Author: Jacob Miller
Last Monday, November 19, Oxy students and faculty met in the Salisbury room for “Talking About Tutoring,” a relaxed gathering which showcased some of the tutoring programs currently operating within the college community. The discussion was largely informal and served to educate interested students on tutoring opportunities available.
Occidental’s Director of Neighborhood Partnerships Jesus Maldonado (’00) opened the meeting by highlighting the strengths of Oxy’s Gear Up initiative, a federal grant-based program intended to augment the placement of public school students into postsecondary education. The program has grown in recent years into one of the largest community outreach initiatives at Occidental College.
“We currently have 700 peer mentors servicing 4,000 students across four schools,” Maldonado said. He noted that Gear Up especially caters to those with a strong interest in direct mentor relationships with area students.
“Gear Up has a really big presence in high schools in northeast LA. Lincoln High School, for example, is fully staffed by Oxy students,” Maldonado said. In describing his role as the program’s facilitator, he said that after a short training session tutors are paired up into area schools. “The idea is that the tutors are available to help those in the classroom who are most struggling,” he said.
Desiree Zamorano of the Community Literacy Center also spoke about the education department’s community outreach effort, which seeks to improve literacy among local elementary school students. “Students can enroll in EDU140 where we visit local schools and read to children several times a week, helping them to learn basic reading and speaking skills,” Zamorano said. “You don’t need to be an education minor to be a part of this project—all you really need is a desire to help young children learn,” she said.
Professors Ron Buckmire and Alan Knoerr of the math department also presented on the evolving relationship between Oxy and Franklin High School in MATH201, a collaborative math education course. “We wanted to improve education in schools around Oxy, and through community meetings we found that algebra was a big problem at Franklin,” Knoerr said, in describing the discussions that gave birth to the project. “We talked with the teachers [at FHS] for about a year trying to figure out what we could do to help. We’re now working actively with their faculty. This semester, our work will culminate in a ‘Math Day’ over at Franklin planned by Oxy students and Franklin professors,” he said.
All presenters stressed that students curious about tutoring shouldn’t be turned off by departmental affiliations or time commitments. “We base everything around your class schedules,” Zamorano said. “And the math is very basic,” Professor Knoerr assured.
Another meeting is planned for the spring semester.
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