Hamline University Business Law students participate in volunteer initiative

Students in Hamline’s Business Law Institute are participating in a volunteer initiative with the Rotary Club of Minneapolis to deliver dictionaries to Minneapolis third graders.

Hamline Law students and Business Law Institute members Dmitriy Bondarenko, Sten Schuler, Kelly Larson, Michael Mangold, and Eric Dietz, along with Hamline undergraduate student Katie Gelinas, have helped distribute nearly 600 dictionaries. The group has visited both public and private elementary schools, including Windom Dual Immersion, Green Central Park, Barton Open School, Lyndale Elementary, Lake Country School, and Jenny Lind Elementary.

The experience allowed Hamline Law students to give back to the community while providing an opportunity to volunteer with local law and business professionals.

This Dictionary Project is a service project of the Minneapolis Rotary Club and follows the Rotary International service focus of basic education and literacy. This local service project aims to provide all Minneapolis third graders with their own personal dictionary. For some children, the dictionary may be the only book they own.

The gift of a dictionary also provides teachers with an effective tool for teaching reading, writing, and researching skills. The dictionary that is provided has a reference section that includes state facts, planets, maps, U.S. Constitution, biographies of U.S. presidents, a sign language alphabet, and Braille.