America Reads Student Spotlight: Gabrielle Robinson

My name is Gabrielle Robinson. I am currently a freshman at Western New England University, majoring in Biomedical Engineering.

I first heard about the America Reads program through a university wide email and thought that it would be a nice way to branch out from all of the science and math I’m around all day, as well as to have opportunity to do something a bit different. I can honestly say that it’s been such an amazing experience and I’m so glad I stumbled across that email.

Since joining America Reads, I’ve been volunteering at the Brightwood Elementary School in Springfield working in a kindergarten classroom. I typically go into the classroom two to three times a week and work with all the kids- helping them learn how to read, write, do math – everything really. A typical day includes drawing a picture and writing a sentence to accompany it, learning new words and learning how to spell them, and right now the kids are learning about chickens as they just had baby chicks hatch in their classroom. Seeing how fast they can pick up and retain information and want to learn is absolutely amazing to see. I truly have been placed in such a remarkable classroom; the teacher and kids couldn’t be better and that makes the volunteering completely worth it.