Thursday, September 19, 2013

Tutoring at the Rosedale Center for GIrls


At Fordham University, students are encouraged to put the faith and the lessons they learn in the classroom into action in the surrounding community and the world as a whole. Consequently, Fordham offers so many ways to get involved with helping others.

As someone who actively seeks community service opportunities and hopes to someday become a teacher, I was very interested when I learned about a tutoring opportunity at the Rosedale Center for Girls, a division of the South Bronx Educational Foundation.

Each Thursday last semester, a Rosedale van picked up Fordham girls, including myself, from campus and brought us directly to the Rosedale Center, a three-story house located in the Bronx. An afternoon at the Rosedale Center typically consisted of Diana, the student I was paired with, and I working one-on-one, to solve math problems, complete grammar exercises, read books, review her past tests, and prepare for her upcoming tests.

            
While academic growth is obviously a huge component of the Rosedale Center Tutoring Program, personal achievement and character development are just as important. Essentially, I served not only as Diana’s tutor but as her mentor as well. As we met each week, Diana and I developed a bond by talking about things that were happening in her life with her family, her classes, her friends, and her activities outside of school. As I tried to teach her what it meant to be a woman with strong morals and character, I found myself striving to be a better version of myself. My experience at Rosedale definitely surpassed all of my experiences at Fordham thus far, and I certainly hope to work with Diana again this semester.

No comments:

Post a Comment