Spotlight: Michael Malone
Michael Malone, solutions development manager for Verizon Business has volunteered his time to tutor children in math in grades three to five for the last nine years at the Thomas Haley Elementary School in Irving, Texas. He spends one or two hours a week helping children struggling with mathematics, a subject that has always come easy to him.
Nominated by Lauren Cooper, a teacher he has worked with at the elementary school, Malone will be presented with the prestigious Texas Association of Partners in Education (TAPE) Gold Award in the category of "Texas Top Adult Volunteer" in Austin on Jan. 30. TAPE's mission is to provide leadership and expertise for schools, families, businesses and communities to build partnerships that enhance student success.
Malone, who has just celebrated his eighth year service anniversary with Verizon, works in the area of custom optical and Ethernet solutions. "Since I have an engineering background, helping children improve their math skills seemed like the best help I could offer," said Malone, "And so many of them find math a difficult subject."
"I recognized a long time ago that it's important to give back to society," said Malone. "I'm the eldest of three so I guess I have the big brother syndrome. I always found that I was giving my siblings advice, so it's just natural for me."
Malone, who also volunteers at his church said, "I have a passion for helping people and kids in particular. When I walk into the classroom, the kids get really excited. Oftentimes I have to remind them that I'm not there to disrupt things, we have to work."
For Malone, the feeling that he gets from helping these children is difficult to explain. "Many of the children come from single family homes so they may not get a lot of attention," said Malone. "I feel that I can give them that extra boost and help them gain more confidence so they can move on to middle school, high school and college."
"When I hear the kids say things like 'My mom says I'm really good at math now," I feel like I'm really contributing something that's important. I feel like I'm in the right place. It's amazing how just a few hours a week can make such a difference in the lives of children with so few resources."
