MC Bonner Scholar mentors students at community center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 11, 2009
Written by Penny Gibbons, Office of Advancement and Community Relations 865.981.8203

Ayesha Turner responds to the call to serve, just as she has for years and is satisfied to know she is impacting young lives.

A junior Sign Language interpreting major and music minor at Maryville College, Turner is a Bonner Scholar who volunteers at least 40 hours a month in exchange for substantial scholarship dollars to apply toward tuition and books. The 20-year-old Powder Springs, Ga., native was drawn to the beautiful campus, the benefits of a small, private college and the opportunity to continue her service work.

She regularly volunteers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Alcoa – a place she first learned about through other scholarship recipients at Maryville College.

“I felt like I was supposed to be there,” she said of her first visit to the center. That was almost three years ago.

Turner, along with four other Maryville College students (mostly Bonner Scholars), volunteers every week at the MLK Center. This community-based center falls under the jurisdiction of the Parks and Recreation Commission and is a “Safe Place” for local elementary, middle and high-school students.

It offers tutoring, a full library, recreation, snacks and dinner twice a week. Students are encouraged to complete their homework before enjoying a variety of games, movies, computers or the playground. Approximately 20 students are at the center daily.

Turner said she looks forward to visiting the center every Tuesday afternoon to assist students of all ages with subjects such as science and math. She is quick to point out that her reason for being there is not only to help academically, but to be available to listen to the children talk about their home life or anything else on their minds.

Describing herself as a mentor, Turner said that she sees her mission at the MLK Center as helping children to understand the importance of an education and to break stereotypes held by some about the African-American community.

“The media shows black youth and young adults as only interested in TV, money, cars, clothes and drugs – not education,” she pointed out. “We [volunteers] and many others are all living proof of the statistic-breakers, if those [statistics] are at all true. We are music, interpreting, business and education majors who want to inspire all students there to succeed and to continue to break these stereotypes.

“It is rewarding to know that I am influencing their lives,” she added. “Something I say may make them stop and think, ‘I don’t want to go down that road. I don’t want to become a statistic.’”

Sharon “Sissy” Ferguson has been the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center since April 2008. One of only two paid staff members, she said she is truly grateful for volunteers from the College like the Bonner Scholars.

“We can’t put a price on the students who volunteer. They are instrumental in opening the lines of communication.” She adds, “We could not hone in on the children who need help without the tutors. They are very savvy.”

The MC students are close enough in age to the children, she notes, to be able to relate to them in a way that she and the other adults cannot.

According to Ferguson, Turner is funny, laid back and always willing to help.

“Ayesha knows a lot of the children and has built a trust with them. She is a great communicator,” Ferguson said.

A volunteer spirit emerges

Turner is no stranger to volunteerism. She was actively involved in Beta Club during her high school years. Serving soup at a local restaurant and visiting nursing homes were among her regular volunteer services.

Even as an elementary-school student, Turner felt the tug of the volunteer spirit. She recalls assisting a neighbor who had suffered a stroke; she did laundry, cooking, and shopping. She realized that she enjoyed helping people and has craved it ever since.

“My parents honestly felt that my purpose here on Earth was to be some sort of caretaker, psychologist, counselor or someone who had the power to affect people and change the world because I was sensitive to many things as a child,” Turner said. “They knew that I genuinely cared about people, and I would do what I could to help in any way, so they saw this love of volunteering and helpfulness as a young child.”

Like most college students, Turner has a full schedule, juggling classes, homework and work. In addition to her volunteer work at the MLK Center, she also serves at The Richard Williams Learning Center, Habitat Restore and the Trinity Dental Clinic. She said she truly enjoys a diversity of experiences in which she can build relationships.

Admittedly, her responsibilities are sometimes difficult to manage, but she’s proud of her contributions.

“If Martin Luther King was alive, I think he’d be pleased with the work being done at the center.”

Funding now sought to endow program

During any given year, approximately 60 Maryville College students are volunteering in the community as Bonner Scholars. Weekly, these students contribute at least 600 volunteer hours to more than 25 agencies in the community. In a school year, the combined impact is nearly 17,000 hours.

Since the Bonner Scholars program was implemented at Maryville College in 1991, it is estimated that more than 250,000 hours of service have been given to local nonprofits and churches as well as programs in Africa and Latin America.

Founded and supported by the Princeton, N.J.- based Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, the Bonner Scholars Program consists of students at 27 colleges and universities who receive substantial scholarships from the Foundation when students commit to a certain number of community service hours for each year they are in college. Money is also provided for group trips taken during summer breaks to service sites in the United States and abroad.

Last year, the Bonner Foundation announced that it would award Maryville College $4.5 million to endow the program. The endowment process includes a requirement that the College match the Bonner Foundation’s grant with $2 million – a $1 million “completion grant” that will be added to the foundation’s $4.5 million to create the Bonner Scholar Endowment, and another $1 million to establish the Bonner Operating Endowment, which will be used to support activities surrounding the Bonner Scholars Program.

The College has until Aug. 1, 2009 to raise the funds necessary for the match.

For more information on the Bonner match, contact Brandon Bruce in the office of Advancement and Community Relations at 865.981.8191 or brandon.bruce@maryvillecollege.edu.

Maryville College is ideally situated in Maryville, Tenn., between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Knoxville, the state's third largest city. Founded in 1819, it is the 12th oldest institution of higher learning in the South and maintains an affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Known for its academic rigor and its focus on the liberal arts, Maryville is where students come to stretch their minds, stretch themselves and learn how to make a difference in the world. Total enrollment for the fall 2009 semester is 1,103.