Maya Parrotta leans over a word search puzzle on her desk, her large eyes scanning the jumbled letters on the page.

"E...G...Y," she slowly spells out, her colored pencil etching a line through the letters.

Suddenly, Maya gasps. The Pinecrest Elementary School first-grader just found the word "Egypt" in the puzzle.

Sarah Davis, an MSU special education freshman, moves closer to the 6-year-old, peering over her shoulder as Maya scratches off the northern African country's name from the puzzle's word bank.

Oct. 11 was Egypt Day at Friendshop, an after-school enrichment program at two East Lansing elementary schools that partners MSU student volunteers with grade-school children to learn about topics such as geography and science.

For the children, Friendshop is a chance to explore new things and to increase their knowledge after school hours end. For the college students, the program often is an opportunity to gain practical classroom experience before formally being placed in a school.

"With the education program here, you don't get accepted into the program until the end of your sophomore year, and you usually don't get in a classroom until your junior year," said Rachel Carman, an education junior and Friendshop's student director.

"A lot of people at MSU haven't been around kids since they were a child, so it eases your way back into the classroom."

Traveling the world

Davis asks Maya to find the Nile River in the word search.

"It just says Nile," Maya says, after locating the word.

"Remember I showed you in that book?" Davis asks her. There are plenty of books about ancient Egypt scattered around the classroom, their pages full of hieroglyphics lessons and pictures of pyramids.

Maya nods.

It's a tactic Davis uses with each word in the puzzle. Not only does she ask Maya to spell it, but also she asks if the first-grader knows its meaning.

"It's just fun to work with them and interact and just teach them different things," Davis said. "I've just always liked working with younger children."

Friendshop is entirely run by MSU students, and sessions are held for at least an hour Monday through Thursday at Pinecrest Elementary School, 1811 Pinecrest Drive, and on Mondays at Marble Elementary School, 729 N. Hagadorn Road. The program ends for the semester Dec. 5. The subjects vary each day and include science, literature, geography and art exploration. Several of the elementary students attend more than one session.

MSU students typically volunteer one day each week, and students from any major can volunteer. Most, however, are education majors. There are roughly 40 MSU student volunteers.

Davis heard about Friendshop at a meeting with the College of Education during Welcome Week and signed up. She worked with elementary students and teachers during her senior year of high school and specializes in deaf education at MSU. Ultimately, Davis said, she'd like to work with hearing-impaired students at an elementary level.

Friendshop gives Davis experience working with younger children. Other than that, she said, it's also gratifying to watch them learn.

"They get to know you, so the next day they want to be with you and learn from you again," she said. "They'll gravitate toward you because they're more familiar with you.

"They always look forward to coming back."

Carman volunteers on Wednesdays during the geography session at Pinecrest Elementary. As student director, her job requires working with principals, coordinating activities and overseeing the student volunteers. It's a position she'll have until she graduates.

"It's a great way for students to get involved, get some community service hours in," Carman said. "And people going into education, for a lot of them, this is their first time in the classroom."

Today, the geography session is planned to explore Italy. The elementary students chose all the countries they will focus on this semester. Each week, the students will receive a new page in their "passports," which also include photographs of themselves similar to real passports.

"We get to do a lot of stuff," said Haikal Satria, 7. "It's cool. We get to learn about other countries."

At one table on Egypt Day, education sophomore Robert Heber works with third-graders Haikal and Zack Cooper to make the "snake game."

The boys roll their blue clay into a thin line, just like a snake's body, then coil it into a spiral shape. Once it is finished, they press it flat with their hands and poke holes around the spiral to complete the game board.

The object of the snake game is simple: move colored marbles around the spiral, starting from the outer edge, until they reach the center of the board — first one there wins. The number of spaces a player can move depends on the colored piece he draws from a clear plastic cup — a yellow piece means move three spaces, for instance, and orange means go back to start.

Haikal draws an orange piece.

"Oh, man," he groans, putting both hands on his head. Haikal stares at the game board in disbelief for a few seconds, his mouth open.

Carman approaches their group. "What do you think people used in Egypt besides marbles?" she asks.

Haikal and Zack both know the answer, and they speak in unison. "Rocks."

"Yep," Carman says, explaining more about how the game was played in ancient Egypt.

"Next week is Italy," she continues. "What do you think we should do next week?"

"Get mustaches," Haikal says. "And eat pizza."

"Should we give gondola rides?" Heber asks the boys. "Fill up the Red Cedar (River)?"

Silence. Finally, Haikal asks what both boys were probably thinking.

"What's a gondola?"

An enriching experience

Friendshop has been around for at least eight years and continues to grow. Last spring, it expanded to include Marble Elementary one day a week. The activities also have evolved throughout the years, Carman said. For instance, a music and theater session was held in the past.

"We try to have a variety because children do come year after year," she said.

Children like Elizabeth Jones.

The fourth-grader participated in Friendshop last year, too, and she has taken sessions focusing on geography, art exploration and science.

On Egypt Day, Elizabeth, 9, molded a piece of aluminum foil into a snake and attached it to the foil band wrapped around the crown of her head to make an Egyptian princess headpiece. She also wrote her name in hieroglyphics, the ancient Egyptian system of writing.

"I thought it'd be fun learning about the countries," Elizabeth said.

The children aren't the only ones who enjoy Friendshop. Their parents also are supportive of the program, Carman said. Many sign up to bring snacks to the sessions, and several said they were appreciative of the small fee to enroll. At Pinecrest, it costs just $8 a semester for each session a child attends, and $10 at Marble.

But the ultimate value, some parents said, is the education.

"They clearly are using enrichment," said Don Jones, Elizabeth's father. "The effect and the enrichment in the system are a hallmark of East Lansing."

The MSU student volunteers are the ones teaching, but that doesn't mean they're not learning.

"It really gives me experience working with younger kids," Davis said. "You learn from them as much as they learn from you.

"In the end, I'll probably get a lot from it."

This is Heber's third semester as a Friendshop volunteer, and he is co-coordinating the Wednesday geography sessions with Carman this fall.

It's not his first time in a teacher role, having worked as a preschool camp counselor for two summers and as a fourth-grade student teacher through a class at his high school, but Heber said he continues to learn about children through his work with Friendshop.

"Probably the most rewarding thing is (the children) actually being excited to see you," said Heber, who hopes to be an elementary school teacher. "There will be the kids that will run up to you and give you hugs because they're excited to see you.

"You just get more experience with kids, and with more experience, you're going to become a better teacher."