2010 STAR Award Adult Volunteer: Steve Terranella

Photo by Mark Bugnaski
Story by Chris Killian
Kalamazoo Gazette

The Kalamazoo community might want to thank Steve Terranella for retiring early.

During a 27-year career as a project engineer at Kellogg, Terranella had little time for extracurricular activities. He traveled a lot and worked even more. His free time was spent with his family.

But after taking an early exit from his job in December 2005, the 60-year-old turned his focus to the needs of his community – and kids in particular.

“We’ve got some problems in this community with education,” he said. “This is my small way of giving back. I don’t know, it’s just something I feel I need to do.”

Terranella is in his fifth year volunteering at Kalamazoo Central High School, where two days a week he tutors students in math and science. A ” Promise Promoter,” he pushes the importance of college on students and urges them to take advantage of The Kalamazoo Promise scholarship program.

He is so dedicated that he takes course textbooks home with him so he can study up on subjects and be a better tutor and has developed learning resource binders for each subject on which he tutors students.

It’s not that uncommon for students at the school to think that Terranella, or “Mr. T” as many of the call him, is a teacher. He sets high expectations of the students, but is always there with encouraging words.

For his efforts, Terranella has been named a STAR award winner in the Adult volunteer category.

When it comes to volunteering, “you don’t see the fruits of your labor like you do in business,” he said. ” But I see kids I’ve helped and I see the hope they have.”

Terranella also serves as president of the West Main Hill Neighborhood Association, a neighborhood where he’s lived since 1977. He’s attended to neighborhood concerns, supported neighborhood businesses and energized the area when shared concerns arise.

In addition, he is a Big Brother with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentoring program.

But it all comes back to education for Terranella. The empowerment, opportunity and success that come with education are all hopes he has for the students he works with week in and week out.

“When you click with a kid and that light goes off in their head, it’s encouraging,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. When the kid goes ‘Ah, I get it.’ That’s such a great feeling.”