Joyce Sharp has been a very dedicated mentor with Everybody Wins! since 2017 mentoring at five schools. This year she is reading at three schools: Monroe, Downtown and Hubbell. She was originally placed at Monroe and Downtown but saw a need at Hubbell so she decided to jump in and fill it.
After graduating high-school she attended Iowa State University. After Iowa State she worked part-time in retail and then worked as an Administrative Assistant in the Drake College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for 16 years before her retirement.
Joyce has always had a heart for volunteering. She volunteered at Hillis Elementary when her son’s attended school there. She says, “I volunteered in both the classroom and the library. I loved reading to the children and helping them pick out books.” She decided to join Everybody Wins! when some of her friends told her about it. “It seemed like a perfect fit” because of her interest in education and want to volunteer in a school.
She has many stories about being a mentor for Everybody Wins! but one of her favorites was when she was mentoring at The Downtown School, “My student and I were reading a Boxcar Children book where the family travels to Chicago. I told him I’d taken my sons to Chicago on the train, just like in the book, and at the end of the session he told me he was happy he’d picked that book, “because it brought back happy memories for me”.
She has this piece of advice for anyone who may want to join the program, “it’s so much more than just reading to a student. For a small, manageable amount of time, you can have a positive effect on a child’s day.” She also says that she has, “enjoyed meeting the other mentors, the Coordinators (shout-out to Amber Juffer!), the teachers & aides, and not only the children you read to, but all the children. I always smile and say hello when I pass them in the hall or as we’re going through the lunch line.
Everybody Wins! thanks Joyce for sharing her heart for service and education with the students we serve in Everybody Wins! Iowa.