Final Blog

     I'm an idiot, and I forgot to do my last blag post, so here it is. I coincidentally did a reflection post as my last blog for some reason, so this one will be about the final week or so of school. So, I took my last final on Friday, the day this should've been posted. Oops. I didn't realize how I early I finished everything until I started asking other people. Here I am writing this as my other friends are scrambling for their finals. When I tell my friends from back home that I'm already done with school, they tell me how they still almost have a month left until they can say the same.

     So, being that I finished everything up on Friday, I could've gone home but I didn't. Friday was also the day I got my move-in information for the summer, which is the time slot in which I can move my stuff from White Hall to IV. My move-in day is April 29, which is super inconvenient, and since I finished on a Friday, bus tickets were expensive for that weekend, so I couldn't go home on a cheap ride. Since my parents work and there aren't any buses that go directly to the amazing Andover, New Jersey, I couldn't take a bus during the week. So, I'm stuck here until my move-in day. Fortunately, though, I get to go home after for a couple of days before coming back here. I'm seeing Avengers: Endgame which I'm super excited about, because I'm a huge Marvel fan. I'm seeing it with my boys Joey and Jaiden when I get home.

     I'm kind of excited for summer classes. I have a very strong plan for how I want the summer to go. I'll go to class, I'll start working out again, which will be nice, and I'll start eating healthier. I'm also going to try to be active and outside as much as possible to enjoy the nice weather. So, it's looking like it's going to be football and spike ball all summer for me. My sister is coming up at some point too, and I think that'll be fun. She hasn't had the chance to visit since I got to school, so this'll be the first time. After classes, I get to go home for three weeks, which is going to be exciting. It's not enough time to do anything big, but enough time to see everyone before I leave for Egypt.

My Final Blog for This Class

Well, here it is, my final blog post. I am kind of happy that this weekly blog posting is going to be over. Please do not get me wrong. I loved this class and it was a highlight of my spring semester. Weekly blog-posting, on the other hand, was really getting to me. In the beginning, it seemed like I would enjoy this assignment but only a month into the semester I have realized how troublesome it would actually be. It got even harder when I ran out of possible topics to write about. Oh well, I do not see a reason to ramble about it any longer, since this is my last blog post.

This class was indeed a great deal of interesting experience, despite all those hurdles with blog-posting and volunteering. Talking about volunteering, I have already written a reflection blog-post on my volunteering experience at OBrayn't. I do not think it is worth retyping the same thing all over again, but I would like to reiterate a short summary from that post. 

I was never fond of volunteering because of how frustrating and time-consuming it is. I have had some volunteering experience back in Uzbekistan and that only reinforced my position that it is not my cup of tea. When I realized that this class would involve volunteering as a part of the curriculum I was not really really happy about that. I had no choice but to comply and volunteer.  I would have never thought that one day I would be tutoring English to high school students. As a volunteering tutor, I have learned that tutoring at writers’ room was not only about English or writing in general, but about the communication between individuals and how collaborative work can help people achieve better results. 

After almost 20 hours of volunteering, I have to admit that it was worth it. I am glad that I was urged to do that. Because of this experience, I was able to expand my understanding of volunteering. However, I still think that volunteering is not my thing. 

Switching back to the in-class experience, once again, it was a blast. I would have never thought that a writing class in college could be so much fun. I was really surprised that our group bonded so quickly and turned out to be really supportive. I will miss those heated debates we had in class and of course everyone's favorite, attendance questions. I wish that all of my class could have this kind of attendance roll call. Alas, in some classes it would just cause pure chaos.  

I would like to end this last blog post by saying that this kind of experiences make our lives a bit brighter and keep us moving forward. 

Thank you very much for being so awesome and good luck everybody!

