Senior Sam Ryskamp pulled up to the Parke Hayes building on W. Bacon Street to a chorus of “It’s Sam!” “Sam is here!” “Sam! Sam!” He unfolded himself from the driver’s seat as a small boy with big eyes ran to the car to greet him, leading a trail of others.
When he asked where one was Monday, he was told the kid had been sick. He asked him if he was feeling better. “Nope,” the boy said, grinning. “It’s probably Ebola!” Soon, Ryskamp, kids, and attendant teachers were playing a riotous game of rule-defying soccer. Kids were kids.
Ryskamp is the head of the Renaissance GOAL volunteer program. The group of 35 students has grown too large to volunteer at only Hillsdale’s Renaissance School and plans to help more schools with students in need of a consistent, caring companion in their lives as it expands. He and the program are in talks with a number of local schools, both alternative institutions like Renaissance and special needs classrooms and programs.
“Sort of the motto of our program is ‘life change happens in the context of loving, godly relationships,’” Ryskamp said.
Students started volunteering at the Renaissance School last year. Volunteers commit an hour or two a week to playing sports and games or working as academic tutors with the 15-20 kids who attend the alternative school. Most of the school’s students have been kicked out of other schools and come from unstable and rough backgrounds.
“A lot of their schooling is online because they all come from different schools,” Ryskamp said.
Because of this, tutors who can help students with their current homework projects are always needed. Ryskamp said math tutors are always in high demand.
“To be honest, I don’t think that there’s such a thing as an ideal college student volunteer,” Ryskamp said. “Anybody can be a volunteer. Anyone can make an impact on these kids’ lives. You don’t have to be perfect to love someone. What we are looking for is someone who is willing to commit. These kids have already had so many people bail out on them, and their life is in so much flux.”
Senior Annie Teigen, who helps coordinate events for the program and is helping Ryskamp plan the expansion, expressed her changed heart about the program.
“I’m so excited about it,” Teigen said. “At first, I was a little concerned that it wasn’t going to fit the mission statement, but then I was talking to Sam and he was like, ‘Does it help kids?’ and I was like, ‘Yes, it does!’ so he was like, ‘Great, that’s what we’re here to do.’”
Teigen said the expanded program will provide more opportunities for volunteers interested in both a traditional classroom environment experience and working with children with special needs.
“It will be a nice branch of what we do,” she said.
Ryskamp said they are looking to meet whatever needs they can and see how big the program can get. The director they initially coordinated with now works with more schools, and they hope this can lead to new opportunities for serving. Regardless, they want volunteers to help love the kids in need.
“They need positive examples,” Ryskamp said of the alternative schools’ students. “They need real relationships. They have a lot of people in their lives who are telling them what to do and trying to come down and impose something on them. But they don’t have a lot of real friendships, and they don’t know how that works.”
Senior Shelly Peters is helping Teigen and Ryskamp, and made clear that the motivation of the program is to show Christ-like love to kids in the community.
“That is our greatest joy, and our purpose to be at the Renaissance school and Lockhaven is to bring Christ into these schools and hope when these kids have none,” she said.
She, too, said she is excited at the prospect of the volunteer program expanding, especially at the prospect of including special needs students.
“It’s hard to see progress sometimes with kids from special education, but their love for life is so unconditional and I think we have a lot to learn from them,” she said.
If anyone is interested in volunteering with the GOAL program, or if you are connected to a school interested in college student volunteers, email Ryskamp at sryskamp@hillsdale.edu.
