Last month our wonderful teacher sponsor was featured in an article in the Columbia Missourian along with RBRO! Here’s a link to the story http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/10/02/teacher-sponsor-returns-rock-bridge-reaches-out/
“I went with my teacher Ms. Williams, and we helped serve a meal and clean dishes,” she said. “I felt special to be going and pretty empowered as an 8-year-old serving adults.”
Today, Fishman-Weaver, 31, is a teacher at Rock Bridge High School and sponsor of Rock Bridge Reaches Out, a community service organization she helped found 13 years ago when she was a senior at the school.
In 1999, she wanted to help people in Columbia without food or a place to live, others who had disabilities and an entire community who wanted cleaner water. But mostly she wanted to find outlets for her fellow teens to help, too.
When she joined Rock Bridge High School as a special education teacher, she discovered more needs in the community, so she simply picked up where she left off.
Rock Bridge Reaches Out is divided into nine core groups that take on volunteer projects throughout the year. One bags lunches at the food bank, another makes fleece blankets for Project Linus. The Stream Team addresses water pollution. A couple times a year, the club undertakes a group effort.
The organization is run by three student presidents, who organize the big group activities. Each core group has two or three leaders and 20-50 members.
“What makes Rock Bridge Reaches Out so successful is the fact that we have the core groups,” co-president Kelsey Harper said. “I think that creates a big sense of community that has the support and structure of a big club, but, at the same time, a community within your core group.”
Fishman-Weaver’s enthusiasm for service has roots in her childhood. She grew up with parents who encouraged community involvement, whether helping with church service projects, volunteering at school or spending time at the library.
“Like most people, I am who I am because of my family,” Fishman-Weaver said. “My grandmothers were both teachers, and growing up, my parents talked to us a lot about social justice and peace.”
As a student at Rock Bridge, she considered a future in social work or medicine but ended up graduating from MU with degrees in sociology and English.
“I liked anything that had to do with literacy — helping my mom with the writing lab and then doing the young writers program in college,” Fishman-Weaver said. “All of those opportunities that involve language and story telling really blended my interests.”
She continued to volunteer at Rock Bridge and Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center throughout her time at MU.
She decided to attend San Francisco State University and earn a master’s degree with an emphasis in special education.
While she was going to school, she landed her first job, teaching first grade in Oakland, Calif. She taught there for three years.
“I had a group of boys — really fantastic boys, thoughtful, smart, smart boys … and they came to talk to me when it was all done and just said what a profound impact it had on them and how they would carry that with them,” Fishman-Weaver said.
Positive feedback from students only fuels her to continue her job as a teacher.
“My favorite teacher moments are the times when I can see my students strengthened as a result of their giving to others,” she said. “Kids like to see that they can make a difference, and they do, again and again and again.”
While she was in California, she married Chris Weaver, whom she met while a student at San Francisco State. They adopted a boy, James, now 13, and have a daughter, Lilah, 15 months.
Supervising editor is Jeanne Abbott.
