Olympian Mentors Brooklyn Park Elementary Students
Fair Oaks Elementary school in Brooklyn Park is the only school in the state to take part in the Classroom Champions Program. The program pairs up Olympic and Paralympic athletes with students from underprivileged backgrounds. This is the second year that Jennifer Phillips’ second grade class has participated.
“They have learned how to dream big and to preserve,” says Phillips. “They are taught if I set a goal and I work hard anything is possible.”
Olympians Helping Kids
This year the class is working with Andrew Kurka. Kurka is a U.S. Paralympic alpine skier from Alaska. The Olympians in the program act as role models and give students exercises on how to persevere.
“They’ve just really taken on a whole new sense of themselves,” added Phillips. “They’ve really persevered and related a lot of things to what they’ve taught us.”-
The exercises range from goal setting to helping those in need. The class got hands-on experience helping others by going to a nursing home where they read to seniors and played games. Students say the program has taught them things they will use for the rest of their lives.
“Pushing yourself to try something that you’ve never tried before can be hard at first but then you get better,” says third grader Lavaya West.
learn more about the Classroom Champions program click here.
