The Center for Fraternity and Sorority Development (CFSD) hosted a literacy kit-making event to support local preschools on Friday.
Hosted in Lawrence D. McHugh Hall at the University of Connecticut on Friday, students were given the opportunity to create flashcard kits meant to promote literacy skills. These kits included alphabet and number cards as well as simple consonant-vowel-consonant cards, to teach students how to read, say and spell words like “cat” or “bed.”
The event was hosted by Rachel Carey, coordinator for special programs for the CFSD and special projects coordinator for UConn Student Activities.
The event was only open to fraternities and sororities at UConn, and participants could use the time to help fulfill their required service hours for the CFSD. One organization that saw participation from its members was the Upsilon Mu chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority, Inc.
“You could come here, you could speak to people, meet new people, learn new things,”
AKA member Daniella Appiah said about the event. “That’s just that personal goal but also, you are helping, reaching so many people that you could not even imagine. People that you cannot reach on a day-to-day basis, all of this help is going towards them.”
AKA focuses on the message of being of “service to all mankind,” according to Appiah and the organization’s official website. Appiah is an eighth-semester student studying finance and has spent her time with the sisters of AKA supporting her community through drives and other events, which is part of the reason why she joined the sorority: “Being of help, being surrounded by people that look like me, that also have the same mission: wanting to help as many people as possible.”
Appiah noted that she appreciated being able to attend the event as she was able to commit her full time and attention to helping others. For some attendants, the service event hit a little closer to home, especially for fellow AKA member Jayda-Nekole Pernia.
“Growing up, I was really, horribly bad at anything literacy,” Pernia said. “English was a really bad subject for me because I was trying to learn Spanish and English at the same time growing up. But Spanish was dominating, so it was really bad.”
Pernia and her parents would attend literacy events at her local church, which helped her improve her reading and writing skills, Pernia said. Now, she’s studying molecular and cell biology as a fourth-semester student and enjoys engaging in community service.
“When you have these events or community service to raise funds or get clothes or just get supplies in general — like, collecting items,” Pernia said. “It means that you’re sacrificing your time to help others that are in need, instead of just worrying about yourself.”
But AKA wasn’t the only organization that saw attendance from its members — eighth-semester cognitive science student Mikayla Robinson of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was also helping make literacy kits. Robinson is formerly a member of the Delta GEMS youth program, which matches adolescent girls with mentors to assist in academic success and empowerment.
For Robinson, community service is about making a lasting impact and supporting people who can’t always provide for themselves, she said.
“Us being here, making these kits and everything, it’s just something easy. It doesn’t take much out of our day to just do something and give back to the people that need it,” Robinson said. “I also just think it’s a part of human nature just to help each other out on the weekend. So that’s a thing I carry forward every day and try to be 1% better, and this is helping towards that.”
The CFSD will be hosting another literacy kit event this Sunday, Feb. 1, according to the organization’s events calendar. The event will be held in Lawrence D. McHugh Hall, room 202, beginning at 10 a.m., and will only be open to members of fraternities or sororities.