During the Fall 2009 semester, three Albany Law School students (a representative from the 1st (Garrett), 2nd (Nathan) and 3rd (Jennifer) year classes) acted as tutors/mentors to 3rd – 8th graders from the City of  Albany’s Arbor Hill community.   The  NAACP Rosa Parks Literacy Education Academy Program was created to “Bridge the Reading Gap” between the reading level of where a student is and where they are suppose to be according to their age and grade.   The mission of  this youth (This is a Saturday program from: 10am – Noon) tutor/mentor program is to improve the reading skills of  students, by using the “Read Naturally” software; providing one-on-one tutoring help; offering homework assistance and mentoring support.   To volunteer as a mentor during the Spring 2010 semester, contact the Executive Director of the Program, Mr. Leroy Graham at: (518)462-1246 or email:  leroyadmn@msn.com, the Academy is located at 138 Clinton Avenue, in Downtown Albany.    

The Academy’s students and their mentors visited our campus twice during the Fall, during their first visit on Saturday, November 7th the mentees participated in a fun mock trial (the trial of the missing gloves), where they played the part of lawyers, jurors, bailiff and Judge (the Executive Director of our Moot Court Board loan us a Judge’s robe for the kids to use during the trial ~Many Thanks! Joshua~).  During the mock trial their college mentors (from Albany Law School and University at Albany) played the roles of defendant and plaintiff.

The Diversity Office  hosted both visits, with the second visit being an end of semester Holiday celebration on Saturday, December 12th from 10:30am -12:30pm in the Matthew Bender Classroom.   Our law students and staff took the time to help make this a fun, welcoming event for the kids.  Thank you so much, Mike, Nathan and Lisa  for your assistance in coming in early to decorating Room 425 for the party with holiday lights, christmas ornaments/decorations and played holiday music to welcome these grade school students back to our campus.  

Three arts & crafts project stations (supervised by their mentors) were set up in the classroom to assist mentees in creating ornaments and edible christmas trees and gingerbread houses, and also painted holiday posters for their families.   A great time was had by all.   See below photo gallery of their two fun visits to Albany Law School: