A New Tutor’s Perspective
I am a Coordinator in the Office of Community-Based Learning at Stonehill College. Through the work in my office, I am able to spend a fair amount of time in the Brockton community, which I have grown to love. The best part of my job is sending students off to work in different agencies. They are getting direct experience working in the community. Though I love the organizing and coordination my job allows, I do miss being able to serve alongside students and interact with people that my students have the privilege of getting to know. With the encouragement of Joanna, I decided it was time to start volunteering—and since I love kids, I thought being a School on Wheels tutor would be a great way to do some direct service and give back to Brockton.
I started off tutoring one hour a week at the David Jon Louison Center. Though I had been there before, it had been during the day when most of the kids are at school. What a joy it was to walk into the shelter and see lots of little kids running around, with backpacks getting ready for tutoring. I was a little nervous going into my first tutoring session. I didn’t know what to expect but I just assumed that the kids would not want to sit for an hour and do homework. However, we started off just fine. My student is in high school and had some spelling words. I always loved English when I was her age so it was fun to go over different tenses of words and have her practice writing them out. It helped us establish a good rapport—starting off with a subject we both seemed to enjoy. Then we moved into math, which has never been a strong subject of mine. But I did the best I could given the material was not my forte. (I secretly don’t know how those kids can do trigonometry and I try so hard not to say, “Don’t worry. You will never need this in real life.”)
At the end of tutoring, I felt great about this mentorship. As I turned to the staff to say goodbye, I was asked to stay another hour and tutor a middle school student. This experience differed in that the workload was a different level but it was still just as much fun and enlightening about working with kids. I told the staff I didn’t mind staying two hours every week if they needed an extra pair of hands.
Next thing I knew, I was tutoring three hours a week at two different sites. It has been a pleasure getting to meet the site coordinators and work with an array of kids. I love the great relationships I am building with kids as well as knowing I am helping my community. I would encourage anyone with the time and desire to tutor for School on Wheels. Overall, I think I am getting more out of the experience of helping someone than my students are getting from our sessions!
Kate Rafey, Volunteer Tutor
