Many students at Central Heights go to church every Sunday with their families to hear the word of God, but one student is going above and beyond at her church. High school senior Bolu Odunuga teaches children between the ages three and five at her church on Sundays, something she never thought she would want to do.
“At first, I didn’t like what I was doing. As a helper, it felt like I was just dealing with sticky and screaming kids,” Odunuga said. “When I became a teacher, I realized I would have to enjoy what I was doing, and now I’ve genuinely come to appreciate and love it.”
The church doesn’t just appoint random people to be helpers or teachers though. There is a process one has to go to in order to be chosen.
“When I was in sixth grade, I took a four-week ministry program called ‘Starting Point’. During this time, I was supposed to self-evaluate and analyze my God-given characteristics in order to focus on how I could grow my faith,” Odunuga said. “When I completed the program, they appointed me as a helper because I was so young. I was assigned to assist my sister, so when she graduated, I became the teacher in her place.”
The teachers of the church are assigned a curriculum to follow, but they make sure that lessons are fun for the children.
“I’m assigned a specific verse to teach each month, but each week we do different activities that tie back into the verse,” Odunuga said. “For example, my class has a ‘Mailbox Time’ day. We get a small toy inside a mailbox, and the toy correlates to the lesson that we’re doing for that month.”
In addition to the curriculum provided by the church officials, Odunuga puts her own personal touch into the lessons.
“I do my best to incorporate important life lessons into our day and even some of the curriculum they may be learning at preschool, such as colors, counting and reading,” Odunuga said. “I just want to teach them things that they can take back with them and learn from.”
Teaching the children of her class isn’t just a meaningless obligation for Odunuga. It has opened up her eyes to the world of children which she once despised.
“Doing this has made me more appreciative of their stage of life. I feel like I have a big influence on the kids and I take it really seriously,” Odunuga said. “I get to analyze their actions and thought processes, and it really helps me with some of my career interests, such as child development and neuroscience. I’ve come to realize that everything I’m doing will influence them, even if I don’t think it will.”