet Morrison-Lane tries to get the students attention for announcements.
However, on March 12, things were a little different. Confusion spread across the cafeteria as Morrison-Lane received a message saying that Eagle Scholars cannot be conducted that day. First-year Aidan Ellis remembers seeing students upset and worried that they would lose their community.
Eagle Scholars is a college readiness program for the students in the Vickery Meadow community that allows students to take classes from essay writing to poetry or photography. Since the shelter-in-place order in Dallas, Eagle Scholars, along with other high school outreach organizations such as CHAMP, have had to drastically change the way they help the students involved.
“We’ve gone virtual now, so that was a lot because such a big part of Eagle Scholars is the community around it,” Ellis said. “Not having that, we had a few issues. The kids are so drained. Also many of them are living in apartments with their whole family, even multigenerational families. They’re listening but they are also helping take care of their younger sibling.”
Ellis helps teach a self-care class, where she focuses on journaling, mindfulness and meditation. She hopes that her class can act as a stress reliever for students as they go through this pandemic and all that it brings
“A lot of these kids, they are part of the most vulnerable population to this.” Ellis said. “Not only like the disease itself, but also the other effects like their parents, or they themselves, have been like losing work, they’ve even been threatened with eviction notices. So, just to be there and offer support for them, I felt like I could help.
It is this mentorship aspect that Ellis values from Eagle Scholars. Similarly, first-year Caleb Almond believes that Dallas Champions Academy (Champ), a Christian high school outreach program that offers mentorship to Dallas students, helps his mentee unwind and have someone to talk to. However, Almond quickly realized that switching over to Zoom brings its own challenges.
“I feel as though, especially with my mentee in particular, it takes a lot longer for me to get him to open up over a phone call than it does when we were in person because I’m a social person and he’s an introvert, but at the same time, whenever we get to talking we click,” Almond said. “It’s like, it’s great, but whenever we’re on the phone, I can tell like he feels exhausted. And it’s just, I can tell it’s a lot of burden on him and family too.”
Normally they would meet at a church called Cornerstone in Downtown Dallas every other Saturday. Like Eagle Scholars, Champ now also uses Zoom alongside a Bible verse app to help students navigate their faith and social relationships.
“We would actually sit there, eat and converse with them to catch up by asking how their week’s been,”Almond said. “And it’s like, it’s different whenever you’re over the phone or video calls than actually seeing them in person.”
Ash Thye is also a volunteer with the Eagle Scholars, he teaches students photography. He is helping students create a photo diary to document their experiences during the pandemic.
“I really enjoy just being able to teach them a skill that they might not think about otherwise,” Thye said. “In person, it was showing them something they can do with their phones to take pictures. But then with everything that’s happened with the coronavirus, that shifted to, I think, a more meaningful class. That’s largely just been because they can understand the meaning of a better little now.”
Apart from his class, Thye partnered up with the program director, Morrison-Lane to create a resource filled website called iamcollegematerial.org. After the virus started to become more prevalent in the United States, Thye struggled between wanting to help and knowing that it was best for him to stay at home.
“It didn’t even occur to me to find a way to help virtually, aside from donating to food pantries, until Janet, the program director, reached out and asked if I wanted to help design a website for the program,” Thye said. “Her idea with the website is to eventually make it to where it’s a resource hub for students and families in Dallas with Dallas-specific community resources, both for the community that we serve with Eagle Scholars, but also ideally beyond that.”
The website, iamcollegematerial.org now has dozens of unique visitors primarily from the Eagle Scholars community. It highlights resources ranging from how to file for unemployment to digital dance classes for students to take.
Thye, along with Ellis and Almond wanted to find a way to help out their community while complying with Dallas’ shelter in place order. Using technology, such as zoom, gave them an outlet to help those around them while staying at home.
