Carl Hartman, a Helpwell volunteer, speaking to the 8th Rockies Team for Career Day at Timberlane in May 2014.
By Angela Fee-Maimon
Helpwell is a volunteer program in Hopewell Valley Regional School District that creates a way for professionals in the community to share expertise with students in the classroom.
People from the local workforce register online from the school district website and are then entered into a database accessible by teachers looking for guest speakers eager to share knowledge of their work with students.
Helpwell began when Nancy Barich, Helpwell coordinator, had an epiphany. She realized that the district needed a program that would allow schools to utilize the knowledge from the community in the classroom after hearing about the experience of Greg Merkle, a school district parent.
After discovering Merkle’s blog online, students in Arizona reached out to him. He then traveled hundreds of miles to meet with their class. Barich explained that Merkle had to contact the classroom teacher and create the proper channels needed to make the volunteerism possible.
“The original inspiration for Helpwell came from a parent in our district who is VP of User Experience at Wolters Kluwer by day and a musician by night,” she said. “He was excited to demonstrate that he could have a satisfying well-paying day job and still perform music.”
Barich couldn’t believe he had to travel for that experience. She wondered: why couldn’t he find volunteer opportunities in our community?
“I became convinced that we had to formalize the volunteer process through Helpwell,” she said.
Barich said when the program started four years ago, it began as a word-of-mouth initiative. Since then, it has flourished into a database containing over 200 volunteers. Community professionals who are interested in volunteering in the district may learn the guidelines of the program and enroll online by visiting the district website, hvrsd.org and then clicking on the volunteers (Helpwell) link on the drop-down menu under the tab labeled parents.
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Timberlane Middle School made use of Helpwell by creating an annual job fair called Career Days. Around 40 local residents volunteer each year for Career Days to share the details of their vocation with small groups of students.
Volunteers are set up in individual classrooms and students choose three career choices that interest them. Volunteers give a presentation about their craft followed by a question and answer session with students.
Barich said the program has received positive feedback from parents, students, teachers, and volunteers, and both students and volunteers gain enrichment from their participation. She said each volunteer has something unique to offer. She said that volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds, such as real estate, engineering and architecture.
She added that teachers have been wonderful at utilizing the time they have with guest speakers. Mark Amantia, an eighth grade social studies teacher at Timberlane Middle School, agrees.
“The volunteers that we use for our Career Days gives the students something they can’t get in a book or on a computer screen. They get a real person from our community telling it like it is. It also gives the students a true picture of the hard work and sacrifice it takes to become successful in these jobs,” Amantia said.
Amantia said he has received positive feedback from both students and volunteers regarding Helpwell. He said students gain a clearer idea of the preparation of study necessary to pursue specific fields when they are able to question professionals who are established in that line of work. He has also been impressed by the meaningful questions students have been inspired to ask guest speakers.
M. Najeeb Ahmad, principal management consultant at Pennington Human Dynamics, is a Helpwell volunteer who participates in Career Days. He said he became involved in the program after receiving an email invitation from a teacher at Timberlane.
“The first time I spoke with 8th graders as part of a career day, I tried to connect what they were learning about companies through Investopedia with the difference that leadership makes and I was excited to see the reactions when it clicked,” he said. “It struck up a really interesting conversation about why some of the winning stocks some students invested in performed so well and why others tanked. The questions were great, I learned from some of the insights from the students, and it made me really appreciate the importance of this program and how fortunate I was to participate in it.”
Ahmad said that he has four daughters who have attended school at Timberlane Middle School. He said that hearing questions from students helped shape the ways in which he was able to explain his career experience to make it more meaningful to the age group.
“Through the program I have been able to share perspectives on how important the people component of organizations is, and how much the concepts of teamwork, good leaders, and effective relationships that they learn through school and sports matter in the work world,” he said. “I’ve had an opportunity to stress the importance of communicating clearly, understanding the perspectives of others, and creating a clear connection between what people do and why it matters.”
Barich said the program has mostly served the middle school, and is not affiliated with any of the district’s respective PTOs. She said the PTOs provide excellent volunteer opportunities at each school, however this program serves the unique and overlooked purpose of bringing a range of existing knowledge about job specialities that can be incorporated into lessons or student interest.
Barich said Helpwell is expanding into Hopewell Valley Central High School, and the program is already showing promise. Students in high school are narrowing potential fields of study for their postsecondary education, thus they gain valuable, first-hand insight into prospective studies that helps them to better weigh those options.
“As Timberlane Coordinator, JoAnn Markiewicz, has been instrumental in establishing a strong foundation for the Helpwell program at the middle school,” said Barich, “We’re excited to build upon her work and enable Helpwell to start building the program at the high school.”
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