(A_G)

Final Blog Post

I did not expect to have the time that I did at 826 Boston. This has two meanings. The first meaning is literal. I did not know that the section of First Year Writing that I signed up for was going to be a service-learning section, so I did not expect to spend time at 826 Boston. The second meaning is that the experience that I thought I was going to have was completely different from the experience that I did have. After the long and thorough orientation, I expected the tutoring to be a blur of attempting to help kids at the John D. O’Bryant School but failing since I’m not the best at writing papers, and I was in the same position as the kids about a year ago. My class schedule conflicted with most of the tutoring times, so I ended up doing the evening tutoring on Mondays and Wednesdays. This meant that my tutoring would be at 826 Boston instead of at the O’Bryant School, and the students that I would be tutoring would be in elementary school instead of in high school.

On my first day of tutoring, I didn’t know how everything was run. Since there were already tutors for writing, but there weren’t any for math, I was asked to tutor math, which was surprising. My first day seemed incredibly fast, but I got to help a few kids. After that, it became easier every time I went. I got into the routine of helping kids and knowing how different subjects were taught at different tables, and I became better at pacing myself with the students. I was asked to tutor a different subject almost every time, and many times one student would stick with me to help him with all of his homework. I had a few kids who would routinely do this, so I got to know them pretty well.

Overall, I taught math, science, history, and english, often multiple subjects each day. As it got closer to the end of the semester, not as many students came to the evening tutoring sessions. On a few of these days, I was asked to help kids who were in the NOVA program. This program has students write a scientific research paper. I got to help with the research collection and the beginning of a first draft with one of the students. She was writing her paper on the effects of stress on students in elementary school, high school, and college.

Throughout my time at 826 Boston, I met new students, taught various subjects, and grew in my ability to help and communicate with kids. I also found the time that I spent there to be helpful to me because I learned more about my writing by reflecting on it and giving the good parts as advice. At first, I thought that tutoring would take up a lot of time and I would dread it, but it became a place for me to forget about my academics for a while and help the community, one student at a time.

Signing off, this is Adrian,

over and out.

last post

            Sadly, this is my last post. After a long semester of working with 826 volunteering, I could say that I’ve actually learned a lot. Coming into this experience, I had no idea what I was getting into. This is mostly because I no one ever told me this would be a service learning course, but, in the end, I am very glad it was. Before working at O’Bryant school, I did not have very much experience volunteering or even tutoring. I’ve always seen myself as a bad writer and hearing that we were about to have to teach these kids, who were barely any younger than I am, how to write seemed like a difficult task.

            When the first day came along, it did not seem any easier. I did not know how to approach the kids, or even what to do once I had. The training session that 826 provided us barely prepared me for what I was actually going to do. All they taught us about was what to say when talking with the kids, or what not to say, or how to help their writing. In the end the only thing they really need to prepare us for is that awkwardness when approaching a kid, teaching them to write was simple because they are high school kids, they are completely clueless, and you only need to teach them the basics. My first day I felt so weird just walking up to the students, kneeling next to them and saying hello, so awkward, it made it hard to teach.

            By the second session, I started getting into my groove. There are things you are supposed to do once you kneel that the training session never taught me, such as kneeling to their eye level, introducing yourself, having a conversation, creating a sense of comfort so the student will be more talkative, and better yet that helping them is just rewording their sentences. The students are really smart already, all I really have had to do was make them understand that their writing is their own, not the teachers’, and to write their theses for something they believe in and are interested in. My main method for trying that was to make sure the student always explained to me their thesis out loud, without looking at the computer, and then dig into it further by questioning some of their points making them elaborate and discover perspectives they have not seen. These were my intentions; I hope I was successful in them. I came with this strategy simply because it is something somewhat do in my own writing, and that’s minly how I learned from them. Being understanding of what it is I do in my writing, allows me to do it better. Now when I write I try to always see each point from as many perspectives as possible as my make my arguments more thorough.

Damn dude, hitting me in the feels

Okay so starting this off by saying that I have had an amazing Freshman year of college, a statement I NEVER expected myself to say. This year was truly something special for me and I found myself blossoming into a whole new person. I allowed myself to be true to me for once instead of being true to what people think I am. And this writing course, oddly enough, was one of the factors that helped that come to fruition. The discussions that were spawned allowed me to really speak my mind and listen to other's opinions and form new ones for myself. So, being completely honest, I will miss this class. Now, I could go on about my love for Sebastian Stockman and his Wednesday/Friday 11:45 to 1:25 First Year Writing class, but that's not the purpose of this blog post.

