This article first appeared in the Bennington Banner and is reprinted with permission.

BENNINGTON, VT: About 30 elementary school students from Pownal visited Southern Vermont College Wednesday to get feel for a college campus, alongside 15 of their mentors and friends.

The visit was a reversal of what has happened once a week for the semester in Professor Eric Despard’s Quest for Success freshmen class: The college students have visited Pownal elementary School, where they act as role models to children from grades kindergarten through sixth grade.

“It’s a great project for both the college kids and the children because it allows two different age groups to form a connection,” said Amy Balawender, who is a senior course apprentice for the class. “I think it’s good for us college students because we get to be in a different environment and it’s a good way to be responsible and be a good mentor.”

The class of SVC students split up at the beginning of the school year, with two college students interacting with kids from each elementary grade during lunch and recess.

“The focus on the project is service learning and to expose them to small children and to help them understand their role in the community,” Despard said.

Despard said the first-year program began because the elementary students were in need of positive influences, and he believed there was much the college students could take from the interactions as well.

“They really look forward to going there every week, they really connected with these students,” Despard said.

SVC freshman Gina Kemper said she’s really enjoyed getting to know the second-graders she’s formed a bond with and that it’s true she and other students look forward to visiting to play games with the kids at recess or help them with their schoolwork.

“It’s an experience that I’ll take throughout my life,” Kemper said.

And the elementary students get just as much from the experience, said Mary Natalizia, the coordinator at Pownal and an art teacher at the school.

“I’m always amazed how much our students idolize the college students,” Natalizia said.

“Any time you can do any kind of generation pairing like that it’s wonderful.”

Natalizia said through watching the interactions since the program began in September she has seen the college students become more comfortable at the elementary school where they now seem to fit right in.

“It’s always magical when you see the interaction,” Natalizia said.

On Wednesday, elementary students from each grade ate in the college cafeteria where many said they were impressed with the larger selection of food and then toured the campus with their mentors.

“I want to go to college here because it’s awesome,” fourth-grader Carrigan Moresi said after finishing lunch.

SVC students Ashlee Thomas and Shifa Sheikh read the story of the wishing well to

Pownal Elementary students, at the base of the cascading fountains behind Everett

Mansion.