Success Stories

Starting Out on the right foot! Meet Chuck...

Chuck is a first grader at Mimosa Elementary School; it is also where he attends STAR House. This year, Chuck will work very hard to learn to read. Each word will be challenging. He will use the pictures on the page as clues as well as sounding out the various words in the books to read a story. His teacher will work diligently with him, and like all good first grade teachers, will encourage Chuck to read 15-20 minutes nightly to improve his reading fluency. At home, Chuck as a few picture books that were donated to his home library through civic groups associated with STAR House Foundation. The struggle is that between jobs, his parents do not have the time to read with him every night. This is where STAR House is such a valuable asset to Chuck. Every day coaches and volunteers read with Chuck, and encourage him to keep trying, even when he is frustrated.

As Chuck begins to write stories in big chunky handwriting, STAR House coaches praise his neat print and challenge him to find the vowels in his name. And in math, Chuck is beginning to add and subtract numbers less than 100. At times, this is very difficult, so Chuck is able to use the counters provided by STAR House to complete his homework assignments.

Not only is Chuck learning, he is playing cooperatively with other children at STAR House and he is supervised and safe. Chuck enjoys a snack each day upon arriving at STAR House. His favorite? A ham and cheese sandwich with a carton of milk.

Figuring It Out...Mathematics Success!

Jo Ann is a sophomore at Roswell High School and is a STAR House student. A talented artist and a creative writer, math has always been a challenge to her and this year she has been failing. Her parents also struggled with math and have admitted they can't help her with her homework. She has fallen behind and was worried she would fail her class. Her average hovered around 35%.

Determined to keep up with her peers and pass her class, but doubting herself and her abilities, Jo Ann began coming to the after school STAR House sessions in addition to her lunchtime period. Every Tuesday and Thursday finds her at STAR House working to "figure it out". It has taken a lot of work on her part and a lot of patience on the part of her instructors, but last week Jo Ann came bursting into STAR House with her latest test score - 100%! Beyond being excited that she seems to have turned around her poor scores, her instructor reported that she has begun to believe in herself and feels she can work towards a passing grade.

A New Beginning for Charlie 

Charlie is a student at Elkins Pointe Middle School.  He began the year struggling academically and was making poor behavior choices that landed him in ISS for a couple of days.  A couple of his teachers felt that he could benefit from the extra attention and homework help offered at STAR House.  Because our students must adhere to a code of conduct, Charlie was admitted for a 4 week probationary period.  He was failing 6 of his classes but by the end of the 4 weeks he had shown slight improvement in each of them.  Not experiencing any further behavior problems, Charlie was granted another 4 weeks at STAR House.  At the end of the 8 weeks, Charlie was passing 3 of his classes.  In the second semester, Charlie has come to STAR House 4 days per week and the latest progress report showed that he is passing all but one of his classes, his outlook and self confidence have grown tremendously and he is no longer a behavior risk.  He is working hard to keep up with his peers.  We are very proud of Charlie!