Students of the Month – April 2015
Region 1 – Los Angeles
Yesenia, 9th Grade. When I first met Yesenia, she was shy about speaking the little English that she knew. She, however, is not a shy person. Soon enough, her bubbly personality lit up our sessions. As I continued to work with her, I realized how intelligent Yesenia is. Her English dramatically improved; I was constantly surprised with her progress and impressed by her thought process. Whenever we worked on writing sentences for her English homework, I was moved by what she asked me to help her translate. When I helped her spell words in English, she would write them down correctly. I always found it funny that she would pat herself on the back, saying, “Me amo,” or in English, “I love me.” She’s such a positive individual with a great sense of humor. It has been a wonderful experience working with her!
Amarilis Bolaños, Tutor
Region 3 – Westside
Dillon, 2nd Grade. I had the privilege of meeting Dillon this winter. Dillon is a great student who is full of energy, intelligence, and a rather contagious optimistic attitude that made our tutoring sessions a blast. Each week he was ready to tackle his next homework assignment and was motivated to finish his weekly assignments days in advance. When we weren’t working hard on homework, we had interesting conversations that expressed his imaginativeness and genuine curiosity for all things math and science. This included conversations about the subtle wonders of Newton’s Laws of Motion and the physics of Newton’s Cradle! I have no doubt that Dillon has the potential to do great things in his future and to achieve his dream of becoming a scientist. I wish him all the best!
Ruben Maldonado, Tutor
Region 4 – Long Beach, San Pedro
A’janna, 5th Grade. I feel as if I’ve hit the jackpot with my student A’janna! She is curious about all things science related, which has challenged me to prepare interactive projects and experiments for us to do. She often tries to finish all her homework BEFORE I arrive when I let her know I have materials for a new project. I greatly enjoy our sessions and the opportunity to encourage her love of science.
In the photo, we sewed together the major organs of the human digestive system, and used pipe cleaners to represent the small and large intestines. A’janna asked for a project on the digestive system because a different group in her class was assigned this topic and she wanted to learn more about it. Her curiosity knows no bounds!
Jessica Prosper Seymour, Tutor
Region 5 – Echo Park, Hollywood, Highland Park, Silverlake, Mid-City
Madison, 12th Grade. When I first met Madison, she greeted me with a loud “Hi Miss!” She explained to me that she had not turned in a single Algebra assignment since starting school because she doesn’t know how to do the math. Over the past 2 1/2 months, Madison has amazed me with her progress. She understands and retains what I show her and works hard the entire time we are together. I was so excited when she came home from school one day with her first graded assignment in Algebra. Madison got her first A and I couldn’t be more proud of her! I truly believe she will become an awesome nurse one day!
Way to go, Madison!!
Ruba Hsen, Tutor
Region 7 – San Fernando Valley
Jeremy, 5th Grade. Jeremy is a 5th grader who has a genuine love of learning and a mind that works as fast as a bullet train. He’s a high spirited young man who has learned to channel his energy in positive directions. Jeremy is considerate of the children and adults around him, always offering to help others and do more than is expected of him. He expresses himself articulately and has a wonderful sense of humor. Our sessions have consisted of completing homework and reviewing any concepts he doesn’t understand. We then chat about the content in his reading comprehension and other issues in his life. Finally, as a reward for his consistently excellent work and attitude, we play a game. Of all the games at his shelter, and there are dozens of them, Jeremy nearly always picks Scrabble, which happens to be my all-time favorite game. It’s been a joy to share my skills and knowledge of this challenging game with a boy who absorbs the information like a pro. I hope I’m making a difference in this incredible boy’s life. Perhaps one day, when he’s a successful adult, Jeremy will remember the lady who enjoyed his company, laughed at his jokes, marveled at his intelligence, and enjoyed playing Scrabble with him.
Debbie Bloom, Tutor
Region 10 – Southern Orange County
Bruce, 6th Grade and JR, 5th Grade. We are amazed at Bruce’s giftedness in seeing patterns in mathematical brain teasers! He loves tackling difficult problems and often shows us alternative ways to find an answer. Sometimes we feel like we are the ones being tutored! He is so upbeat and never runs out of things to say. Bruce is an analytical thinker with an adventurous spirit.
JR comes to sessions ready to work! If he completes his homework assignments before the tutoring session ends, he is open to extra review problems or mathematical brain teasers. We can always count on JR to share interesting facts that he is learning from his science class. He has a love for learning new things…and did we mention his love for paper airplanes?! We would not be surprised if one day he is building real planes and flying them too!
Anne and Cameron Deguzman, Tutors
Online Tutoring
Kaliyah, 2nd Grade. Each tutoring session I have with Kaliyah is filled with enthusiasm and humor! She is always excited to approach complex math problems and apply newly learned concepts to spelling and reading exercises. She has also developed a habit of writing down specific concepts that she struggled with during the session. She does this towards the end of the session and then studies these concepts during the week. During the following sessions, I quiz her on the concepts that she originally struggled with, and she is able to answer all of my questions with ease. I highly admire her work ethic because she makes the effort to study outside of our tutoring sessions. Such qualities and habits will pave the way for a bright future for Kaliyah.
According to Kaliyah’s teacher:
Kaliyah received 100% on her spelling test this week and she is on grade level now. Kaliyah says that her favorite part of tutoring is when “I get to write out all of my math problems and if I get it wrong my tutor allows me to do it again!”
Shivi Singh, Tutor