I'm here to talk about my experience at the O'Bryant. I don't think I could have been more forlorn about beginning my tutoring session on the first day, and I definitely think that my attitude towards the day impacted my actual experience. I thought the first day was awful frankly. I did no meaningful work and found it impossible to connect with a single person in the room. Heather scared me, Claudia was following Heather's tailcoats, and Annie and Bryce were both incredibly quiet, and the students were either intimidated by me or had no interest in asking for help. I felt really alone for two hours and kind of wanted to cry (and that's not being dramatic). I felt more relieved than ever leaving the O'Bryant that day. The next 3 weeks or so went along a similar vein, mostly due to the work that the students were tasked to complete. It was all very preliminary work on an essay that I had no idea how to help with, so I didn't know how to help out, yet I was constantly being pressured to help. Once the first half was over, we went on Spring Break, and then upon coming back I noticed an immediate change in the dynamic at the Writer's Room. Heather suddenly eased off (just a little though), Claudia was a brand new person and she seemed more genuinely herself, Annie was energetic and passionate about the work she was doing, and Bryce was really kind and welcoming. The students were still intimidated and/or didn't want help with their work, but since these kids were older than the other class (also AP students) the dynamic was a fair amount less severe. I overall began enjoying my time more. The next two weeks of volunteering went better than the first four, but the real change came in the seventh week. When I walked into the room that Tuesday morning, I noticed one more face than normal, Kefi was there. Now I'm not saying that Kefi was a grace from God or anything, but there was a distinct difference in the room with her there. As a white kid in a school environment with primarily people of color, I felt like there was a difference of experience that I didn't have that the students I was working with did have. However, the kid's all acted very differently when Kefi was there. Obviously not trying to put her on the spot or point her out, but I do credit her as being one of the main reasons why I started enjoying my time more. Everyone got along swimmingly the last two weeks and when the final day came, I noticed that everything about that day was leagues better than the first. I was able to help more and do more significant work with the students thanks to my more positive mindset, and I ended the day with one major thought: I was way sadder about being done with tutoring than I expected. Not that I was SAD that it was over, but it was less of a "thank the lord I'm out". So that is my main takeaway from the O'Bryant. Attitude and environment has a significant effect on everything you do. I am going away from everything happy with what I have learned and overall knowing that I will continue on actively trying to make my attitude as positive as it can be.

So to end it off, if any of you actually read this, I hope you do the same as I learned to do. I have so much respect for each of you and I hope to maintain contact with you for the remainder of our college experience. I'll miss our time spent together this semester but I leave it knowing I am a better person because of you all, this time being completely dramatic.

For the last time this semester,
Peace and love from Ya Boi Calvin

End of Course Reflection

It’s so weird that this semester is over. Scratch that, that this school year is over. It literally feels like I moved in just a month or two ago and that I’ve barely started taking college classes. But that’s not the case at all. Just feels so weird and surreal I guess.

I’m sad this class is over. I remember hearing at orientation (I think) that First-Year Writing was a required course, and I wasn’t happy, but I was hopeful that I would not have to take it because I took a dual-credit world literature course in high school with Loyola University Chicago. I thought that this was similar enough to AP Lit that they would give me credit, but alas, I was only given elective credit. So, when I was signing up for this course last semester, I wasn’t thrilled about choosing a writing class, but I was adamant about finding a professor for FYW that had positive reviews. I’ve had my fill of subpar English teachers.

This class has been a different kind of challenge than the rest of my courses at college so far. Most of my courses have been business/economics courses, so they’ve all had a similar feel to them. This class has a much different vibe and I liked that change of pace. While many of my business class have been discussion based, I felt like most of the discussions had a predetermined outcome; there was always a reason we were having a certain discussion at a certain time. I didn’t feel that was the case when we had discussions in this class -- we would always have something that kicks off a discussion (very often an attendance question), and then the conversation would just kind of naturally flow for the rest of class.

