Just a short 1.4 miles away from East Grand Rapids High School sits an elementary school on Rosewood Avenue. This school, Mulick Park Elementary, is quaint and impecunious. Some students from the high school have made it their mission to do what they can to help the kids. 

At Mulick Park, the student’s test scores reflect how underserved this community is, with only 15% of students meeting state standards for math and only 25% of students meeting reading standards on M-Step Testing. A large group of students from the high school have been taking time every week to go and help kids learn how to read and improve their reading skills. Ethan Brinker ‘26 is just one of these students who has helped tutor.

 “It’s super impactful both to them and to us because we can make such a major impact on an underserved community,” Brinker said.

This group of East Grand Rapids students takes time out of every week to commit to spending time with Mulick students working to teach them advanced reading skills. Most students are paired with a reading “buddy” in the first-grade classroom taught by Ms. Knappe. Alex Barnes 26’ who has been reading week in and week out has made a special connection with his buddy. 

“My reading buddy is Ali and we have lots of fun every week working and growing to get better at reading. I have seen so much improvement where at the beginning of the year he was struggling to get through vocab flashcards and now he is flying through them,” Barnes said.

 It is very important to keep it light, fun, and easy with these kids because as first graders if they aren’t having fun it’s very hard to keep them on task. 

“I think that it is super important to be able to go and help with these kids’ reading because they do not have many resources to read at home”, Lucy Houlihan ‘24, another tutor, said. 

Carter Barnes ‘24 and Oskar Dicke ‘24 were both so impacted by Mulick Park and the work they do that they decided to start a book drive to help increase their book supply. 

 “We started this fundraiser through the EGR Elementary schools and middle schools and wow did they come through for us we had boxes and boxes of books for them,” Dicke said. 

They more than doubled the library at Mulick Park by raising over $5000 worth of books. 

 “The school was so thankful for our efforts that the principal showed us extreme gratitude and thanked us for helping to forever change Mulick Park for the better,” Barnes said.

The opportunity that has come out of this partnership between East Grand Rapids students, and Mulick Park Elementary School has proved to be beneficial for both parties. Mentor students from East can provide a positive impact on a student who may be less fortunate, and create a meaningful connection that the Mulick Park students deserve. Aside from forming these relationships, the academic advancements being made in the Mulick Park community will create a better learning environment for the students in years to come.