Alternative Fall Break

Alternative Fall Breaks (AFB) provides MCLA students the chance to make a difference in their own communities while inspiring volunteer spirit, teamwork, and mutual understanding through cross-cultural training. AFB seeks to educate college and university communities through global and national outreach in order to dispel personal misconceptions and to build a web of communal interaction. AFB is also a chance for students from nearby colleges to meet and network.

Friends of Foster Families

Friends for Foster Families is a respite and support program for local foster families The MCLA volunteers serve as a support system for the foster parent and act as a mentors to the foster children. Volunteers fill a much needed role while gaining first hand experience into the foster care system.

Alternative Spring Break

Each spring semester the Center for Service works with a group of students who are interested in participating in a cultural immersion and/or a community service program during their spring break. Past trips include Katrina relief work with National Wildlife Federation and Habitat for Humanity in the New Orleans area, Homestays and community service in Belize, tutoring youth on the Navajo Nation. Students help decide the type of work being done and the location of the trip.

The Pathways Program

The Pathways Program brings local youth who might not consider going to college onto campus for interactive visits, inspiring them to see the value and enjoyment of college. Volunteers share the importance of higher education by designing and leading interactive and engaging field trips onto the MCLA campus

The Pathways Program inspires local youth to pursue higher education. Many elementary and middle school student in North Adams and the surrounding area lack the role-modeling and reinforcement to continue their academics past the high school level. The Pathways Program, coordinated by a student leader, brings these youth onto campus for interactive visits, inspiring students to see the value and enjoyment of college. The visitors have the opportunity to visit a biology lab and assist with an experiment while hearing from college students about how the biology class can be applied to a profession or visiting a basketball practice and hearing from athletes the importance of balancing sports and academics. Other opportunities include watching a play rehearsal, and looking at a dorm room. The program supports a sustained relationship amongst the college students leading the visit and the visiting students. Last semester there were a number of elementary school visits and participants of the local big brothers and big sisters program as well. The program is poising itself to expand the number of visits this coming fall.

Pathways also supports the Berkshire Compact Initiative, headed by MCLA. The Berkshire Compact for Higher Education outlines four major goals: to help Berkshire residents see 16 years of education as the standard; to improve access to education, training and lifelong learning; to make Berkshire County a competitive location for new technology and knowledge-based economy; and to develop a new “social contract” among employers, employees, and education institutions that encourages and promotes learning, earning, and civic engagement. By inviting youth to MCLA and inspiring them to pursue their own college education, Pathways is an important player in promoting education in Berkshire County.

Student Teacher In-Class Support (S.T.I.C.S.)

S.T.I.C.S. is a tutoring program that places MCLA undergraduate students into local elementary school classrooms. The volunteers assist the teacher by working with students who need extra help or are behind on school work. In addition to providing a valuable service to students and teachers, the volunteer receives hands on experience in a classroom setting; this may be particularly beneficial to anyone studying to get a degree in education or who wishes to work with children in the future

S.T.I.C.S. is a tutoring program that places MCLA undergraduate students into local elementary school classrooms. The S.T.I.C.S. tutor will assist the students who need extra help, allowing the teacher to move on with the lessons planned knowing that all students are keeping up with the pace of the class In addition to providing a valuable service to students and teachers, the volunteer receives hands on experience in a classroom setting; this may be particularly beneficial to anyone studying to get a degree in education or who wishes to work with children in the future. . The program was created as a response to a changing need in the school system. After the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act, teachers did not have the time to allow individual students to leave the classroom for one-on-one support with a teacher assistant. Programs like S.T.I.C.S. seek to serve the needs of both students and teachers in light of the new educational policies.

S.T.I.C.S. runs Monday through Thursday from 9am to 3pm. Transportation is provided; an MCLA van will drop off and pick up volunteers at their respective placements. To participate in the program, volunteers must first complete an initial training session with the S.T.I.C.S. coordinator and complete a simple CORI form with the North Adams Volunteer Coordinator. Both of those things are done from MCLA at a time convenient for the volunteer.

How To Get Involved
If you think that you would be a good addition to the S.T.I.C.S. program, please email Kaitlyn Bonneville, the Program Coordinator, with the following information:

• First and Last name
• MCLA mailbox number
• Cell phone number
• Day and Times available (Mon-Thur, 9-3)
• Grade level preference (K-5)

What People Are Saying About S.T.I.C.S.
“I have been volunteering in the S.T.I.C.S. program for the past two semesters and have enjoyed it immensely. I have learned a lot about how a classroom runs and how my volunteer work fits into that. I like helping students; I also enjoy talking to them on a personal level. Despite the many needs in public education, teachers work hard to make sure students are truly getting something out of school – which is inspiring.”
~Jamie Donchin; Freshman at MCLA

“The MCLA S.T.I.C.S. program is invaluable to the North Adams Public Schools. The student volunteer provides one-on-one help for children who need it, allowing the teacher to focus on the whole class. In a time when teachers have so much material to cover, student volunteers allow them to meet their requirements without leaving children behind in the work. Additionally, the children are also introduced to the idea of higher education and start to see it as attainable. College volunteers are an integral and necessary part of the North Adams Public Schools.”
~Elizabeth Urban; North Adams Public School Volunteer Coordinator

The Write Stuff

Write Stuff volunteers share their passion of writing and reading with local middle school students. The program places MCLA students in a reading and writing program focused on enhancing middle school curriculum through creative writing, service learning, mentorship, and public performance.

Inkberry, MCLA, North Adams Public Schools, The North Adams Public Library, and the North Adams Transcript are partnering to offer an on-going reading and writing program focused on enhancing middle school curriculum through creative writing, service learning, mentorship, and public performance.

The program offers multi-genre creative writing workshops for 6th and 7th graders at Silvio O. Conte Middle School as part of their exploratory arts curriculum, along with MCAS help centered on reading comprehension. MCLA students are on hand to assist Inkberry appointed creative writing instructors and to lead reading comprehension sessions during the school day.
Students from Conte Middle School who participate in the program are given the opportunity to read from their work at the North Adams Public Library as part of an annual Student Authors Night, portions of which have been published in The North Adams Transcript. Additionally, students have visited a MCLA writing class to share their work and to receive literary feedback and support from the college students in the class.

What People Are Saying
"Many students associate writing with punishment, with homework, with reports, in other words with dread. The Write Stuff aims to acquaint students with the notion that writing can be fun."
- Linda White (Creative writing workshop instructor spring 2007)
"The Write Stuff program taught the students the value of creative writing through the implementation of innovative prompts and ideas in the classroom. My presence as a student helper allowed the students to have individualized study time and help on their pieces, which really made a big difference."
- Jen Thomas (MCLA student volunteer)