Meet Japnaam, Our Lead Volunteer for Racing Readers

Raching Readers has always been a highly sought out program to volunteer for. This summer, we're very fortunate to our two Racing Reader Lead Volunteers join us back! Helen, who is one of them and Japnaam, who you will get to know through this blog!

Japnaam is a 2nd year student at SFU, majoring in Sociology with a minor in psychology. With the dream of becoming an elementary teacher, she has joined Racing Readers as one of our Lead Volunteers to further solidfy her passion for supporting students. She shares that she is a huge bookworm and found Racing Readers to be a very fitting opportunity for her, as it is her two passions put together into one.

Here are some of Japnaam's Experience with the CEC:

"I really want to be able to influence students' lives so that they can take the knowledge gained from the Racing Readers program and apply it in the real world. They are the next leaders of the world, and I would truly be honoured to have a role in shaping them into compassionate, selfless, and confident people. Seeing how the students have grown throughout the program has been very fufilling. When the students could complete a difficult task or enjot an acrtivity in the program, I could see the sparks in their eyes, eager to learn more. It gave me such a heartwarming feeling, thinking that I played a part in creating that spark. When I would see them smiling and enjoying the program, it would make me feel fulfilled that I was able to increase their love for learning. I can see the immense amount of improvement from the beginning of the program to the end, which gives me a great satisfication knowing that I was able to help students excel on an academic level and a personal level. The student's confidence increased in their reading and literacry skills and their self-confidence. Racing Readers is a program created to support students in their learning, si it is very heartwarming to know that students are getting the most out of this program.

I wasn't aware of this amazing opportunity until I was going through myInvolvement and came across the SFU Surrey - TD CEC. I started going through more of the volunteer positions they had, and to be quite honest, there was a lot of positions available with all the information you needed. It was an easy process and very accessible for ALL SFU students (and alumnis)." - Japnaam C.
 

If you are looking to volunteer for the Summer and are an SFU student, visit our SFU Surrey - TD Community Engagement Centre for more information! We have lots of students waiting for you to be their mentors!