Helping underprivileged children perfect their reading skills is just one of the ways Palmer Trinity sophomore John Cyril Malloy IV gives back to the community. Although he’s just a sophomore, he’s vice-president of the Big Buddy/Little Buddy club at Palmer.
“It’s a mentoring program for second, third and fourth graders at Holmes Elementary in Liberty City,” he says. “We go twice a month. We sit with kids and help them read.”
The Palmer students end up bonding with the kids at Holmes.
“You become friends with them,” he says. “Their parents aren’t there for them.”
The program revolves around learning, which makes it important to him. The Big Buddy/Little Buddy program was started by students from Gulliver a few years ago and was expanded to additional schools. One of Malloy’s best friends started the Palmer club after working with the Holmes students. Today the club has 50 students.
“Not everyone goes every Saturday but some kids manage,” he says.
In these troubled times, Malloy is playing an important role at Palmer as a Mosaic facilitator.
Mosaic’s role is to inform the school about diversity and real world problems that are going on.
“They try and get us to inform other students about gender rules, ethics, all sorts of ideas that occur in everyday life,” he says. “It’s really an open discussion. We go into advisories once a month. We open a discussion about gender roles, or ethics.”
One of the topics was homeless people.
“How did they become homeless? Some kid will say homeless people are lazy,” he says. “There are a bunch of controversial ideas. You get a whole discussion about different viewpoints.”
He became involved with Mosaic after traveling to Haiti on a mission trip and meeting the founder of the group.
“We just guide the discussions that are happening and make sure nothing gets out of hand,” Malloy says. “One of the reasons I was officially enrolled as a facilitator was that I went to a student diversity leadership conference in Tampa.”
As facilitator, he believes he helps increase the understanding of the students and helps them realize what’s going on outside their community.
“And help them think of ideas and solutions to them,” he says. “They become more compassionate.”
Malloy is vice president in student government. Last year he was a grade representative.
“We established a partnership with the Chapman Homeless fund,” he says. “We’ve been getting advisories (homerooms) to go the homeless shelter and provide food for the homeless. I have gone once. My advisory is scheduled to go in December.”
He’s also a student ambassador, giving tours to parents of potential students.
“I get to meet with all these people from all different walks of life and what interests them in the school,” he says. “I get to express my gratitude to the school.”
He has more gratitude about the life he has in the U.S. after going on the Haiti mission trip last year.
“The biggest mission was to bond with the kids and build a new classroom,” he says. “All the buildings are made of sticks.”
The school building was sturdy enough to be the shelter for villagers during Hurricane Matthew.
As an athlete, he had a good year as the starting tight end on the football team, which won the Florida Independent Football Conference Championship.
He also runs track – his events include the 300 meter hurdles, the 110 hurdles and the high jump.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
