P’ville HS Club Makes Homework Easier to Finish for Younger Children
By Molly Stazzone
Pleasantville students who are in sixth grade or younger and need some extra help with homework are in luck.
Actually, they’ve been fortunate for the past three years. Since 2010, Pleasantville High School students who are part of the school’s community service club Encouraging Children to Help Others (ECHO) tutor their younger counterparts as part of a special program at the Mount Pleasant Public Library’s main branch in the village.
The afterschool homework help program assists students most Mondays through Thursdays after dismissal. The program runs from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the children’s section of the library.
Students in grades K-6 receive helpful homework tips and strategies and tutoring from the ECHO Club’s student volunteers.
“We were interested in the ECHO program,” said Susan Chajes, head of children’s services at the Mount Pleasant Public Library. “The library asked Pleasantville High School if any students would want to volunteer.”
Currently there are seven volunteers involved with the program. Of the four days a week the students provide assistance, two volunteers participate each day.
The homework help program isn’t just an asset to the district’s younger students but to families as well, especially for those households where English is not the primary language or if parents are either too busy, unavailable or don’t understand their child’s homework. The ECHO Club volunteers can assist the younger students with their school work, helping them to finish their work earlier and perhaps providing more free time for them.
Mike Zakher, a Pleasantville High School junior, is the student coordinator of the program and had good motivation to be involved. His sister Mariam Zakher, the former president of E.C.H.O., helped start the program.
The high school students are responsible for recruiting, training and organizing schedules for new and current volunteers, Zakher said. If students want to join, they submit their name and email address and attend ECHO Club meetings and events.
“Students who want to join must have patience and be calm around kids,” he said.
If a child is in the fourth grade an adult or teenager at least 16 years old is required to be present.
“I like helping little kids and it’s something to do when I have free time,” said ECHO member Alex Manzi, a first-year volunteer.
Pleasantville resident and mother Emma Degnen said with three young children at home it can be difficult at times to help her oldest child with schoolwork. Without some of the distractions, it’s often easier to complete those tasks at the library, she said.
“I read about ECHO on the library’s website,” Degnen said. “I have twin three-year-olds and a seven-year-old so doing homework is hard. I noticed that their concentration has improved.”
For more information about the program, parents may contact the library’s Children’s Services at 914-769-0548 ext. 3 or email children@mountpleasantlibrary.org. The Mount Pleasant Library is located at 350 Bedford Rd. in Pleasantville.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
