Meet Your Neighbor

Rotary Boys & Girls Club's Sheely Mauck,'09

In her role as education director of the Rotary Boys & Girls Club in Seattle's Central District, Seattle University alumna Sheely Mauck has connected hundreds of SU students with area kids to provide help with tutoring, art and sports.

The Boys & Girls Club serves neighborhood youth ages 6 to 18 with a focus on recreation, arts, education, career development, health and character and leadership development.

Mauck works closely with SU's Center for Service and Community Engagement year-round to place service-learning students and other volunteers at the Boys & Girls Club. The hours students put in provide a boost to many of her programs and some volunteers are now employees.

"SU service-learning students add a huge value to the program," says Mauck. "They also get kids thinking about attending college, showing them an option that's literally just down the road."

Mauck benefited from the Boys & Girls Club while growing up in Tacoma, where she was a regular at the Gonyea branch.

She later joined the Rotary branch in Seattle and completed her master's degree in public administration at SU in 2009. Ultimately she hopes to use her degree to develop policies that benefit youth in Washington and continue the mission of Boys & Girls Club.

Every afternoon, Mauck directs the action at the building on 19th and Alder as kids pour in after school. She matches kids with volunteers to help with homework and meets with members of the "Smart Girls" program, which provides a support group and brings in speakers to encourage girls to be successful and healthy in school and life.

"We want to create well-rounded young people who are healthy and have the skills to become future leaders," she says.