Olympic Heights Hearing for a Change, a club that strives to help struggling readers build their vocabulary, knowledge, and comprehension, was introduced to Olympic Heights in 2022. 

Co-founders Erica Frishberg and Jacob Carrion created this club with the intention of taking away the barrier that interferes with one’s ability to read, further inspiring students to make reading and listening to books fun! Working together, the co-founders, though facing different struggles, used their past experiences as a way to connect with readers, encouraging those students not to give up. “Giving these children the ability to listen on their own through a platform known as Learning Ally empowers them to utilize the accessibility of books, without necessarily having to find a reader,” Erica Frishberg, co-founder of Olympic Heights Hearing for a Change commented. 

During each weekly meeting, members of this club get together to discuss important announcements before arriving at Hammock Pointe Elementary School to meet with their individual buddies. As this school year has just begun, returning members, in addition to board members, will train the high school buddies to use the new platform, Learning Ally. This will be done prior to meeting with their buddies in hopes of improving their buddies’ reading comprehension to their greatest potential. Sam Hurwitz, Vice President of Olympic Heights Hearing for a Change, shared, “Members specifically help Hammock Pointe Elementary School students with their reading, listening, and comprehension skills.” In addition to this, the introduction of “an application known as Learning Ally” has opened new pathways of success to students.  

To make improvements in the second year return of this club, additional board positions have been added to maintain proper order and structure. A new position, Vice President of Membership, has been created to recruit new members from schools across Palm Beach County in bringing Hearing for a Change to life. This club aims to bring additional members from neighboring schools in hopes of advocating for what this club truly represents. Additionally, a Treasurer has been added to the board of this club to promote fundraising events in bringing awareness to this club here on campus. To ensure that everything runs smoothly, “We intend to improve our system with the pairing of buddies to be more strict on our guidelines and requirements,” Jacob Carrion, co-founder of Olympic Heights Hearing for a Change, shared. 

In preventing conflict with the pairings of buddies, a commitment form will be sent out to members of Hearing for a Change to avoid potential issues in schedule alignments, in addition to buddies not fulfilling their role in this club. Co-founders Erica Frishberg and Jacob Carrion will work together to ensure members fit within the requirements and can make a commitment to their buddy to avoid potential feelings of neglect or loss of hope in buddies. 

Hoping to improve the lives of struggling readers across Palm Beach County, this club has been introduced to two additional schools, Spanish River High School and Dreyfoos School of the Arts. By doing so, members of each school can collaborate with one another in making this club successful across the county overall. 

“Last year, we successfully changed 10 struggling readers’ lives at Hammock Pointe Elementary School,” Frishberg shared.