Lee's Story

“I like helping out children, and watching them grow,” says Lee Allen, an Experience Corps volunteer at the Marshall school. “They don’t like to read when they get here – they hate it – but they learn to like it.”

Dorchester’s children need some help, she says. Ms. Allen joined Generations Incorporated “because I saw a real need. The kids today need double help, at school and at home. They’re not getting enough support from their parents alone.”

Even in the Generations Incorporated room, it can be difficult at times to give enough time to each student. The Marshall is a crowded, busy school. Currently, 17 Experience Corps volunteers serve 61 kids on a one-to-one basis, as well as many others in ten different classrooms at the school. “It is hard to budget time between each child, to keep track of their individual progress when the [program] schedule is full.”

To combat the difficulty of scheduling reading time around classes, Ms. Allen takes time out of school hours to get to know her students and their families. “I had a kid [from my program] last year and I got phone calls from him so often over the summer. There was another kid [from last year] whose parents were recently separated. His dad lived in Barbados. He was very depressed – he really missed his dad. He’d go on vacation there and wouldn’t want to come back home. He’d call me up to talk with him whenever he was lonely. His parents eventually reconciled and he called me up to tell me.”

Now in her third year at the Marshall school, Ms. Allen loves the connection she has with her students. “It’s like having two additional grandkids,” she says, “I get more love, affection, and commendation from my students than I get at home. It makes me want to come here. I love what we’re doing for the children.”