Students Helping Other Students and Themselves
By Susan Motander
Published: Thursday, December 10th, 2009
At Monrovia High School there is a unique tutoring program going on. Students, some from local colleges including Citrus, Cal Poly Pomona and PCC, and some from the high school itself, are helping other students. The tutoring takes place after school in the library. Students looking for help show up, sign in and sit down to start studying. The college students and honor students from the high school are on hand to help. In the process, the students helping are gaining as much as those they are assisting. It is truly a win-win situation.
The program, called Pro-Active Tutoring or P.A.T. brings 13 college age tutors and 7 Monrovia High Honors students together every Tuesday and Thursday. An average of sixty-five students gather at each session. They seat themselves at tables designated with a particular area of study, Math, Language Arts or Science. The students begin their studies and when they need help they simply raise their hands and a tutor in that area comes to their assistance.
Dr. Victoria Schumacher, the new Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for the Monrovia Unified School District, attended the tutoring session earlier this week. She said that the college students served as good role models for the high school students. She also pointed out that the tutoring being done by the Monrovia High School students was more than just Community Service. “The tutoring is equally beneficial to the service providers and the recipients,” she said.
This concept was echoed by two of the MHS honor student volunteer tutors, Melissa Wette and Diana Ortiz. Wette said that while it was nice to help others, “it is really cool when you realize that they get it.”
Ortiz said that tutoring was especially important to her as she was giving back. She explained that English was her second language and that when she was in middle and elementary school, she had needed tutoring while learning to speak English. “I know how it feels to fall behind, she said. As an aside, Diaz’s current class ranking is #7.
Karmin Garcia and Beca Ciccioni, two of the students who came in for tutoring, said that as best friends they enjoyed studying together. They were finishing each other’s sentences as they explained why they appreciated the program. Garcia said she liked “the way students put things” with Ciccioni chiming in to add, “They put it in our language.”
The girls agreed that not only was the assistance of the tutors beneficial, but they were often able to explain things to each other. “One of us sometimes understands something first and then can explain it to the other.” That comment was a collaborate effort from both girls.
The direct benefits to the students are timely and very important at this time of tight budgets. Schumacher noted that “the program is especially helpful in these lean financial times.” She explained that when money is tight schools are not able to offer students as many opportunities to make up classes. If a student fails a class there were fewer opportunities to make up those credits and students could fall into what she called “Credit Deficit Mode.”
This program is not a drain on the district’s tight budget. This program receives 75% of its funding through federal work study funds. The balance comes from community donations with Monrovia Reads, the Monrovia Rotary Club and City monies through the Library Literacy programs regularly supporting P.A.T.
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