When his watch reads 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Ben Croner knows the school day is over. But after throwing a heavy backpack over his shoulder, then jumping on a bus en route to Hughes Magnet School, a different school day is just beginning.

Making his way down the carpeted halls of Hughes, Croner steps into a classroom filled with rows of energetic, chatty youngsters. In a matter of seconds, several students begin to plead and compete for his undivided attention.

‘Pick me, pick me,’ some say. ‘No, you always get to go, it’s my turn this week,’ screech others.

It is a rewarding moment for Croner, one he relishes each week when he tutors young people at the Hughes After-School Program. In addition to this service activity, Croner mentors students at Aaron T. Levy Middle School during a group counseling program called the Breakfast Club. Croner is also a full-time college student at Syracuse University – an undecided freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences, a pledging brother of Kappa Delta Rho and an active member of the Honors Student Association.

Croner does not volunteer to provoke attention, fulfill a course requirement or bolster his resume. Service has been an integral component of his daily life since high school, when a friend persuaded him to coach a middle school basketball team.

‘I feel like I’ve been given so much, it’s only right to give back,’ said Croner on the bus ride home from Hughes.

He admits, unprompted, that it is hard to tell whether his tutees become better readers or overall people after a few one-hour sessions together. The words of one he teaches, however, revealed the true scope of his influence.

‘I like reading and coming to the gym – he’s fun,’ said Tyshawn Keene, a fifth grader at Hughes who often meets with Croner. ‘He helped me with my homework, and he taught me about Africa and when there was a war between the North and South.’

A few moments earlier, Croner had chosen Keene out of the group of begging students, grasping Keene’s shoulders like an old friend and inspiring a wide grin across the student’s face.

As a child himself, Croner was an outgoing person who displayed well-rounded academic and physical abilities, according to Dr. Charles Croner, his father. Croner described his son as ‘a thinker’ and one who is driven by a great understanding of equality.

‘He can look at a situation and very quickly assess it as to whether it’s fair and equal,’ said Charles Croner. ‘He is not afraid to take a stand and take positive action.’

His son attributes this sense of initiative and caring to a very important role model – his father.

Charles Croner is a geographer and survey statistician for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a job that involves detecting the spread of diseases and highlighting health problems across the country. Croner said his father’s role and humble personality are qualities he strives to mimic. Croner’s individuality has been shaped not only by familial support, but also by the guidance of professors and courses he has taken at SU.

One of the classes he took last semester, WRT109, was a service learning course that required 20 hours of volunteer work completed at cites chosen by the Center for Public and Community Service. Eileen Schell, an assistant professor for the writing program, said students were also required to describe their experiences in a journal; many reflected on the poor status of the Syracuse educational system. According to Steve Wright, a counselor for the Honors Program, 50 percent of the students at Levy Middle School drop out before completing their education.

Schell said Croner was instrumental in classroom discussions, and often displayed an aptness for supporting his beliefs. In one particular instance, he formulated a 20-minute argument against the entire class in support of a military draft.

‘He took a powerful stance, it really impressed me,’ Schell said. ‘He has a really tenacious spirit, and it serves him well – in service he doesn’t give up and is not afraid of challenges.’

Around 4:15 p.m. at Hughes, Croner read a children’s book titled ‘The King’s Fool,’ with two students in a tiny library corner. Reading line by line, the three rotated in turns as Croner patiently fixed the errors of the other readers. During the session, though, one of the students became distracted and walked away from his seat.

‘What are you doing?’ Croner asks.

‘Nothing,’ said Emmanuel Rowser, the anxious fifth grader.

‘I thought you were going to behave,’ Croner said in a stern voice. ‘I’ll have to send you back to class.’

Rowser reluctantly returned to his seat and began to read with a fixated expression on his face.

The Honors Program began the Breakfast Club in 1997 as a way to acquaint college and middle school students in a casual, homeroom environment. Every Monday and Thursday morning from 7:30 to 8:15, Croner is at Levy talking with students about their homework, daily life or future goals. On Wednesdays, he participates in the Hughes Program, which was piloted by SU students last spring.

Wright says these programs are important in that students are able to see themselves as fixtures of an entire community, not just academia. As a service coordinator for HSA, he added that Croner has helped students become aware of this role.

‘He has contributed such an energy about the Hughes program,’ Wright said. ‘His own modeling and attitude is ‘It’s not a big deal,’ and ‘What should we do?”

Thanks to a nomination essay written by Croner, the Hughes program received an honorable mention for Outstanding Student Program at the Chancellor’s Awards for Public Service dinner March 28.

Croner has been able to encourage productive volunteer work not only through program publicity and recognition, but also on actual service location sites. Amanda Moore, an international relations and Spanish major and organizer of the Breakfast Club, says that Croner’s dedication at Levy has made him an effective model for others.

‘He’s open, nice and funny, and I see him interact with the students,’ Moore said. ‘He is also dedicated and dependable – he’s there every time.’

As proven by the descriptions of others, Croner’s personality presents a two-fold dynamic – that is, an embodiment of both immense resilience and compassion for others.

‘Ben is not a quitter,’ said Robert McClure, a political science and public affairs professor in the Maxwell School. McClure admitted that he tells students what he thinks about their work, and is not an easy grader. While many students cannot deal with negative criticism, Croner ‘worked hard and got a lot better, and was able to deal with honest feedback.’

Croner says his volunteer work will now be expanded to the activities of his fraternity, which include a blood drive, participation in the annual Comstock Kidfest and philanthropy for muscular dystrophy. In the more distant future, Croner is considering the Air Force and law school as potential outlets for a deeper commitment to serving the public.

His primary initiative for the future, Croner says, is societal change.

At the end of the day, Croner made one final dash down the basketball court. He yelled ‘Airrrr ball’ as one of his Hughes buddies attempted to make a shot. ‘We’re still going to crush you,’ said the confident student Croner had playfully attempted to psyche out.

Finding himself well matched, Croner eventually called an end to their game and session of tomfoolery.

‘They wore me out. I didn’t know I was so out of shape,’ he said with a laugh.

Despite being tired out by the youngsters, Croner knows his hard work has made a difference at the end of the day.

‘Reaching out to the community is a way to give back and let them know that we care about those less fortunate than we are,’ Croner said. ‘It’s a way to get people to see each other as fellow human beings.’

Published on April 5, 2005 at 12:00 pm