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Project BEAR (Building Emerging and Achieving Readers) is a program based at Shawnee State University designed to support early childhood literacy by sending members into area classrooms to promote reading.
The program is sponsored by AmeriCorps, which is a federal agency for volunteerism and service. Members include SSU students, but the program is also open to other applicants as long as they have GEDs or high school diplomas. The program currently serves schools in Scioto, Lawrence, Pike and Ross counties.
“People who are interested in Project BEAR can expect to gain a whole new understanding of early literacy and what that looks like in an early childhood classroom,” said Hayley Venturino, the director of Project BEAR. “The members commit to spend 18 hours per week in a preschool or kindergarten classroom as well as attend professional development monthly to enhance their instruction.”
Project BEAR was founded at Shawnee State University when Amanda Hendrick, the director of the Children’s Learning Center (CLC) at the time, and Venturino sought a way to bring early literacy education to the region in 2017.
“After competing for funding, AmeriCorps, through ServeOhio, chose to partner with Shawnee State University and Project BEAR on this mission,” Venturino said.
Project BEAR is currently looking for members to serve in Clay, Portsmouth, Bloom Vernon, Minford, Ironton, Valley, Eastern Pike, Waverly, Huntington Ross and Zane Trace kindergarten or preschool classrooms. Interested applicants can contact Venturino at [email protected] or Ashley Pitts at [email protected].
