Stories We Tell

N.C. A&T students looking for service opportunities can help local children in the nearby Ray Warren Community Center.

By Re’Onna Vines, Contributor

One of N.C. A&T’s volunteering programs gives students a chance to give back by helping local children in a community less than a mile from campus.

The university’s Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement (OLCE) launched the “Cross the Street” campaign in partnership with the Greensboro Housing Authority (GHA) and the Ray Warren Community Center. The campaign involves a year-round after-school tutoring program and bi-yearly parade to engage, educate and empower the underserved Ray Warren community.

OLCE’s relationship with GHA began in 2020 with their participation in the annual back-to-school resource fair. The “Cross the Street” partnership addresses OLCE’s goals on health and education equity and helps GHA improve the conditions of the East Greensboro community.

“After COVID, our kids are behind when it comes to reading proficiency and being on grade level from math and other subjects,” said LeKeshia Franklin, OLCE’s civic and service-learning program coordinator. “From that, it has turned into a tutorial program and what we hope will be a successful summer camp program.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday, A&T students help lead the after-school program at the Ray Warren Community Center. They collaborate with the volunteering women of the St. Stephen United Church of Christ.

Gwen Adamson, 71, a retired educator who has been a St. Stephen’s member for 25 years, began volunteering at the center this summer. While helping out at the summer feeding program she saw the opportunity to do something academic with the kids, and things bloomed from there.

“This is an answered prayer. People are hurting, students are hurting,” Adamson said. “They need help, and they don’t know what to do, and we’re just trying to be there for them in whatever way that they need.”

She said the program has “taken it to a higher level.”

“The students need so much, they just need human touch. They just need people to listen to them and be there for them,” she said. “I don’t know if you realize it or not, but they have gotten so attached to [student volunteers].” 

A&T student volunteers are equally impacted by the program. 

Bria Maiden, a graduating mass media production major and OLCE staff member, has taught dance at the center with hopes of imparting on the kids the importance of art, confidence, and self-worth.

“I just strive to bring more to the community,” Maiden said. “Connecting A&T with this community center is very important. I feel like sometimes we get stuck being students that we forget that there’s a whole community outside of campus.”

“It’s made me feel more connected to this environment,” she added. “I’m graduating, so it kind of makes me want to stay a little bit longer, just because I’ve made such good connections with the kids, with the parents, just with the community in general.”

Donovan Bethea, a sophomore business administration major and OLCE lead, has volunteered at the center as a program leader. Bethea strives to bring intentional leadership to the program by identifying the needs of the community before working on them.

“A lot of what I wanna be able to give back to just communities is like emotional intelligence, just developing confidence and stuff like that because I feel like nobody really poured that into me,” said Bethea, who is also an ambassador of A&T’s Black Male initiative.

The children involved in Cross the Street are benefitting from the program both academically and personally.

“I don’t know how this is possible, but I got A/B honor roll this semester,” a fourth grader said in the spring about his improvements in math and reading since taking part in the program.

There are plans for a “Cross the Street” summer program and to expand the program into two more communities in the fall. The goal is to keep the momentum going for the campaign to create a sustainable and efficient relationship with underserved Greensboro communities.

“We’re hoping to take that [program achievements] to Guilford County Schools as well as to the next level with Greensboro Housing Authority,” Adamson said, “so that the powers that be see what can be accomplished in a small amount of time with Aggies, so that we can expand that program.”

On May 2, the Ray Warren after-school program participants held an end-of-the-year celebration.

“Most of these kids have never been to A&T, they’ve never seen anything better, so you can’t know and want things that you’ve never seen or never experienced,” Adamson said.

Re’Onna Vines is a junior public relations student from Atlanta, Georgia