With unique program, Holy Redeemer fosters legacy of assisting students who are behind or ahead of their classmates
Detroit— After seeing students walking the streets instead of attending class, Sr. Regina Mary Affholter had a dream of place where these students could come to learn.
“She used to see people walking the streets and wondered why they weren’t in school, school is so important,” said Sr. Elizabeth Fleckenstein, IHM, former principal at Holy Redeemer Elementary. “So, her dream was to start a store front kind of a school where people could come in.”
Years went by and her dream never materialized.
When she retired from full-time teaching at Holy Redeemer Elementary in Detroit after 21 years, Sr. Affholter reached out to her Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters and her dream started to become a reality.
She wrote to many places in Detroit asking for grants to start a program where students could come for extra help and for extra instruction, according to Sr. Fleckenstein.
Soon, Holy Redeemer Elementary was home to a program called “Getting Educationally Motivated” (GEM); a room that serves as a place where students can get extra help or get motivated, that she ran for 13 years before retiring in 2003.
“The purpose is to provide a classroom where children who need some individual help can come to get that help,” Sr. Fleckenstein said. “Whether, it be remediation, if they’re accelerated in their work, it’s a room where students who may have some special needs who can’t take written tests, things can be read to them orally.”
Students who are struggling in class or just want a little extra help have the option of getting the lesson plan during the first 20 minutes of class and then going down to the GEM room for that help without setting up an appointment, according to Holy Reedemer principal John Kiley.
GEM also serves as a “timeout room” for students who have misbehaved.
The current director of the program, Sr. Bernadette Barker, CSJ, says the GEM program plays a huge role at the school.
“It’s very important because we have children whose parents only speak Spanish at home,” she said, noting that the program can provide some direction for those students. “It is also important for children who need a little attitude adjustment, as it were – because we can find out what the underlying problem is and address it.”
Retired IHM sisters, retired teachers and volunteers in the Holy Redeemer community run the GEM program. Each day, different volunteers dedicate time to helping the children become better students.
“The talent that’s there from retired nuns or volunteers coming in, it’s really making a difference with the students that are going and working with them,” Kiley said. “Some have had problems where they’ve had failing grades, but with the one-on-one help, those grades have come up. The big thing is they are motivated. They’re not just one of 16 or 20 students like in some schools, they really do get the one-on-one help.”
Last week, fifth-grader Chris Schwesing sat at a table in the GEM classroom going over a math assignment. While he says the program has helped him in all his subjects, the volunteer instructors tell of how he first came to the room in the first grade. He struggled with reading, and was on the verge of giving up.
“I started liking reading better than I had before,” Chris said, telling of how the GEM program helped him gain confidence in his ability to read. “It’s helped me a lot. It helped me to learn how to read, math, spelling – just about all my subjects.”
Although GEM does help those students who are struggling, it is also designed to help students that are accelerated.
“If students are capable of working ahead, they’re able to go down there and work ahead and they won’t be stagnated,” Kiley said. “They really enjoy it that way because they can see success every time they go down.”
Overall, Kiley has seen positive reaction in his first year as principal at Holy Redeemer.
“The kids love going down there and it’s not like they’re getting out of class,” he said. “The volunteers are really working through, there’s a lesson plan or directions are sent down, so it’s not like a study hall where they grab a book and they sit in the corner. It’s one-on-one. The kids do enjoy going down there.”
Sr. Fleckenstein, who is now retired, helps run the GEM program, and believes it has been nothing short of a great success.
“They’ve met success,” Fleckenstein said. “Over the years, we’ve had hundreds of students that we have helped and there are students who have been able to succeed, where as maybe if they hadn’t had this help they wouldn’t be able.”
“We’ve seen them make progress in their academics and their test scores and students make progress just being able to make better decisions about themselves.”
Sr. Affholter passed away in December of 2011, but her dream lives on through her GEM program.
“She wanted to start this room to keep children in the loop of being able to learn and not to be discouraged and give up,” Sr. Fleckenstein said. “It’s been a wonderful program and I don’t know how we would exist without having it.”
