Brian Farkas News Editor

This Friday, May 4, 30 middle schoolers will flock through Main Gate to spend an afternoon on the Vassar campus. This event will culminate the Vassar After School Tutoring (VAST) program’s first full year. All sixth-grade students from Poughkeepsie Middle School and their teachers will be invited to tour the College with their tutors.

“Our hope is to give them exposure to a college campus, specifically to their Vassar neighbor,” said Director of Urban Education Lauren Weinstein. VAST is an academic enrichment program at Poughkeepsie Middle School, through which Vassar students serve as tutors and mentors, assisting children with homework, subject tutoring and academic skill building. In addition, VAST is a collaborative effort between the Vassar College Urban Education Initiative and Vassar’s Good Neighbors program.

VAST is coordinated by the Urban Education Initiative and “focuses on developing and maintaining school partnerships, sharing many of the resources, including the human resources, that we have in higher education with our neighboring public schools,” explained Weinstein.

This year marked a significant expansion of the Initiative, which began last spring as a small, three-week pilot program. Starting this past fall, some 60 students and volunteers have traveled to Poughkeepsie Middle School every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. After an extensive orientation and training process, each tutor is assigned one or two middle school students with whom they work throughout the year.

“This is the first time there has been a real and structured Vassar tutoring program at the middle school,” said Weinstein. “Through VAST and the Vassar tutors, Vassar has proven itself to be seriously and sincerely committed to the middle school teachers, administrators, and most importantly the students and their families.”

Weinstein noted that the program’s goals often reach far beyond simple homework help. “We prioritize the development of time-management skills, building confidence and helping students set goals to obtain articulated future aspirations,” she said. “VAST takes a holistic approach to education. Students participate in conflict resolution and tolerance building workshops, attend Vassar basketball games with their families, and enjoy Vassar a cappella at their school.”

Religious and Spiritual Life Fellow Becca Weinberg, who helped to establish the pilot program at the end of last year, has worked to expand it this year. She created the VAST Plus program, an additional extra-curricular activity on Tuesday afternoons. “The idea behind VAST Plus is to engage Vassar resources and talents from students, staff and administrators and expose the students to new activities,” said Weinberg. Workshops have included computer science, crafts, step dancing, knitting, aerobics, and hip-hop. A VAST volunteer with expertise in an area offers each activity for three consecutive weeks.

The middle schoolers will perform a hip-hop show created during VAST Plus on May 4 in the Main Building multipurpose room. The students will then meet for refreshments and live musical entertainment, provided by Kofi James ’08. All participants will receive Vassar College t-shirts and headbands.

Weinberg sits on the Good Neighbors Committee, an initiative founded by former president Frances Fergusson that provides services to the College's immediate neighborhood. In addition to giving small grants to local organizations, the program identifies College resources that could benefit the community.

College Counseling Service Intern Elizabeth Burnworth has also added programming to VAST. “Because there are some pretty strong demographic differences between Vassar and the surrounding community, I was interested in seeing how bridges could be built between the two,” she said. Burnworth worked with Weinstein to create Wednesday Social Workshops, which encourage the students to focus on issues like conflict resolution, communication, stereotypes, and tolerance.”

Burnworth sees the role of the program as threefold. Middle schoolers receive significant academic enrichment and tutoring, and also have the opportunity to participate in different activities. Additionally, she hopes that they come to see Vassar as an integral community resource. “I think the Poughkeepsie middle school students’ visit to Vassar on Friday will be an important opportunity for the Vassar students to share their world,” she said.

“The combination of exposure to a college campus and having developed a genuine relationship with a college student also helps them to consider college in their futures. They hopefully have begun to see Vassar as an accessible community resource,” said Weinberg.

“I think the more that the Poughkeepsie community is encouraged to participate in events at Vassar and the more that Vassar participates in the Poughkeepsie community, the better,” said Burnworth.

“The constant interaction with college students help to make higher education part of the middle school students’ future plans,” said Weinstein.

Students interested in applying to be a VAST Tutor next year, can contact Lauren Weinstein at laweinstein@vassar.edu.