Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 5

ASBURY PARK SUNDAY PRESS, Apr. 26, 1964 5 THANKS TO 22 VOLUNTEERS Door Is Opened to Needy Students iff By EVERETT C. TERRY Press Staff Writer ASBURY PARK A small but dedicated group of professional people is seeking to improve the social and economic status of underprivileged youth in this area through a unique tutoring program. The group works toward this objective by providing free tutoring for junior and senior high school students one night a week at the West Side Community Center, 115 DeWitt Ave. For the past two years, an average of 10 instructors have offered expert tutoring from 7 to 9 p.m.

each Thursday during the school year. An average of 21 students a night have benefited from the program. They come from Asbury Park, Wall Township, Neptune, and Manasquan high schools and the Bond Street and Bangs Avenue elementary schools in Asbury Park. 22 VOLUNTEERS Leroy S. Hutson, a Ft.

Monmouth engineer, who lives In Wall Township, supervises the program. He says attendance varies from 14 to 36 a night. Twenty-two volunteers serve as teachers when they can spare the time. Most are civilian engineers and scientists employed by the Army at Ft. Monmouth.

Four are public school teachers. Their only payment is the satisfaction that they are helping young people who need help and really want to be helped. Thomas Baldwin, 56 Westside Red Bank, also a Ft. Monmouth engineer and one of the founders of the project, explains the situation thusly: "The size of public school classes makes it Impossible for teachers to give individual attention to every child to the extent that some may need it. Hence, we try to provide that extra attention some students need." Subjects taught are English, Spanish, French, Latin, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, physics, and biology.

A primary objective of the program is to provide needed help for the under-privileged and encourage mediocre students to finish high school. But the founders' aims are much loftier. MOTIVATION STRESSED They insist that under-privileged students can improve their economic and social status through education. They stress motivation of the students by personal contact and example. Mr.

Hutson said, "Many of these children most of whom are Negroes have never had any intimate contact with Negroes who have come from the same or very similar backgrounds, but who have succeeded by persisting in their school work and have gotten good jobs in professional fields. All but six of the 22 teacher volunteers are Negroes." Mr. Baldwin said, "The students have few opportunities to come in contact with people who have surmounted their neighborhood surroundings. When we talk to them, we try to motivate them to do so." "They are frequently surpLsed to find out we have college degrees," Mr. Hutson added.

"We emphasize opportunities are greater than ever if they are educated, but if Leroy S. Hutson, Marconi Glendola, Wall Township, who helped found the tutoring program and continues to supervise it, instructs students in Spanish. Mr. Hutson is an electronics engineer at Ft. Monmouth.

Listening are Adee Cook Jr. (center), a Wall Township High School student and Curtis Massey, who attends Asbury Park High. (Press Photo) John C. Schelleng, 301 Bendermere Interlaken, i Davis in algebra. Mr.

Schelleng retired in 1957 as an tutors an Asbury Park High School student Gertrude engineer for Bell Telephone Laboratories. (Press Photo). C. Johnson, William G. Phillips, Miguel A.

Bursett, Ed Knoblauch, John Schelleng, and Thomas R. Craig. Mr. Johnson, Mr. Phillips, and Mr.

Bursett are Asbury Park High School teachers; Mr. Knoblauch teaches in Point Pleasant schools; Mr. Schelleng is a retired Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer, and Mr. Craig is executive director of the community center. Mr.

Bursett is a retired Army colonel. Mr. Hutson sparkplugged formation of the informal group and has continued to supervise its operation. He emphasized that the project is not sponsored by nor affiliated with any organized group. Mr.

Hutson, noting that the instructors come from all over Monmouth County, said his greatest ambition is to involve the entire local commu teer tutors. They intend to train students to take examinations similar to the college entrance and college board examinations. READING PLANNED Another area the group intends to add is remedial reading and reading comprehension. Mr. Baldwin said, "The lack of reading and comprehension skill has made many deficient in their school work.

This is the single greatest shortcoming we find. If a student can't comprehend what he reads, it is evident that he can't cope with his studies." Reading comprehension was the one area the founders avoided because they decided after an investigation it was too specialized a field for a group of scientists and engineers to tackle. However, they feel now they have personnel qualified to train the students. In' evaluating results so far, Mr. Hutson said a group of five seniors flunking physics last year in Asbury Park High School were able to graduate with their class as a result of tutoring at the center.

Isaiah Young, guidance director for the freshman class at Asbury Park High School, said, "I have referred quite a lot of pupils down there. I must say they have had good results. It's a good program certainly worthwhile. We hope that more youngsters will attend." FIVE ORGANIZERS The program was organized in 1962 by five persons Mr. Hutson, Mr.

Baldwin, Benjamin Bluford, 65 Parker Fair Haven; Mrs. Walter McAfee, 723 17th South Belmar, and Curtis Murphy, 56 Bank Red Bank. All are Ft. Monmouth engineers except Mrs. McAfee, who is the wife of a scientist there.

Eugene Baity, 18 Myrtle Neptune, a teacher In the Bangs Avenue School, Asbury Park, also helped organize the group. Those who have joined since are Sylvanus Bracy, Thomas Daniels, Stanley Cabell, Miguel Carrio, Robert Ferrell, Norman Jarrett, Ivan McGowan, Herman Robinson, Mrs. Leona Zarin, Mrs. Shirley Silverstein, Mrs. Edith Schlussler, Henry they are not prepared in this highly technical world of today, their opportunities are more limited than ever before." In conjunction with the tutoring program, three electronics engineers from Ft.

Monmouth have been providing a formal course for 25 students from Neptune, Asbury Park, and Wall Township schools. Included in the class are two women, employed by electronics firms in the area, who are qualifying themselves as electronics technicians. 3 INSTRUCTORS Instructors are Darby Brooks 1926 Milton Neptune, who is in charge of the program and Frank Marshall, 719A 18th South Belmar. Wallace Cowan, Neptune, until he was transferred to Japan earlier this year, was also an instructor. The class meets 21i hours every Friday night.

A number of the students also take advantage of the tutoring sessions. The first hour and a half is devoted to instruction in fundamentals of electricity and enough mathematics to enable students to work with electricity. The last hour is devoted to laboratory work building and testing breadboard circuits. Some of the students build ing radios at home bring them to school for advice on their problems, Mr. Brooks said.

Residents have donated old radios and television sets, as well as such equipment as oscilloscopes, signal generators, and vacuum-tube voltmeters. The old set sare torn down for circuit analysis and parts. AN INTERESTING GOAL Mr. Darby said, "This course was started to provide our youth with a hobby and to arouse interest in the electronics field. We are not.

trying to develop engineers maybe not even technicians. "We are trying to arouse their interest in electronics to make them want to dig deeper. I think it will shape their future lives along the lines of electronics." Mr. Hutson said, "We would like to reach more potential college students to motivate those who have a potential, but are not taking advantage of it as well as others." But it's an uphill struggle. He said, "We have a feeling the college prep students may be avoiding us because they tend to associate this program only with the under-achievers who come here." But Mr.

Hutson and his colleagues are not discouraged. They feel they can attract more students and more volun nity in the tutoring project. 'V Use PRESS Classified Ads For ui Mrs. Walter McAfee, 723 17th tutors Aussien Williams, in Latin. Mrs.

McAfee, one of the five founders of the tutoring program at the West Side Community Center, is a former school teacher and wife of a Ft. Monmouth physicist who was cited by former President L. u. I I TT rUTMnir S.W,,!)', 1(11 III 111 Wl I i- u. 'I II II I Fll ilM It II Eisenhower.

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