Tutor Name
Susmita Gorai (12th Grade [2010])Tutee Name
Lara MumaAbout Us
When I joined the 121 Reach Team during second semester, I was a little nervous. I was not sure whether I would get along nicely with my tutee and whether or not I would succeed in helping her to the best of my ability. However, my fellow tutor friends assured me the experience would be entertaining and I trudged along with them and into the Taylor Road Middle School campus.
When I first entered Taylor Road, I felt a rush of emotions shine over me. It was the same hallway that I had last entered three years ago. I passed by familiar classrooms full of teachers teaching while students watched attentively.
As the final bell rung, I grew a little bit more nervous. I would meet my tutee in a matter of minutes. Fan Fan, the president of 121 Reach, assigned me to tutor in the subject of Language Arts. When a girl requested assistance in Advanced Language Arts, I knew I had found my tutee.
I let my tutee decide where to sit down. She was initially shy so we sat down next to another tutor-tutee pair that also happened to include one of my fellow tutor friends. After some short introductions, we began. I remember the first thing I tutored Lara in was some essay structure development. I tried my best to answer Lara’s questions and concerns and I immediately noticed how responsive she was towards my comments. This made me relax immediately. I knew right then we would get along just fine.
As time passed and tutoring progressed, I noticed shy Lara had become talkative Lara. We gradually got to know each other better and I gradually began to take better notice of her strengths and areas of improvement. Each session started beginning with miniature conversations on our weekends instead of the usual rushed “hellos” we muttered earlier.
I think the most interesting memory so far from tutoring has been the day I gave Lara some important advice on managing stress. I had noticed that Lara had appeared a little stressed out as she attended our tutoring sessions. I found out she had numerous extracurricular activities that were apparently taking up too much time. I explained to Lara that a balance of activities and academics were necessary as I was in high school and I knew what it was like when stress is unhealthy. Lara appeared to understand my advice well and this made me happy. I felt on that one day that I had made a big difference on someone’s life. It made me feel like a hero. All I can say is that tutoring has definitely changed my outlook on life. I have gained greater enthusiasm in teaching others as well as learning from them. I give credit to 121 Reach for giving me this amazing opportunity. I cannot wait to continue tutoring next year!
