COMMENTARY
Senior citizens, students, schools all benefit from FELLOWS
By Ed Krentzman
In 1995, I had the good fortune to begin volunteering at Stevenson Middle School, tutoring an eighth-grade student in math and helping others, too.
Advertiser library photo • Dec. 4, 2003
But in the three years I did this, I felt something was missing — a sense of purpose and belonging. Then I attended a program for tutors at the school and heard Matt Kaplan speak about an idea he had for a senior center on a school campus.
Wai'alae Elementary School volunteer Ed Krentzman assists Breeanna Takatsuka, left, and Shaye Alyse Yoza with their classwork. Krentzman started the FELLOWS program, which has expanded to 19 schools.
The concept sounded great, so another volunteer, Esther Yokoyama, and I signed up for it.
I would volunteer one day a week at Wai'alae Elementary School with a special-ed class and a third-grade math class, along with my volunteering at Stevenson.
Time passed, and at some point during that first year, we learned that Matt was moving to the Mainland. I knew the program would die at Wai'alae if someone didn't take charge, and I realized I was it. So what we know today as FELLOWS — Fellowship, Education, Lifelong Learning Opportunities With Seniors — was born.
We are now in our sixth year, having grown from one school and two volunteers to 19 schools and well more than 120 volunteers, 43 of them at Wai'alae. Last school year, FELLOWS put in more than 6,000 hours at Wai'alae alone.
I believe what made the program successful is that we gave the volunteers a chance to take ownership in the program and to become an integral part of the school.
It is a program where everyone wins. The school gets hours of helpers at no cost. The teacher gets an extra set of hands and eyes. The student gets one-on-one help and a chance to interact with a "grandparent" type.
And the volunteers get the most rewarding time they ever had short of raising their own family. I, who have never had children, am experiencing being a parent as I watch a child develop mentally and physically. I told someone I get more hugs now than I did during my marriage.
A third-grade student was telling me how much she loved FELLOWS and I asked her why. She said, "We are born to our parents, so they have to love us. The teachers are paid to help us. But FELLOWS do it just to be there for us."
Every FELLOWS volunteer has letters from students that express how valuable we are. They read: "I like when he corrects me because I know that he cares." "He has helped me reach my goals." "I never knew my grandparent, so this makes me feel good inside."
The FELLOWS program has gone beyond just tutoring in the classroom. One of our volunteers is a retired University of Hawai'i professor who taught mediation. We told the principal at Wai'alae about this volunteer's background and, as a result, the retired professor taught third- and fourth-graders how to be mediators for younger students on the playground. We have talked to students in different grade levels about what schools are like in different countries.
This will continue to grow.
We converted the FELLOWS room, primarily intended as a center for elders, into a sanctuary for students — a place for them to gather, play games, talk, read, or play chess with me. A student told me that this is the one place that remains constant as they change rooms and teachers every year.
FELLOWS is always there.
I am so proud to be a part of this program, which with the continued support of the Hawai'i Intergenerational Network will continue to grow and one day have a home in every elementary school on the island. I feel that it is, without a doubt, the best intergenerational program of its kind.
I don't know if I can do this forever, but I have told Wai'alae that they can throw my 100th birthday party and must invite all the students since 1998. It could be a fund-raiser for the school.
Ed Krentzman is coordinator of the FELLOWS program.
