From Oct. 19 until Dec. 21, about 200 Ohio State employees will be volunteering at Columbus City Schools in an effort to prepare kindergarten students for the reading portion of the fourth-grade proficiency tests.

On Monday, volunteers from the OSU community met at the Ohio Union to learn the basics of the Helping One Student to Succeed program, or H.O.S.T.

H.O.S.T. is an independent program that was purchased by the Columbus Public School District using funds from Ohio-Reads grants, said Virgie Homeny, project coordinator for Columbus Reads.

Gary Gohlke, coordinator of the Columbus Adopt-A-School program, said that more than $60,000 were contributed in grants from Ohio-Reads. These grants were meant to support efforts to teach literacy in public schools throughout Ohio, Gohlke said.

The program specialists trained Homeny and her staff, who then explained to OSU volunteers what the tutoring program would entail, Homeny said.

All volunteers received a folder from the program that contains three points of reference the volunteer must work with in the tutoring process, Homeny said.

First, the tutor must engage the child in reading. This would simply be reading to the child, she said.

Then, the tutor must use the information in the folder to teach shapes, sounds, and how these both comprise the letters in the alphabet. The third step is to use skills to reinforce what the student has learned, Homeny said.

The tutors will meet with two different children for 30 minutes once a week on Tuesdays. The following Thursday, another tutor will come in and work with the same students for another 30 minutes apiece.

Tina Love, director of Student Affairs Projects, said the Ohio Reads program is tailored to kids at the kindergarten level. The main goal is to have students ready and able to pass the fourth-grade proficiency test that is taken in the public school systems.

Love said she has read that 40 percent of students have not passed the reading portion of the tests.

Joan Lorenz, associate to the vice provost, is volunteering in the program. Lorenz has tutored before, but has never worked in a program as structured as this one.

“This is a chance to give back to the community,” Lorenz said. “We are fortunate to be at Ohio State and we need to let the community know we care.”

OSU President William “Brit” Kirwan will work as a tutor, according to his wife Patricia Kirwan, who is also tutoring in the program.

“It will be rewarding to work one-on-one with children who may not always have an adult around,” Mrs. Kirwan said. “If the child enjoys the attention, then the tutor is rewarded.”