Making time for others
Tamarac fifth-grader earns recognition for helping those around her.

By C. Ron Allen
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Tiffany Colvert uses every bit of free time she has during math class to help students who are struggling.

"When I am done with my work, I'll go over and help them with a few problems," the fifth-grader at Tamarac Elementary School said. "I know then they won't have trouble with what I helped them in and it makes me feel good."

Tiffany, who some day wants to be a teacher, has earned the reputation among her classmates and teachers as a role model and leader.

She is always looking for ways to help out in class, said her teacher, Dolores Marcus. When she is not helping her peers, she volunteers to file graded assignments and other documents in students' individual folders.

This frees up the teacher to do other duties and organizes the filing process, she said.

"It would probably be harder to find it if it was all in one folder," said Tiffany, who recently was named a South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kid of Character for citizenship in a program that recognizes students in the Broward County school system.

"You would have to look through all of them to find it and that could take a lot of time."

Student file clerks have to be disciplined and trustworthy because they see other students' grades.

Along with helping her classmates, Tiffany is a member of the school's safety patrol. Each morning before school and after classes, she can be found encouraging her peers to follow school rules.

Until January, she was a member of Stepping Angels, a dance troupe sponsored by the city of Tamarac Recreation Department. The group last performed in the Veterans Day parade in the city.

Tiffany is just as helpful at home, where she encourages her younger brother to stay on top of his schoolwork, her mother, Cheryl Colvert, said.

"She's been trying to get him a little more advanced than he is," Colvert said. "That's Tiffany and that's how she has been for years."

This is one in a series of stories on students who best exemplify the Broward County School District's eight character education traits -- cooperation, responsibility, citizenship, kindness, respect, honesty, self-control and tolerance -- and patriotism as part of all eight.

C. Ron Allen can be reached at crallen@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7917.