La Salle University Student Elizabeth Haidemenos is One of Only Seven Pennsylvania Recipients of Scholarship for
Community Service Efforts

Philadelphia -- Warwick resident and La Salle University student Elizabeth Haidemenos is one of only seven Pennsylvania college students to receive the 2009 Commonwealth Good Citizenship Scholarship from the 83-member Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania. The scholarship recognizes superior community service.

“I was very shocked that I got it because there are so many students from the schools around here,” said Haidemenos, who is an education major and graduated from La Salle Academy in Providence.

Now student teaching in Philadelphia at Grover Washington, Jr. Middle School, Haidemenos is involved with a La Salle service organization that makes four trips annually, including one to Tanzania. She cites the opportunity for a “physical learning experience” and the chance to teach as reasons for her involvement.

While in Africa last spring, she worked with an all-girls center that was built to prevent underage prostitution and sex trafficking in the area. “We helped them and taught them English,” she said. “My goal in life is to be a teacher because they are constantly giving back to the community.”

Haidemenos recalls a particularly memorable moment while at a Tanzanian recreation center where she was able to teach boys and girls certain things through simple hand gestures.

“We were outside, kind of fooling around, playing jacks, when we started teaching them. We (through gesturing) taught them ‘picture, ballerina, Spiderman.’ Spiderman was my thing. Everyone called me Spiderman because I was teaching the little boys.” She remembers while they were only initially teaching a handful of students these gestures, the number quickly grew.

“Before we knew it there were 30 or 40 kids. I was completely surrounded. Everything I said they repeated after me.q It was cool to see. It was something so simple, but it’s something to look back to,” said Haidemenos.

Haidemenos cites being in a classroom since her freshman year as a reason for coming to La Salle for its education program. While she admits teaching 8th graders in the immediate area can be a bit tough, she cites the growing need for urban teachers as inspiration. “I’m going to learn a lot about being a teacher,” she said with a smile.

---Rob Fierro