Perspective Page 3: teaching and learning?

hundreds of penn students head west each day to tutor Jon Austrian huddles over a small desk in the library of Lea Elementary School with Eyob, a Lea eighth-grader. It's all part of today's geometry lesson, and the work is challenging, but hardly impossible for the 14-year-old. "Can you show me the perimeter on this desk?" Austrian asks, after glancing at Eyob's homework problems. Eyob traces the edges of the desk with his fingers. "Good," Austrian says. "Now what would be the area?" Austrian is one of several hundred Penn students who have committed themselves to working with school children in West Philadelphia. For Austrian and for the other students, for the Step-One program and for other Penn tutoring programs, the goals are roughly the same: To facilitate a mentor relationship with area children and to motivate them to achieve in and out of the classroom. "We try to focus on building good study skills and academic habits, and motivating [kids] to want to learn and to put in the effort to work, and giving them the confidence to know that they can learn," explains College senior Monica Regunathan, the team leader at Rhoads Elementary. Academically, Penn students work with their tutees -- who range from elementary- to high school-aged students -- in disciplines including reading, math, spelling and even SAT preparations. At Rhoads Elementary -- located at 50th and Parrish streets -- tutoring is run through the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. Once the assignments are done, the groups spend the remainder of their hour together doing something fun, like drawing or making a puzzle. And the tutors are often not just tutors -- they are friends. Wharton senior Rachel Dahan has been tutoring Dominic Collins, a third-grade student at Rhodes, for two years now. "I love Dominic," she says in the van on the way to the school. "I love hanging out with him. They've seen each other outside of the project, too. Collins visited her on campus one weekend -- "just to hang out," Dahan said. They spent the day together, going to McDonald's, a wrestling match and even to the Penn Bookstore. The West Philadelphia Tutoring Project has been reaching out into community schools for more than a decade now. Currently, over 450 Penn students are involved with the project and commit a minimum of an hour each week to tutor children in reading, writing and math. The West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, founded in 1986, was a joint initiative between Penn, the College of Pharmacy and Drexel University. The project continues now through Civic House, a hub for community service on Penn's campus. Tutors work in 18 area elementary, middle and high schools, where they work one on one with kids for one hour each week. While tutors don't get formal training as teachers, they have support from the WPTP in the form of orientation sessions. Tutoring sessions for both programs last between 45 minutes to an hour each week. Though the allotted time may be short, those involved are quick to point out that the quality of the sessions outweighs the quantity. "I think that it is a very worthwhile hour. Even if there is no improvement in how the student reads, there is an improvement in? critical skills," says College senior Sarah Zimbler, the co-coordinator of the WPTP. The Step-One program has a similar story, albeit a much longer one. Currently in its 28th year, the initiative has long been one of the most popular of Kite and Key's activities and is the oldest volunteer tutoring program in Philadelphia, according to Larry Serinsky, the Lea School coordinator for Step-One and the school counselor. Originally founded in 1972, Step-One has evolved into an institution at Lea at 47th and Locust. Currently, there are 68 Step-One tutors, although past years have seen more than 100 per semester. With so many tutors, it's hard to walk into Lea and not find one at work in the library. College junior Renee Folcik, a Step-One Coordinator who has been involved in the program since her freshman year, points out that what keeps Penn students interested in tutoring is that the rewards are mutually beneficial. "You're not just helping a student learn, you're learning from the experience. These kids teach you a lot too," Folcik says. Eleven Penn students are now paired with enthusiastic third-graders. They work on class projects like book reports, they practice their reading skills on one of the many books handy, they play games -- and they simply talk. WPTP tutors, for instance, not only have a weekly session with their tutees, but they also exchange phone numbers and talk on the phone at least once a week. The tutors are assigned to those students who are at risk for repeating a grade level or who might need additional help in a subject. Marian McDonnell, site coordinator for the WPTP and librarian at Rhoads, says she appreciates the support the Penn tutors provide. "Our children are really needy. They need literacy in their life, they need people to work one on one with them, they need caring." She sees the presence of Penn tutors not only as an immediate resource, but also as an encouragement for Rhoads students to start thinking about the future. Though Penn students enjoy all their work with Step-One, their biggest satisfaction comes when they see their students improve. "When you spend a couple of weeks working on a problem, and then finally? your student gets it," Austrian says. CARRIE RHODES is a third-grade teacher at Rhoads, who has 26 students in her class. She says she appreciates the attention the WPTP tutors provide her students. Indeed, with so many students in her classroom, sometimes it's hard to give the children much individualized attention. "I can't always get to each kid, or spend as much time as I need to with each kid," she says. In the library of the school, Rhodes explains how attached the children become to their tutors. "My kids rely on [the weekly tutoring session]. I've had kids cry when their tutor did not show up. They look forward to that all week. The worst thing I've had to tell some kids is 'your tutor is not here today, your tutor is sick.'" The children need the extra attention, she says, that they don't get in the classroom or at home. "I think it's important to have a good rapport with the students. They just look to you as more than just a tutor, somebody they could talk to as a friend." She might as well be talking about Austrian and Eyob, who have bonded outside of the classroom by going to a Penn basketball game together and by attending Step-One's Spring Clean -- a one-day activity during which tutors and tutees clear up the area around the school -- together. After cleaning up around Lea, Austrian and Eyob played a game of basketball themselves. Austrian jokes with Eyob, a basketball enthusiast who stands above six-feet tall, about winning the game as they walked out of the library, on the way back to Eyob's classroom after their tutoring session ended. And then there's Dahan, who is graduating next month. Her experience has been so meaningful that she plans to continue her relationship with Dominic after she leaves. "I'm gonna come and visit, and he's gonna come visit me in Baltimore," she said, while working with him on an assignment.