Contact: Robbie S. Ward
Photo by: Alicia Barnes
When a group of five Mississippi State University freshmen visited Happy Start Learning Center in late August, the preschool on Highway 182 had about 20 books.
That's not the picture the Day One Leadership team wanted to see in a place where young children spend significant parts of their weekdays. Studies have shown children exposed to reading at early ages perform better in school.
The college students wanted to help give the children at the preschool and their parents access to children's books and parenting materials.
During the fall semester, the students organized book drives and even converted a storage room at the center into a library. This week, the students installed bookcases they built to hold more than 600 books they collected.
Each of the five students also invested 20 hours of time mentoring kids at the center, reading to them, assisting staff, and generally helping however they could.
That's making a difference.
That's what the Day One Leadership Community helps accomplish. Since 2007, the student leadership program has partnered with community organizations to help students learn teamwork and leadership skills while contributing to worthy causes larger than themselves.
Cade Smith, director of MSU's Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement, wants students to get involved in leadership training and opportunities to help those around them as soon as they enroll at the land-grant university.
"The community benefits in many ways," Smith said. "Teams of students work with partners to develop and deliver projects that bring new value to the organizations and others who live in the area."
In fact, since August MSU students in the Day One Leadership Community have contributed about 5,000 hours of community service in Starkville to about 30 different organizations.
Nearly 250 students have contributed to the area in ways as diverse as the Starkville community itself. From helping build exercise areas for the local Boys and Girls Club to improving landscaping at the Oktibbeha County Humane Society, students find ways to make a difference in the community and improve themselves.
Each of the projects seeks to emphasize the students' critical thinking, creativity, and communication, Smith said, all areas essential for them to develop into successful leaders. They learn through the team-based experience.
"They have a budget they must work within, conceptualize needs of their community partners, work out timelines, and deliver what they promise," Smith said. "They really have to self-regulate and self-govern."
For many of the students who began the leadership program as first-semester freshmen, they transformed during their time with other group members. Even if they didn't notice, others saw how their shyness went away as they focused on helping others.
Alicia Barnes mentored the Happy Heroes, the group who built the bookcases, held the book drive, and mentored children at the preschool. As an employee of the Mississippi Child Care Resource and Referral Network, housed at MSU Extension and the university's School of Human Sciences, she knows the benefits for the children and the students.
She smiled recently when discussing how she has seen students in her group change during the semester.
"They've really become confident with each other," she said.
However, don't take her word for it. Hannah Weisenberger, a group member and civil engineering major from Clinton, said she learned many things from the program. However, one key lesson showed she and others can make an impact in small kids' lives one book at a time, one conversation at a time.
"It doesn't seem like we did a lot, but we see the difference," she said. "The program emphasized the little things that make the big difference."
For more information, Contact Cade Smith at 662-325-0244 or cade@saffairs.msstate.edu.