Volunteers of the Month – October 2024

Chris Snur

What motivated you to start volunteering at School on Wheels?
I’ve always been passionate about anything and everything STEM from a young age, and as I grew older, I realized I also love teaching and sharing my excitement for learning with others. I want to be a part of moving towards equity in education, and when I heard about School on Wheels from a coworker of mine, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

Can you share the most memorable and rewarding moment you have had so far at School on Wheels?
Recently, my student asked me to help him work on interview techniques to apply for a part-time job. Weeks and weeks went by, and at each session he would tell me about the handful of new places he applied to and heard nothing from, but finally, after months, he landed one. This was one of my happiest moments in recent memory, and I have so much admiration for his dedication and perseverance.

What advice would you give to a new volunteer at School on Wheels?
I would tell them to absolutely give it a try! It’s a great way to give back to your local community, and is a learning opportunity not just for the students, but for the tutors too!

Moira Nelson

What motivated you to start volunteering at School on Wheels?
A friend invited me to a meeting of her Rotary Club to hear a presentation by a
School on Wheels volunteer ambassador. I had just retired and was looking for volunteer work I might enjoy. I love reading with and to young people, and I have personal experience of the value of literacy as a foundation for a life of learning, self-discovery, and independence, so the idea of tutoring beginning readers appealed to me as a way I could be of real help to people.

Can you share the most memorable and rewarding moment you have had so far at School on Wheels?
It might have been the moment just a month or so ago when my student Amir was working on the Summer Fun on Wheels Growth Mindset SEL activity series. One of the activities included a link to a Sesame Street video in which Janell Monai sings “The Power of Yet.” As we watched it, he spontaneously began to snap his fingers and dance, joyfully and uninhibitedly, along with Janelle and the kids in the video. That was the week he told me he wants to be a pianist when he grows up and that he’s been teaching himself to play with the help of YouTube videos. I realized that in the years I’ve been tutoring him he’s demonstrated over and over that he loves music and has many musical gifts. He and his mom and I have decided to apply for an SOW scholarship to see if we can get him some piano lessons.

What advice would you give to a new volunteer at School on Wheels?
One difficult lesson I have had to learn while tutoring is to wait a bit before jumping in and correcting every little mistake my students make. More often than not, if I give him time, Amir will realize on his own that he has gotten something wrong and will ask me about it or will go back and correct it himself. I think this strengthens his ability to self-monitor and evaluate his work for himself. Somewhat related to this discovery is that I have learned the value of reviewing the video recording of my latest tutoring session before I prepare the lesson plan for the next one (the ability to record the sessions is one of the benefits of tutoring online). I usually discover that Amir has been understanding the material better than I realized when we were working on it and paying better attention than I gave him credit for. Watching the videos also helps me to analyze the reasons for any problems he may be having and to recall the best of the ideas for future lessons that inevitably fill my head (to the point of distraction) in the course of each session. In short, these recordings reveal all kinds of important details that failed to capture my attention while the hour was flying by.

What inspires you to overcome any challenges that arise with tutoring?
It often helps if I remind myself that I don’t have to give Amir a complete course in, say, fourth-grade math or grammar or social studies in order to be useful to him, but that just spending small amounts of time practicing various applicable skills will go some way to reinforce and advance the work he’s doing in school. When there is a persistent difficulty of any kind that I can’t solve on my own or in collaboration with Amir and his family, I know I can rely on the School on Wheels team for support, training, encouragement and, always, inspiration.

What is your favorite part of tutoring your student?
Amir, like my previous students Nathalie and Nichole, is my bridge to a much
younger generation than that of any of the people I am close to. I constantly need to ask him for help understanding just about anything he says to me. He must be mystified by my ignorance but has kindly been introducing me to many of the popular books, movies, toys, activities, etc., that inform the universe of kids today.

Emily Hornsby

What motivated you to start volunteering at School on Wheels?
I had just moved to LA and I wanted to get involved in my new community. I heard about School on Wheels through a neighbor and signed up.

Can you share the most memorable and rewarding moment you have had so far at School on Wheels?
My student, J.R., wanted to focus on improving his reading. At the end of this past school year, J.R.’s mom sent me a photo of him receiving an award at school for Most Improved Reading.

What advice would you give to a new volunteer at School on Wheels?
You don’t have to be a perfect tutor. Affirming your student is easy and it’s the most important thing you can do.

What inspires you to overcome any challenges that arise with tutoring?
I know that it’s worth it. J.R. and I have built a relationship of trust and it’s important to me to maintain that.

What is your favorite part of tutoring your student?
So many things! He loves animals and we’ve learned about sloths and monkeys together. I am also inspired by his resilience.