Sydney Horner: Serving in South Knoxville

What led you to volunteer with Emerald Youth?

“I had been researching organizations I could volunteer with because I’m in UT’s nursing program. I liked Emerald’s mission statement and I found myself wanting to be a part of that. I’ve been here for two years so I have been able to watch them grow and it’s very special.”

What have you enjoyed most about volunteering?

“Something I’ve enjoyed most is getting to know the youth. I’m around the same students every week and getting to know them and see their progress and achievements is very special to me. I’ve been able to form a relationship with several of them and the staff – which has also been meaningful.”

What is an impactful story from your time volunteering at Emerald Youth?

“There’s one story that sticks out to me, for sure. There was one young person I was tutoring and he had been struggling with pronunciation of certain letters and sounds, so I worked with him consistently and started with the building blocks of speaking. He began to learn more on the alphabet, pronouncing different sounds, and then we moved onto the more advanced topics. After that, he went from not knowing how to do basic phonetics to being able to complete full sentences. I think seeing that change is very impactful for me especially because he was about to go into his next school year.”