Our Lady
Comforter of the Afflicted School
Accredited by the New England Association of Schools & Colleges

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WALTHAM - Alex DiZio stood in the back of a fifth-grade class watching the other students give presentations.

DiZio, though, isn't a fifth-grader. He's a junior at Bentley College who goes to Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted School every school day for about two hours to help students with class projects, homework and more - specifically, math problems.

"It gets me out of the college world for a little bit," said DiZio, a math tutor at Bentley who also works with Our Lady's students in a Mathematician's Club on Tuesday afternoons.

DiZio's daily trips to the Catholic school on Trapelo Road are part of a recent collaboration with Bentley College that began this semester. The Mathematician's Club is one of the a series of after-school programs that were implemented at the school through Bentley College's Service Learning Center.

Students from Bentley make their way to Our Lady's each week to help students in the after-school programs, as well as during the day by tutoring and helping and assisting teachers with in-class work and activities.

The five after-school programs include 2+2=5: The Power of Teamwork, which works on team building exercises, and America Clicks!, during which Bentley students teach Our Lady's students how to use such computer programs as Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. Bentley students also work with teachers after school during a program called Computer Help, educating them on several computer programs.

Ashley Stevens, a junior at Bentley and BSLC program manager for the programs at Our Lady's school, said these programs and others have also been used at other Waltham sites including McDevitt Middle School, YMCA, and the Waltham Boys & Girls Club. Still, she says the newly found bond with Our Lady's has been very successful.

"It's been a great partnership because they're so close by," Stevens said. "It just blends well, and our students love it. It's a completely different atmosphere than we've ever worked with before."

Stevens added, though, that the two other after-school programs, the Author's Club and the Mathematician's Club, are unique to Our Lady's School, and were started at the request of Principal Chandra Minor.

The Author's Club allows students to read, write about and conduct research on their favorite authors, or to write their own story. "It's all focused on the theme of writing," Minor said. "Somehow these Bentley students help the kids to really enjoy writing."

The Mathematician's Club helps students with their math homework, and allows them to play games relating to math in some way. DiZio said while helping students in the club and in class is stress relieving from his normal daily college routine, it also brings out his inner child.

"It kind of gets me in touch with the kid inside of me," he said.

Fifth-graders Hayley Curtin and Kevin Snow both said having DiZio around in class has made a big difference for both of them in their work.

"He was helping me in my group with it (Math)," Curtin said. "I think he'd make a good teacher. He's really understanding."

"It seems like we've been getting a lot more done," added Snow. "He seems like he's doing a good job."

Carleen Hart, an Our Lady's parent, said her fifth-grade daughter, Allison, has been learning a lot about how to create newsletters and slide shows through America Clicks!

"I think it's an excellent program, I think the kids are getting a lot out of it both ways," Hart said. "It seems to very beneficial."

Minor said having the Bentley students work with Our Lady's students one-on-one has been great for both schools, and they have been a great integration of the two schools.

"The Bentley students that have come here, they fit right into the school program," said Minor. "What's really nice is they can really relate to the students, so it's a nice exchange. The beautiful thing of this, it's a true community relationship with Bentley College and Our Lady's School."

For more information on the Bentley Service Learning Center's programs, visit www.bentley.edu/service-learning/programs.cfm.

Matt Perkins can be reached at 781-398-8009 or at mperkins@cnc.com.