Also, as I previously mentioned in past blog posts, I honestly was unaware that this class had a service learning component, so I was very surprised when it was mentioned like the first day of class. I was kind of excited when I knew this, and then after going a few times to the YMCA (where 826 held after-school sessions for a few weeks), I definitely wasn’t very into it and wasn’t looking forward to going each week. But, as time went on and I became more comfortable with 826 and all the students, I learned to like it a little more. When Cam and I went to our last service time last Thursday, so many of the students seemed so upset that we were leaving and it really touched me to know that I made a difference to the students (some of whom I didn’t even remember working with). Working at 826 made me realize how much I miss interacting with kids since I started going to school away from home. I’m glad 826 provided this opportunity for me.

I hope that my future English classes are like this one, even though I don’t expect to take many more (outside of Advanced Writing which is required). I really did like this English class a lot more than I’ve liked English classes in high school. Who knows… maybe I actually like English now?!

I’ll miss you Sebastian!

Lucas

826 Service Reflection

It was my first volunteering service to work for months with high school kids whom I feel the most relatable too since I was in the same position a year ago. Honestly, I thought that this was not going to turn out great. I thought that I would always be nervous with the new students and afraid to teach anything because I know that I do not have enough knowledge to teach. I remember the first time I went to the writing room with my classmates, and I said that I would want to gain the confidence to teach something to people. Well, the first day of volunteering was awkward as expected. I visited a lot of students in different classes that reminded me of myself back in high school. For 30 minutes, I had a chat with the students about questions that they were interested in college life. Well, that was simple to answer. Gaining slight confidence, I came back to meet new students, but I struggled a lot more than the last service day. One refused to let me sit beside him since he’s not too comfortable with new people. Others were in their world chatting about things besides their essays. I struggled really hard thinking when and where to fit and actually start talking; I expressed this in my previous post blogs. Fortunately, things got a little day by day. I realized that nobody is going to scream for help unless I step up to the students first and open a discussion about their life besides studying first. Then, when I ask about what they were doing, they start answering my questions actively and focus back on their essays or research papers. The anxiety of my lack of knowledge in writing disappeared as students kindly explained to me what was going on and asking specific areas they want to write about but can’t express. My previous blog posts were mostly positive: students were active, faculties gave structured schedules, and everything was fine. However, now going back to the comments, I think I was a bit flattering. There were several difficulties with communication that I wish to fix. I hope in the future, the staffs and faculties establish a simple activity so that the students and volunteers can create friendship and move forward easily with the writings. My advice for future volunteers in 826 Boston or any place is to recommend the activity and be always confident with yourself. Then, the students might also share their stories and opinions of their point of view in writing.

The End >:(

Exactly thirteen months ago, I got accepted into Northeastern University. I accepted the admission and committed about two weeks later. I knew this decision would change my life completely. People always talk about how the years at university are their best and that they wish they could always live those days again (without paying the tuition, I'm sure), so I kept that in mind when I started. It has been almost two semesters in and I know it's not that long but they're right. I have already made some close, even best friends in my two semesters here and had so many wonderful and interesting experience I couldn't have elsewhere. It's a weird feeling now that my first year is coming to an end. 

First Year Writing is probably my favourite class this semester. It has been by far the most interesting class I have had and I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I probably said this before in another blog post but I know I should be appreciative of it because iI don't know if and when I will have a class like it. The class time was the best time. All the discussions we had about so many things, relevant and not so, really got me thinking about things I would not normally think about. Today, when asked what the best part of this class was, there were so many things I wanted to say but I only said one: the attendance questions. This, I know NO other class would do, solely because of how time consuming it can be (and we really went for it). Those questions facilitated interesting discussions, heated debates, and wonderful friendships. Whether we were talking about a cool experience, a weird encounter, or even a ridiculous trait, I feel like it helped us learn so much about each other. 

How common is it for a class to have a group chat? A group of random people from different places, backgrounds, majors, interests just co-existing peacefully can be difficult at times. Now have them actually get along and be friends? We really big brained. 

