Dedicated to changing lives through reading and education, author James Patterson selected Vanderbilt as a partner institution for two youth programs for underprivileged students in the Nashville community.
RAV is a partnership with Isaiah T. Creswell Middle Prep School of the Arts and Vanderbilt’s Programs for Talented Youth. Creswell’s high-achieving fifth- through eighth-graders are selected to take part in enrichment and accelerated literacy-based classes in their school and at Peabody throughout the year and over the summer. Cresswell students and teachers also receive free books and other resources and teachers work with Peabody faculty and staff to receive professional development on literacy-based instruction and curriculum. The program also supports author visits such as Jacqueline Woodson, Christopher Paul Curtis and Patterson himself.
“Mr. Patterson’s gift enables us to provide life-changing opportunities for high-achieving, low-income students.”
—Tamra Stambaugh
“Mr. Patterson’s gift enables us to provide life-changing opportunities for high-achieving, low-income students,” said Tamra Stambaugh, assistant research professor of special education and executive director of Programs for Talented Youth. “RAV provides opportunities to attend accelerated programs on Vanderbilt’s campus that these students may not have considered or had access to otherwise.”
Since the project’s inception, Stambaugh has observed significant gains in the participants’ reading achievement. Students who may have never before owned a book are being converted into voracious readers who have started their own book clubs and personal libraries.
“This partnership is changing the culture of the school from one where learning was not cool to one that celebrates reading and academic achievement,” Stambaugh said. “Parents report that their children are talking about college and career aspirations for the first time. The life trajectories of the students are being altered in a positive way.”
Creswell principal Ted Murcray agrees.
“The Patterson grant has been instrumental in causing a schoolwide shift in our curriculum,” Murcray said. “The grant provides opportunities for our students, which helped them see themselves as capable and college-going. Because of that, parents have gotten excited about the Patterson grant activities as well.”
“We work very hard to make reading something the kids want to do. We love books and want to share that love with the students.”
—Emily Pendergrass
Another Patterson-Vanderbilt partnership, Read and Play Saturdays, is a free program for fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders who live in low-income neighborhoods near the Vanderbilt campus. RAPS focuses on engaging students with books and other media outside of the classroom during sessions led by Peabody faculty and teacher candidates at Peabody’s Wyatt Center.
“RAPS has been a rewarding experience because we get to interact with kids and help them see the joy and magic of reading,” said Melanie Hundley, who co-directs RAPS with Emily Pendergrass. “We work very hard to make reading something the kids want to do. We love books and want to share that love with the students. It has been a tremendous experience for our Vanderbilt students who get to read and play with students who are responding to, engaging with, and talking about books.”