South Brunswick HS Teens Help Children Stay Engaged Amid Pandemic

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in May last year, a group of juniors from South Brunswick High School came together to help elementary school children learn and socialize while social distancing.

SB Peer Pals is an organization started by six students — Dheeksha Sudhakar, Abhinaya Mukundan, Sumedha Kommaraju, Isha Wagle, Amanda Tesar and Eshita Mehrotra.

With most outdoor activities and travel suspended during the pandemic, the group came up with innovative ideas to help engage elementary school students in the community during summer and winter breaks.

“We have games, crafts, science experiments that the kids can do at home, interactive history, and we have the session called the world around us which is basically about nature,” said Sudhakar.

When they first began their project last summer, the group faced a few challenges as children were still getting used to Zoom.

“When we would ask children to go to a breakout room, they didn’t know how to do it. They didn't know how to unmute either,” said Mukundan.

“But now it’s gotten a lot better as kids use Zoom every day for school,” she said.

Today, elementary schoolers from around the country join SB Peer Pals to make new friends and learn together.

“When COVID hit, it was hard to talk to each other. Of course, we had FaceTime, texts and things like that. But for little kids, their only source of interaction was school. And once that completely shut down, it was tough,” said Sudhakar.

(Pic: SB Peer Pals)

“We wanted to do something for them so they could still talk to other people and make new friends.”

The group held daily session over the summer and winter break. All sessions are free.

Once school began, they came up with another project to help keep children involved and one that didn’t include additional screen time.

The group decided to involve children in making cards and posters for healthcare workers.

During the second wave of the pandemic, hospitalizations surged, leaving many healthcare workers exhausted.

SB Peer Pals contacted Hackensack Meridian Health JFK Medical Center, and asked if children could send in cards and posters to cheer up healthcare workers.

“We got over 50 elementary schoolers to make posters and write letters that we delivered to Hackensack,” said Mukundan.

The activity proved to be a creative outlet for children and helped expand their interaction with the community.

With a one-year anniversary coming up soon, Sudhakar said the group has managed to find a balance between schoolwork and extracurricular activities.

“Doing this just brings us so much joy. We look forward to those sessions,” said Sudhakar.

Mukundan said the group has gotten a lot better at juggling their time after all these months.

“As high schoolers, whenever we talk it's about our classes or tests. But elementary schoolers are always so happy and they're talking about what they're looking forward to. Meeting a whole different group of people has been really nice,” said Mukundan.

With spring break just around the corner, the group is looking forward to their upcoming sessions.

This time they plan on reaching out to a senior center to set up online interactions between children and seniors.

“It’ll be fun for kids to do virtual activities with seniors. We are still brainstorming a bunch of ideas,” said Sudhakar.

You can learn more about the programs offered by the teens at SB Peer Pals by clicking here.

The group also has a Facebook page where they post regular updates.

Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com

Get breaking news alerts on your phone with our app. Download here. Sign up to get Patch emails so you don't miss out on local and statewide news