Service learning was an interesting addition to the class work. I was very cynical about that. I can't say that I completely changed my mind about it because I wouldn't do it again unless I had to. It's just not for me. But it was fun while it lasted. I had some good times in the writers room, it was nice to meet people and connect with them. The people there made it easy and made me feel like I was helpful. 

To end my last blog post, I just want to say that I will miss all of you and I hope we continue to see each other around and keep that group chat active. 

Love you, 

Kash 

Wrap Up

This looks like it’s going to be my final blog. I feel like Service Learning is a rare opportunity and I’m glad I took this class. From my experiences at O’Bryant, I’ve learned a lot of skills that I’ll take forever. I’ve developed my communication skills that are definitely very valuable in the future. Everyone should have communication skills in the future. It’s very important for networking. Through teaching the kids, I’ve learned how to talk to them and get what I have to say to them and get them to say what they want to say to me. At first I found it really hard to talk to the kids and get them to talk to me, but as the weeks have passed, it has become easier and they were definitely more willing to open up as well. At first, even if you spoon fed them the answer, they just wouldn’t talk to you. But last week, they came to us and asked for help; it’s honestly a good progression to see. Tutoring these kids taught me how to get what I wanted to say out. There are a lot of thoughts in my head, but it’s actually hard to get them out and on paper.  After this process, I feel like I’m better at doing that. In addition, I feel like I have more patience now. SInce the kids weren’t opening up and not answering the questions I was asking, I couldn’t help them, which they clearly needed. It required a lot of patience to withstand them, but I built it up. It’s pretty frustrating to do so. When you try and help them and their not meeting you halfway, it can get very frustrating. But I had to help them, so I became more patient. I helped them no matter if they didn’t answer, or didn’t do the assignment. This experience ties in with the class because it teaches the fundamentals of writing. Through teaching, it feels as if I have restored some of the basic writing skills myself.

A Reflection on tutoring O'Bryant

I remember being quite unsure that I was going to be able to successfully tutor writing to high schoolers at the start of the semester. Just four months ago. And at the orientation it seemed like everything they said and taught us made sense but I never thought I would actually be able to do all those things. Little did I know that it wasn't the actual tutoring that was hard, but getting the kids to want the tutoring was the issue. So the challenge when I finally arrived at O'Bryant laid in approaching the kids the right way, especially if they were very demotivated and unwilling to work. I had difficulties with this at first because I felt it wasn't clear to the students that they were SUPPOSED to get help, and that it wasn't their choice to. Claudia continually asked me to just sit down and directly help someone but I felt like that was a tad too aggressive. On the other hand, when I walked around asking if anyone wanted help, no one seemed to need it. When I finally figured out that I was simply supposed to walk up to someone that looked stuck, introduce myself, ask what they were writing about, and then give a suggestion, it became a lot easier. It was like a "you-didn't-see-this-coming" moment for them. In reality they ALL needed help but didn't realize it, so you had to familiarize yourself with them, maybe even try to relate to them and tell them about it, and then help them out without giving them the choice. I felt like this was a less aggressive way to do it.

On top of this I was initially worried that I had never read any of the books that they were reading and therefore wouldn't be able to help them. But I found that all I had to do was looking at whether or not the paragraphs made sense with the thesis. It didn't matter if I had read the book, I just had to ask them the same basic questions that I ask myself when I write a paper.

The one thing I think O'Bryant should maybe work on is grammar training as I said, because these kids are PLENTY smart and write about super difficult topics, and they practice writing thesis papers plenty as well, but they don't know how to write formally. I think there should be some more writing training in that regard.

My worst day at O'Bryant was this one day where I was standing in as a tutor in an actual class, with Claudia and two other tutors, and the kids were just so unwilling to work and didn't know they were supposed to bet help and looked very angry when you asked them what they were working on. One kids swore at Claudia and two girls were quite rude to me when I asked them about their papers and started laughing and stuff. This was already a tough day for me so I think I took it a little more to heart than I should have... But I have come to realize over the last couple of years that high schoolers just have no sense of care for other people and are generally inconsiderate...

