The Spire

Owen Garvey ‘27

News Editor

    This week marked the beginning of many community-based learning (CBL) courses. These courses bring students to local schools across the Worcester community, where they serve as teachers, tutors, and mentors for diverse groups of young people. The material Holy Cross students teach is often directly connected to their own courses. Students in courses covering Greco-Roman myths, for instance, may teach about the Latin language and ancient history. Around the College, many students rave about how fun CBL is and many try to ensure they take a CBL-incorporated course once a year. 

     “So far, CBL has allowed me to speak to kids from different backgrounds than me and see life through their eyes,” says one student. “To see the kids so happy and excited to be with us reminded my why students at Holy Cross love CBL so much.”

     Many participants have begun researching their students’ interests, so they have a better chance of forming a personal connection.

     The programs are set up so that, for the next six weeks, Holy Cross students will go into local schools once a week and teach about their topics of choice. But CBL instructors have stressed that the overall importance of the model is to offer students in participating schools a role model they can trust and feel safe around.

     “I look forward to my CBL day all week,” says Molly Coghan ‘27. “It’s been one CBL day so far and I feel like I’ve already become so close with the student I work with and get to spend time with.”

     Coghan can confidently say she could never have imagined experiencing such an impactful program at Holy Cross. All in all, CBL students are enjoying their assignments and looking forward to the rest of the semester.

Featured Photo Courtesy of MassLive