Tutoring group teaches students in overlooked area

Batman, a wizard and Francis the Ladybug are in a middle school cafeteria early Saturday morning. What happens next?

They tutor English and math – algebra, to be precise.

It was “Superhero Day” last weekend for the Glendale Learning Program, the first theme day of the year for a UCLA student-run tutoring group that teaches students at Wilson Middle Schoolin Glendale on Saturdays.

Elliott Gomez, a fourth-year psychobiology student and executive director of the Glendale Learning Program, said the group focuses on helping students struggling with math and English while also trying to keep the teaching fun.

Members of the group, part of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Community Service Commission, usually tutor the students one on one, and include a fun educational activity in its curriculum every week, as well as providing healthy snacks for the kids, Gomez said.

Gomez, who was Superman for the day, said the school as a whole has above-average test scores according to California’s education standards, but their program focuses on helping a group of academically struggling students, many of whom are from low income or immigrant backgrounds.

The group has helped Armenian immigrant students who can speak, but not write English, and is currently tutoring a recent Colombian immigrant to learn the language, Gomez said.

“(Wilson Middle School) is often overlooked because it is in one of the nicer areas of Los Angeles, but (the reality is that) some of these kids don’t know (the basics),” he said.

The school does not offer any after-school
programs, so both these students and their parents love the Glendale Learning Program’s tutoring, said Sona Arakelyan, assistant principal at Wilson Middle School.

“It’s extra support for the kids who need it (and) it has always been valuable to the school,” Arakelyan said.

In the school’s cafeteria Saturday, the soft squeaks of Expo markers on whiteboards and light chatter filled the room, with an occasional laugh cutting through the commotion. Study time had begun.

Two tables away from Gomez, Ruby Escelante and her two sixth grade students, Anna and Monica, finished some math problems on dividing with fractions.

As the girls began decorating their folders, the fourth-year Spanish student explained that she has always wanted to be a teacher and that volunteering with the Glendale Learning Program has given her a chance to practice working with students.

Escelante has volunteered with the Glendale Learning Program for two years. Last year she was named “Volunteer of the Year.”

Escelante said that she was initially scared that her teaching would not be helpful to the student, but that once she began volunteering she did not have time to worry.

“These kids come to you and you’re the adult,” Escelante said. “You don’t have time to freak out about whether they like you or not, because they need your help.”