CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Wells Fargo Center for Community Engagement at Queens University in Charlotte helped connect teaching students with elementary school pen pals during the pandemic.

Cato Teaching Fellows at Queens University wrote letters to second grade students at Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School. Teachers at ETES saw that students were doing a lot of work on computers and tablets during the pandemic, and they didn’t want them to lose handwriting skills.

The students practiced their letters and correcting their spelling mistakes on their own when writing to their pen pal.

Kristin Cirone is a Cato Teaching Fellow and pen pal. She didn’t get any in-person classroom observation this year, so she says the pen pal program helped her learn about the students.

“Getting to see, kind of like, this is where a second graders hand writing is, this is where a second graders interest is, and just building relationships is rewarding, which is why I want to go into education,” Cirone says.

Cirone plans to meet her pen pals face to face at the end of the school year.