When four generations of education converge, only good things can happen.

In celebration of Read Across America day March 3, Interlake High School teachers and Seattle University graduate students led about 300 Interlake students in an effort to match every student at Sherwood Forest Elementary with a high school reading buddy for a short session.

The event had Interlake Saints and Sherwood Pumas, strangers just an hour earlier, huddled together over every kind of book and speaking affectionately in hushed voices as they read aloud.

Some visited classic children’s books, learning about the Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter’s adventures, and the horrors of choosing their own adventures in Goosebumps. Others went farther back, looking at picture books filled with every kind of fluffy animal, learning about counting numbers with Little Red and Little Blue, and following along with the exploits of various peewee heroes.

The effort was an extension of a Òreading buddyÓ project that teacher Kristen Haizlip and her Interlake AVID class have been working on all year. The class, intended primarily for first generation students, have been reading to Sherwood’s first graders every other Thursday.

ÒCommunity service has been a huge part of my life, and I wanted to give my students that sense of connection to their community,Ó said Haizlip.

That connection is apparent every time the students meet, said Tammy Waddell, a first grade teacher at Sherwood.

Every day that the Interlake students come, the first graders Òrun out to meet them,Ó said Waddell. ÒThey treat each other like brothers and sisters.Ó

Parents, teachers, and even students report that the sessions have been achieving their mission of encouraging reading. After their reading sessions, Stephen Veit’s fourth grade class was giddy.

“Mine made a bunch of voices for different characters,” bragged one student, speaking of her reading buddy.

“Whenever I didn’t know a word, they corrected me,” reflected another.

On top of that, the students even got to take a book home with them to keep, a caveat made possible by book drives and purchases coordinated by the Seattle University graduate students and the AVID class.

Watching the students during and after their reading sessions, Seattle University Masters in Teaching students Nadia Miranda and Nikki Allen were relieved to see their project come together. The event served as their Òservice learning project,Ó a requirement intended to give them pragmatic experience.

ÒIt was a daunting task, but we broke it down into steps, and the kids [high schoolers] were great,Ó said Allen.

Miranda concurred, saying that “We can never underestimate children; they will rise to our expectations.”

The students at the event all had different motivations for being there. Some students were required to be there; others wanted community service hours. Nearly all of them said that it was “fun” to spend time with the little kids.

A handful were there, in part, for personal reasons.

Guillermo Ramirez, a sophomore, said that even when he was growing up in Peru, his father made time to read to him, and that he can see the worlds of difference its made in his education now. Volunteering at the event was like coming full circle, he said.

Michelle Amador wasn’t so lucky. Another AVID student, her mother was too busy working when she was a child to read to her, and she attributes her inability to read up to level to the fact that she wasn’t read to in her youth. ÒI want to help make sure other students don’t have to (miss out,Ó she said.

The entire project was based off of the conviction that reading is essentially to living and to learning. For Waddell, that’s a no-brainer.

ÒIt lets them go, through reading, to places they never could.”

When she sees her students improving and expanding their reading, it’s “what teachings all about,” she said.

Haizlip and Waddell are looking to expand their project to include an after-school program at the Salvation Army, which currently provides a place for students to wait after school and receive tutoring and other assistance. However, the center is severely understaffed, and Haizlip and Waddell are hoping to turn to high school students, and the community as a whole, for help.

For more information, contact Waddell at waddellm@bsd405.org.

Derek Tsang is an intern at the Bellevue Reporter. He attends Interlake High School.