Don Wise, Pablo, and Izzy Einsidler
Making a Difference, One Hour a Week
Mentoring takes only 75 minutes a week, but makes a huge difference in a child’s life. Research has found that students mentored at an early age showed more discipline in the classroom, and achieved higher grades — even years after leaving a mentoring program.
Mentoring is simply meeting with a student once a week and participating in an activity with that student. In addition, the mentor helps with the student's homework assignments and gives him or her time to talk with an adult.
Two Fresno State professors, Don Wise (Education) and Izzy Einsidler (Theater Arts) began mentoring at Kirk Elementary in Fresno Unified last September and plan to continue with their mentees, both fourth grade students. Encourage Tomorrow, a local non-profit whose goal is helping kids, organizes the mentoring program, which now reaches more than 200 children.
All potential mentors are asked to participate in training sessions that provide important and simple techniques to successfully mentor a student. Each mentoring session is structured with some type of fun activity, time allotted for homework help, and some time for just talking. Mentors and their mentees rarely run out of things to talk about. For example, mentees, guided by their mentors, recently wrote letters and sent small packages to soldiers in Iraq.
Don says that Pablo, his mentee, has gained much more confidence in himself. Pablo says, “I know my times tables now!” Don says it means a lot to him to see the smile light up on Pablo’s face each Thursday afternoon when he arrives. Pablo grows less shy and more outgoing with other students with each passing week of mentoring.
Izzy’s mentee, Maurice, a fourth grader who recently joined the program, has shown tremendous improvement in his classwork and behavior. Maurice had this to say about Izzy, "I really like Izzy and we have a lot of fun. He helps me with my math work and we always have things to talk about. I really like talking to him.”
Izzy says that Maurice was at first shy but has opened up a lot and has really made some valuable strides both socially, and with classroom work. Izzy says that mentoring Maurice and joining Encourage Tomorrow was truly one of the best and most rewarding things he did all year.
While there are currently 20 mentors at Kirk Elementary alone, Encourage Tomorrow has almost 20 students more signed up just at Kirk that need a mentor. If you would like to be a mentor, contact Don Wise (dwise@csufresno.edu), Izzy Einsidler (ieinsidler@csufresno.edu), or Encourage Tomorrow (233-2880) for more information about mentoring and how you can make a difference in a child’s life.
 Services to the Community Expo is Tuesday, Feb. 2
The Services to the Community Expo will be held Tuesday, Feb. 2 in the Satellite Student Union from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The expo gives students an opportunity to partner with local nonprofit organizations to develop a better understanding of the comprehensive needs that exist in the community. These partnerships provide students with valuable learning experiences and nonprofit agencies with a valuable pool of potential volunteers, interns, and even employees. During the Services to the Community Expo, students will have the opportunity to learn about volunteer, service-learning, internship and career opportunities offered through area nonprofits. Faculty are encouraged to attend this event and send students who are interested in community service or who are required to do service as part of a class assignment. For more information, please contact Renee Delport at 278-7079.
On-campus blood drive starts Feb. 16
The Central California Blood Center and the Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning will hold the first blood drive of the spring semester Feb. 16, 17, and 18. A special “Kick Off” blood drive will be held Tuesday, Feb. 16, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Residence Dining Hall, East Room. The drive will continue on Wednesday, Feb. 17 and Thursday, Feb. 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For the convenience of all there will be six donation locations on Wednesday and Thursday: blood mobiles will be parked at University Student Union (2), Peters Business Building, Kremen School of Education Building, Engineering East, and the Maple Mall. Donors will receive savings coupons from Colorado Grill, the Kennel Bookstore, the Student Rec Center and more. To donate you must be in good general health, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, and be at least 17 years old. Photo ID and Social Security Number are required at donor registration. Please eat a good meal and drink plenty of fluids four hours prior to donation. Donating blood is not painful and takes less than an hour. Each individual donation could save up to three lives. For more information on blood donation, please call the Central California Blood Center at 224-2900.
Call for nominations — University Student Volunteer of the Year
The University Volunteer of the Year Selection Committee is now accepting applications for the 2010 University Student Volunteer of the Year Award. Nominations must be received by Friday, Feb. 19 in order to be considered. Anyone can nominate a Fresno State student for this award. Self-nominations are also accepted. The University Student Volunteer of the Year Award honors Fresno State students who have made a difference in our community through exceptional gifts of their time and talent. The winner will be announced by Hands On Central California on Monday, March 1 and be honored at the 42nd Annual Hands Across the Valley Awards hosted by Hands On Central California on Wednesday, April 21. To receive a nomination form, please contact the Jan and Bud Richter Center at 278-7079 or email rdelport@csufresno.edu.
American Red Cross holds Save A Family event Feb. 25
The American Red Cross Save a Family - Local Relief Fund donation drive is planned for Thursday, Feb. 25 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and volunteers are needed for collections on that day. The drive, in conjunction with Peak Broadcasting and KSEE 24, will take place from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. at the intersection of Cedar and Shaw. There will also be a collection site at "Radio City" just west of Palm and Shaw Avenues. Volunteers are needed to help collect cash.
