Sharing knowledge and growing bonds at Dragon Academy

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Zachary Kee
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Giving students the best education possible and reaching a high student achievement level is a goal for every Department of Defense Education Activity elementary school.

At Sollars Elementary School, a new program called the Dragon Academy helps reach that goal by providing assistance to teachers and students in certain subjects.

"The Dragon Academy allows service members from around base to volunteer their time in one specific classroom and help students in a subject of their choice," said Laverne Outen, Sollars Elementary School Principal. "The goal of the program is to build a relationship between the students and service members from around base. After this, they can try to help the kids attain the high student achievement level we are looking for at Sollars."

At Sollars, there are around 650 students and 31 classrooms. With the new program, teachers can request volunteers to help their students in certain subjects.

"Our teachers do a tremendous job, but having the extra person makes the world of difference," said Ms. Outen. "It allows volunteers to assist a student while the teacher is helping someone else."

Although volunteers have signed up to help the students, they also get the opportunity to experience what a teacher does on a daily basis.

"I volunteered to help increase student's' math skills," said Master Sgt. Nathan Welchert, 35th Fighter Wing Flight Safety NCO in charge and Dragon Academy volunteer. "I remember when I took math in school; I had some trouble. I want to give back to the kids who also struggle in math."

The idea of the Dragon Academy was brought to the base by Ms. Outen when she became the Principal of Sollars in August. Ms. Outen was the Assistant Principal of a school on Naval Station Yokosuka, Japan when she came up with the idea of having a free, in-school tutoring program called the Dolphin Academy. While keeping the same mascot plus academy formula, she used the Sollars mascot name to create the Dragon Academy.

"I've been doing this for years," said Ms. Outen. "The program has been a huge success in the past for my students. We saw major improvements in reading, math and social skills with the help of this program."

This is the first month of the program, and already 26 service members from around base are volunteering. Sollars is always looking for more volunteers for their Dragon Academy Program and encourage anyone who is interested in volunteering to contact Sollars at 226-3933.