Finally, yes, I have come to enjoy O'Bryant quite a bit, I actually do like tutoring and teaching, because the times where you re successful it is such a great win and it feels good to possibly have made a difference for a kid even if it were just another thought they have in their head when they write next time.

Thanks Sebastian for forcing/giving me this opportunity ahaha,
Caroline

O'Bryant Reflection

I went to the O’Bryant writer’s room early Tuesday mornings to tutor students. Not going to lie, it was really hard to get up early to go since most of my classes this semester begin a little later so I feel like my brain starts effectively functioning a little later in the morning.Going into tutoring I was expecting to follow up with one or two classes during my time there but I found that I was tutoring different classes, grades, and even subjects. I thought it would be most if not all english classes but I found myself tutoring math and history classes as well. It was definitely a unique experience, seeing the various assignments given for each subject. It was also nice to be able to talk to the teachers and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their assignments or any struggles we had with any of the students with them directly. It felt like my feedback was actually valuable and a lot of teachers actually applied our suggestions to future meetings with their classes. Seeing the different teaching styles and methods of each teacher was interesting and how they approach teaching some of the most basic concepts. It was also really helpful being able to ask the teachers what their expectations were for each assignment so that I could help the students more effectively and not give them contradicting information to what they’re being told in class. I noticed that a lot of the teachers had extremely structured, step-by-step processes on writing a paper and I initially thought it prevented the students from freely writing and determining what way they wrote best. But after talking to the teachers themselves and voicing this concern, I found that a lot of them were extremely accommodating and willing to make exceptions for specific kids who felt that they were suffering from completing the assignment in this way. They also said that the reason for so much structure was mainly for the students who had trouble beginning their assignments and was used as a guide to keep them progressing with their essays. After speaking to the teachers, I found myself wishing that my high school teachers were also like this and more accomodating, because I used to find myself stumped by the rigidity of what the teacher expected but they were unwilling to change assignments.One thing I really enjoyed during my time at O’Bryant was being able to meet so many students in the Boston community since most of the demographic I spend time with usually are just college students. Even though O’Bryant is a science and math school, a lot of the students had exceptional writing skills and I really enjoyed being able to brainstorm with them and discuss and listen to their perspectives and stances on controversial topics. Also one thing that really surprised me was that it seemed like I had some sort of authority over them as a college student even though I felt like one their peers, and they took a lot of my advice seriously and had respect for my opinions also which I was not expecting. I will definitely miss going to O’Bryant. I had never tutored at all before this and it was a unique learning experience even though I didn’t really see how it connected with my college writing class most of the time. I was able to learn how to give feedback more effectively and figure out my own thinking process when asked to think of something on the spot.

one last ride

greetings --

Here we are at the last blog post!! It’s been quite the semester here in ENGW 1111 and I have to say, it’s been a highly enjoyable time. Coming in to this class, similar to everyone else, I had no idea that it was service learning. To be honest, I didn’t even know that Northeastern had service learning classes and was pretty peeved to hear that I had to complete a service requirement to pass the class. I mean, it’s a writing class -- how was I supposed to know that it would have a service component? I was really apprehensive in the beginning. That training that we had at the 826 Office didn’t help either. I was completely not confident in my own abilities as a writer and hearing everything they said about trying to help students with their writing freaked me out. And my first few sessions of tutoring furthered those feelings. First off, waking up so early on a Thursday morning was straight up awful. It would be super cold and dark out and I never wanted to go to tutoring. Most of the time the kids were either unwilling to ask for help or didn’t actually need it, so I felt totally useless in the classroom. But the more time I spent there and the more effort I put into being a presence in the classroom, the more my experience improved. As I began to try and connect to the students more, not as students, but as people, I noticed that they became more open to discussing their work with me. I started to joke around with them and get to know them a little bit and suddenly, tutoring became a lot easier, and a lot more enjoyable. I would not go so far as to say that this was a life-changing experience for me, but it definitely affected me. I find myself being more aware of my writing process, especially how it differs from the rigid, structured process that the kids at the O’Bryant are forced to follow, and how I approach my assignments. I have come to enjoy writing a bit more, which is saying a lot for me. I appreciate the work that educators do a lot more than I ever did in high school and respect them a whole lot. Although those early mornings required every ounce of will in my body, I truly enjoyed my time at the O’Bryant. I learned a lot, got the chance to get to know some highly intelligent students, and always had a fun walk back to campus with Gracie to look forward to. So I’d like to say thank you, Sebastian and Dante. It’s been an absolute grind but I think I’m coming out on the other side much better for having done it. And thank you for what I’m sure will be one of my more fun classes in college :-)

