Project Pairs Elementary and High School Students

CAMARILLO — Most high school students don’t pal around with kids from elementary school, but some did last week.

On Thursday, students from Channel Islands High School in Oxnard and Tierra Linda Elementary School in Camarillo were buddies for a day, thanks to a community service project created by teachers at both schools.

Project Literacy called for 27 high school students to read to 40 second-grade students and then help them build gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, frosting and holiday candy.

Teachers Lisa Porter of Channel Islands High and Stacey Quiles and Chris Rudolph of Tierra Linda created the program last year after participating in a graduate education project at California Lutheran University.

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“The high school students are required to serve 20 hours of community service, and many of them have chosen to participate in Project Literacy,” said Porter, who teaches a 12th-grade government class.

“The older students help the younger students with their reading, and the younger students create stories about the gingerbread house they have created.”

Many of the high school students, Porter said, want to become teachers and are able to learn something about future careers from their experience with elementary school students.

Quiles said the project was so successful last year that she, Porter and Rudolph decided to continue it this year.

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Senior Darwin Gonzales helped build gingerbread houses with second-graders Daniel Hurault and James Amarel, both 7.

“I want to help kids to read and I want them to have fun,” said Darwin, 17.

Adrienne Wilcox, also a 17-year-old senior, believes that helping younger students establishes a good precedent.

“I like teaching kids to help others,” she said, “so when they get to be our age they will help younger kids, too.”