CU students inspire 5th graders during pandemic with community outreach project.
A group of students from the University of Colorado Boulder challenged the 5th graders at University Hill Elementary School to walk across the state of Colorado – virtually. The CU students, members of the Leeds Scholars Program, purchased step counters for the 67 elementary school students to encourage physical exercise which has been stunted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the physical exercise component, students converted their individual steps into miles - making this project relevant to both physical education (PE) and math classes.
“Overall I think it was great,” said Brad Fink, physical education teacher at University Hill Elementary School.
“Many kids really liked tracking and following their progress and the class’s progress.”
Lindsay Beil, Jack Bilello, Patrick Dolan, John Douthit, and Arianna Greenspan conceived “Operation: Step it Up!” in the fall of 2019 during research on local community problems. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted kids in the classroom and limited exercise opportunities like team sports, recess and physical education.
This project was one of the many projects completed through the Leeds Scholars Program at CU Boulder. Leeds Scholars is a selective program that unites top undergraduate business students and provides an array of co-curricular and experiential opportunities. Sophomore students in the program engage in a variety of community-oriented projects, hoping to gain valuable business and project management experience while making an impact on the local community.
Arianna Greenspan, team lead, reflected, “I love that we were able to help members of our Boulder community.” She went on to say, “it is so important for CU students to volunteer their time to make Boulder and the Hill area a better place for all who live there, especially after the pandemic.”
Creative Communication Tools
The CU students thought creatively to effectively communicate with elementary schoolers remotely. Lindsay Beil, school liaison, utilized a fun PowerPoint theme, video, and many emails to explain the goal of the project and to get the elementary schoolers excited about exercise.
The team aimed to pair physical exercise with an added healthy snack component to their project. Once the students accomplished their week-long goal of walking across the state of Colorado collectively, they were rewarded with a well-deserved community breakfast of Menchies frozen yogurt and healthy snacks provided by Bobo’s, Sunbutter, and Little Secrets Chocolate. The team is very appreciative of these sponsors who supported the team’s goal of increasing COVID impacted exercise for children.
The team is accepting donations via Venmo: @jack-bilello-1. Any donations received will help support the project and cover the cost of the fitness trackers donated to the elementary school students.
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