A team of 10 students from Henley Middle School trekked across the street to Brown Elementary early Friday morning, prepared to educate a class of first graders about the symbolism of the American flag.
Support from the Youth Leadership Initiative and several University sororities made this civics session in the Albemarle County school possible.
The Center for Governmental Studies launched YLI in 1998 to combat apathy and educate young students about the American political process.
The civic sessions is one of the many programs YLI has instituted since its inception. In early November, YLI also conducted online student voting for the upcoming elections.
"Enhancing civics education and encouraging good citizenship" are the goals of the mentoring program, YLI Director of Instruction Angela Stokes said.
Third-year College student Paige Yurachek helped develop YLI's civics program as part of her platform for the Miss Virginia pageant. Yurachek now holds the title of Miss Central Virginia.
She enlisted the efforts of several sororities to help launch the program, and some have made verbal commitments to donate money for books about leadership, citizenship and the importance of civic participation.
Yurachek, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, is seeking the endorsement of the Inter-Fraternity and Inter-Sorority councils for the program.
The middle-school students prepared for the kick-off for six weeks, meeting every Friday morning to select the books and plan the activities for each session. They plan to hold a session once every three weeks with the first grade students.
At Friday's session, the students read "The Flag We Love" by Pam Munoz and participated in a scavenger hunt filled with tidbits of civics knowledge, such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The goal of the session was for the first grade students to discover what the American flag symbolizes to them.
After the session, first-grade student Alex Simpson said the flag "means I like my country because everyone is free in it."
Simpson also said he loved the program.
It was apparent after only one session that "these first graders had a better understanding of what the American flag symbolizes and what it means to them," Stokes said. "A first grader can't become politically involved but can learn what it is to be a good citizen."
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