By Ashley Makowski

Jeff Klamm

The University of Montana Western Campus Corps team walked away with two of the four state achievement awards from the annual Montana Campus Compact Spring Summit April 16-18 in Havre, Mont.

Montana Western’s Campus Corps team is a part of the Montana Campus Compact, an organization that facilitates service learning and volunteer work in Montana colleges through AmeriCorps. Each spring the Campus Corps teams throughout Montana gather for a spring summit to collaborate their teams for a direct service project as well as celebrate the year’s accomplishments.

While at the summit, the Campus Corps team painted murals at the Havre Boys and Girls Club. They also conducted three peer-led workshops with the Montana Tech team focusing on peer tutoring for young adults and adults, peer tutoring for students with special needs, and celebrating culture and diversity in service work.

Montana Western and Montana Tech received the Special Recognition for Successful Collaboration award for their work on the KnowHow2Go project. KnowHow2Go was an initiative designed to help junior high and high school students prepare for college. The Montana Western and Montana Tech teams held workshops over topics such as filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), preparing for the ACT, and college vocabulary. The Montana Western Campus Corps campaign specifically sought to include isolated rural communities in an effort to give rural students the same academic opportunities as students in larger communities.

Montana Western student Jeff Klamm received the Service Learning Award for his work in the Dillon Middle School. Klamm fulfilled his campus corps hours as a student teacher at the middle school. In addition to teaching math, he also tutored at a youth tutoring center in Dillon, coached the girl’s middle school basketball team, acted as a mentor, and worked as a math tutor at the Montana Western learning center. He more than doubled his original commitment of 300 hours to 675.

Klamm’s Campus Corps advisor, University of Montana Western Learning Center Director Sarah Juran, said Klamm exemplifies good teaching and hard work.

“Jeff is a very dedicated educator,” Juran said. “He takes pride in working with students to overcome their math anxieties and works hard to ensure students understand the concepts being taught to them in class. His passion for teaching and learning make him an excellent tutor.”

Montana Western Campus Corps team leader Jon Stephani said the awards reflect an exciting and growing program at Montana Western.

“Earning two of the four awards at the spring summit shows the amount of effort our team has put into Campus Corps this year,” Stephani said. “In just a year we have made a significant impact on the Montana Campus Compact with students who are willing to put time and work into their campus and community.”