For some Spring Branch ISD
elementary students, a recent field trip to Barnes & Noble was their first
ever bookstore visit. For others, the trip was different than previous visits
as all students were given a $30 gift card to spend on educational purchases of
their own liking.
The bookstore visit and
student buying were made possible thanks to an ongoing partnership between
Spring Branch ISD and National Oilwell Varco (NOV), as well as a longtime Good
Neighbor to the district, Barnes & Noble Town & Country.
NOV supplied each mentor
and student mentee match with a $30 gift card, which students could spend at
their personal discretion. Thanks to an extra 20 percent discount offered by
Barnes & Noble and the guidance of their mentors, all SBISD students
returned to school with gift bags filled with new books and educational games.
NOV, a global
energy-related corporation based in Houston, first partnered with the district
in 2013. The firm’s local office currently has 30 employees serving as mentors
in SBISD’s SpringBoard Mentoring Program, with more NOV employees joining each
semester.
The district’s program
pairs students in third- through 12th grades in a one-to-one
relationship with an adult who serves as an advocate, friend and champion in
the student’s life. NOV employees, along with nearly 500 other individuals who
serve in the program throughout SBISD, give 45 minutes of their time each week
to meet with their student on campus.
This year, with a wish to
support SBISD’s focus on literacy and a goal to ensure all students are reading
on grade level, NOV Director of Community Investment and Sponsorships Jason
Bozic worked with SBISD’s Community Relations Department to develop the student
field trip idea.
“We are very honored to
partner with Spring Branch ISD, so together our company and dedicated employees
that mentor students can be part of the solution to develop youth to their
greatest potential,” Bozic says.
Houston-based NOV is a
leading provider of equipment and components used in global oil and gas
drilling and production operations, oilfield services and supply chain integration
services. The company operates across six continents.
In February, 14 Westwood
Elementary School students and their NOV mentors spent an hour at Barnes &
Noble. The students moved through the store aisles with wide-eyed enthusiasm
and their $30 gift cards in hand.
Barnes & Noble Manager
Georgette Radford welcomed the students and their mentors. She spoke to them
about the importance of reading and the love of learning.
“We appreciate all the
opportunities with SBISD to encourage students to read,” says Radford. “It is
important for students to visit a bookstore and experience all the knowledge
available through books.”
Betsabeth
Beyk, the Communities in Schools (CIS) project manager at Westwood Elementary,
noted the impact this opportunity has to help reinforce the school’s focus on
literacy.
“As a
school, we are really empowering our students to have a passion for reading.
All of them get to check out books from our school library, but not many get to
call a book their own. With this opportunity, our students were able to choose
a book about a topic they really enjoy and get to read it with their mentors.”
Research shows that
students who have small, personal libraries of books, print magazines or
related educational material are more likely than those who don’t to read at or
above grade level, and to do well in school.
Fourteen middle and high
school students from Westchester Academy for International Studies (WAIS) and
Spring Woods High School had their own bookstore visit in February, too.
Anne Beck, the store’s
teen literature specialist, walked students and their mentors through the
genre’s latest selections, highlighting titles for individual students based on
their interests.
Their adult mentors chimed
in, noting books they remembered reading in high school, or books they had
discovered and loved in their own lives.
“An
opportunity such as this can be so rewarding for both the student and the
mentor,” says Steve Schlabach, a middle school counselor at WAIS. “Giving
our students the chance to have conversations over books with another adult
stresses the importance of reading.”
“Since
reading is such a truly fundamental skill,” he says, “anytime we can have
students and adults reading together and talking about their reading, it is a
good thing! The experience of having a shared activity, such as picking out a
book, will deepen the connection the students and mentors have with each other
and be remembered for years to come.”
As the SBISD students
returned to their campuses, new books and purchases in hand, their excitement
was evident.
One Westwood Elementary
student chose to spend a portion of his gift card on an educational board game
he could play with his mentor during their visits, while another displayed a
science book he planned to read alongside and discuss with his mentor.
A WAIS ninth-grader
examined the cover of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, a book his mentor
recommended, saying that it changed his perspective on reading. And one WAIS
student tucked away the bag that not only had her new books in it, but also one
book for her younger sister so she could take this gift and pass it on.
It was a terrific experience and I was proud NOV showed this commitment.
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