Volunteers from the Fresno-Madera Chapter of the American Red Cross respond to families in a five county area offering help during times of disaster.This local relief includes emergency food, on site response, temporary shelter, CPR and first aid training and military communications. In addition to local aid, our local Red Cross chapter has raised money for disasters in other parts of the world, including the recent earthquake in Haiti.
All volunteers will need to attend one of the orientations, which will take place on-campus. The orientations are scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 16 and Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. All volunteers will receive a "Save a Family" t-shirt at this time.
If you would like to volunteer, please contact Dana Regier at the Fresno-Madera Red Cross by calling 455-1000 or by e-mailing her at dana@fresnomaderaredcross.org If you have other questions please contact the Richter Center at 278-7079.
Pursuant to the campus MAPP Policy G-10.1, Dr. Welty is encouraging staff to utilize the “Release Time for Staff Volunteers for Community Service” to help on this date. For complete details on the policy, please click on the following link: http://www.csufresno.edu/humres/MAPP/II/G/G-10.pdf. If you have questions specific to the policy, please contact the Human Resources Department at 278-2364.
 Kids Day is Tuesday, March 9
Kids Day is one of the Valley’s largest and most visible special events to benefit Children’s Hospital Central California. Thousands of volunteers throughout the valley help by selling a special “Kids Day” edition of the Fresno Bee for $1. Last year over 1,000 Fresno State students, faculty, and staff helped to do their part by raising over $29,000. Since its beginning, Kids Day has raised over $2 million for Children's Hospital Central California. Please join us to once again on March 9 to help the children and families that are served by Children’s Hospital Central California. Faculty, students, and staff can help in three ways: (1) volunteer to sell papers, (2) help recruit other volunteers by sharing information on this event with friends, students and colleagues and (3) buy the papers from those around campus. For more information and to register to participate, please contact Renee Delport in the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at 278-7063 or email rdelport@csufresno.edu.
Richter Center Ambassadors (from left) Melissa Watkins,
Daniel Cisneros, Celeste Pilegard, Jonathan Munoz, and Leah Rath
outside the EPIC (Educational Participation in Communities)
office at CSULA.
Richter Center Ambassadors
go regional
Over the winter break the Richter Center Ambassadors took part in a regional training offered by the chancellor’s 0ffice entitled Advancing Community Engagement with Student Leaders. The training was offered as a component of a grant awarded to the Ambassadors from the chancellor’s office and supported by the Surdna Foundation.
Five Ambassadors including Daniel Cisneros, Jonathan Munoz, Celeste Pilegard, Leah Rath, and Melissa Watkins, along with Richter Center assistant director Mellissa Jessen represented Fresno State at the event, which focused on developing student leadership programs as a key component to furthering university community engagement activities.
You can read more about this experience from the point of view of the Ambassadors on their blog: fresnostateRCA.com.
Grant funds pay for the ambassadors to attend the annual Continuums of Service Conference in Portland, Ore., in March, and share their experiences. This conference is an important opportunity for members of the field in the Campus Compact’s Western Region to share knowledge and experience to further strengthen university engagement efforts. The Ambassadors will be presenting two posters at this event. A team led by Melissa Watkins and including Daniel Cisneros, Lindsey Hamilton, Jonathan Munoz, Greg Sly, and Cassidy Smith will present a poster entitled Picture the Change: Utilizing Student Leaders and Technology to Inspire Action. Celeste Pilegard and Maricela Vargas will present their poster entitled The Bulldog Pantry: How a Student-Run Community Food Pantry Was Built from the Ground Up. Travel to this event is also supported from IRA funds.
The Richter Center is pleased to offer such professional and personal development opportunities for students dedicated to service through their participation in the Ambassador program. New students are recruited to this program annually. If you know of a student who might be interested or who would be a good candidate for this program, please contact Mellissa Jessen at mjessen@csufresno.edu for more information.
Fresno State well-represented at American Humanics Management Institute
Fresno State's largest delegation ever to participate in an American Humanics Management Institute — 29 students seeking AH Certification, two alumni, two faculty, two community partners and one administrator — represented the campus Jan.3-6 at the event in Phoenix. Eleven of Fresno State's participants delivered two poster sessions and five workshop sessions during the conference attended by more than 700 students from the 65 American Humanics-affiliated campuses across the country. Nonprofit professionals also attend this capstone experience required for national certification where they participate in seminars, workshops, a simulation case study and a career fair and placement day.
Topics involving Fresno State's delegation were "Strengthening the Sector through Communication and Collaboration," Fresno State's Capacity Building and Technical Assistance and Philanthropy Projects, "Friend-raising through Philanthropy and Resources Development," "Embedding the University in Communities Utilizing the Stewards of Place Model" and "Providing Effective Service by Promoting Social Change: Advocacy and Lobbying."
American Humanics at Fresno State is housed within the Department of Sociology, offering courses designed to build up the community-benefit sector in the central San Joaquin Valley. For more information, visit www.csufresno.edu/ah or e-mail program director Matthew Jendian at matthewj@csufresno.edu.
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Vol. 13 
