A railroad crossing on Martin Luther King Boulevard will get a facelift thanks to students from Brown Academy and UTC. Student mentors from the UTC P.A.W.S. (Postsecondary Awareness With Success) program recently assisted fourth and fifth grade students from Brown Academy in creating banners to hang on the railroad crossing.
Partnering with Mark Making, a local non-profit organization, student mentors with P.A.W.S. worked with the students of Brown Academy for several weeks to create the banners inscribed with words like “peace” “give” “act” and “build,” which will hang on railroad crossing on Martin Luther King Boulevard near the UTC Sim Center for Computational Engineering.
“Projects like this show children they have power to change their community. Sometimes, children feel like they don’t have a say so and can’t contribute to anything. Projects like this help instill a sense of community pride and activism,” Sandy Cole, Director of the UTC Center for Community Career Education, said.
Now in its fourth year, P.A.W.S. started as an elementary-age college awareness program. UTC students provide mentoring services, such as tutoring and guidance, to local elementary students. This year, P.A.W.S. was expanded to four new elementary schools.
