Teacher Education
Students 'adopt' school
School of Education, Health, and Society
Heather Tomlin (parent/teacher coordinator at Rothenberg), left, with Miami students delivering coats to Rothenberg. For more photos, scroll down.
12/17/09
“Students at Miami are incredible. They really care.”
So says Heather Tomlin, parent teacher coordinator at Rothenberg Elementary School, located in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood, of a holiday effort initiated by students in the School of Education, Health and Society (EHS). The project is helping needy youngsters in one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
So far, a majority of the more than 350 students at Rothenberg have received a new coat or new shoes with more families expected to benefit as the project continues. The children were selected based on need with teachers determining whether a new coat or new shoes would be most helpful.
Miami junior Sammie Bilfield, an early childhood education major who is student teaching at Rothenberg, coordinated the coat drive after seeing a little girl at recess shivering because she did not have a coat.
“She was freezing. It made us really appreciate what we have, but also made us realize that we have a responsibility to help people who are not as blessed,” Bilfield said. “We have found it’s been changing the lives of those who have been involved in the project. It is so much more rewarding to help people.”
Miami students also have collected pillows, blankets and toys for students, enough to fill several vans. Additionally, approximately 20 homeless families with children enrolled at the school have received baskets filled with basic necessities such as food, soap, toiletries, bedding and other supplies.
Many of the gifts have already been distributed to families who Tomlin described as overwhelmed and teary-eyed with appreciation.
Key student groups involved in the holiday project include student teachers at Rothenberg, the Miami chapter of Ambassadors for Children and Kappa Delta Pi, an education honorary. They, in turn, involved other Miami organizations, including the athletic department and Greek organizations.
EHS faculty and staff and the EHS Advisory Council, which consists of alumni from throughout Ohio and the nation, supported the effort by donating money and goods. For example, Professor Bob Burk (teacher education), asked students to make baby blankets or comforters, and students in his class came through with more than 35 throws and blankets.
Many students in Miami’s Urban Teaching Cohort student teach at Rothenberg and the university has a growing relationship with the school, said Tammy Schwartz, a faculty member in the teacher education department and director of the Urban Cohort program.