Love,

Maya

and they all lived happily ever after

I can't believe that the first year of college is coming to an end. The time flew by but also went by super slowly at the same. I could go on forever given my first impressions on this year as a whole but I won't. I will say though that I will miss this class. I will miss seeing all of your beautiful faces. I will miss the frequent roasting and how annoying you guys were (lol jk…) It's crazy to think that we won't be in class together anymore.

On the note of service learning, I will admit that as I was deciding which first year writing class to take, I was hesitant about this course because I did not know how time consuming the service learning would be. I did not want to be stretched far beyond my capacity and I feared that the service learning would do that. However, I was willing to take the leap of faith considering how great the RateMyProfessor reviews on Stockman were, so I signed up. Although I was somewhat dreading the time commitment, I was really hoping to get to work with youth because I love working with kids. When I was told that we were being stationed with high school kids in O'Bryant, I was excited!! Not only was I being given the chance to tutor students, but I was given an opportunity to get a weekly break from Northeastern to work at a school that reminded me more of my high school back home (which was nostalgic). The only downfall I saw at that point was tutoring in English. I was confused as to how I would assist high schoolers writing essays when I still did not know how to even do that myself. As the weeks went by, and I realized how to be of service to the kids, it ended up being much better than I anticipated. Each week felt less nerve racking, and I started to feel more familiar with the process of getting into conversation with the students in the attempt of helping them. Looking back at the whole experience, I would not trade it for anything (expect maybe 3 billion dollars). I really felt as if the greatest take away was just learning about life from the perspective of other people. I loved knowing that I could be a sponsor of literacy (eou) for other students and it made me really intentional about how I was behaving around them. I wanted to instill hope that they could achieve everything that they set their minds to. I really really really loved working at O'Bryant and am so grateful to have had this experience.

Love you all, goodnight America and farewell Blogger.

sources

These two articles were helpful in my research about how much the college pays the president. It details Joseph Aoun's salary and gave me a better understanding of how it compares to other college presidents.

://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/16/state-among-top-college-heads-pay/IVZyOHf1BVgr2CAs71Dn4L/story.html

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2013/12/16/northeasterns-joseph-aoun-states-best-paid-college-president-2011/

This story gave me some solid facts and figures about how much Northeastern put into building ISEC. It also gave me some background info on the purpose for ISEC and its new features.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/03/northeastern-formally-opens-million-science-engineering-complex/sU5XHLlAzGzicr7AbiWD0I/story.html

This just gave me some more background info on ISEC. This helped me understand how important the sciences are to NEU and how much money they put into it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdisciplinary_Science_and_Engineering_Complex

This op-ed gave me one perspective on giving day and how it can be harmful. It gave me some inspiration for where to look for for data and research topics.
https://huntnewsnu.com/58776/editorial/op-ed-giving-day-agenda-reveals-northeasterns-real-priorities/

This was another, similar view on giving day. It was from a year ago so this indicates that frustration with giving day is nothing new.
https://huntnewsnu.com/54077/editorial/editorial-giving-day-doesnt-give-it-takes/

This gave me some more insight into the viral fake poster campaign. I didnt know it was actually part of a larger protest so it gave me some more facts about that.
https://huntnewsnu.com/58667/campus/fake-giving-day-posters-go-viral-spark-debate-over-nu-fundraising/

O'Bryant

This past Tuesday was the last day at O’Bryant.

Overall, volunteering at O’Bryant was pretty nice. I don’t know if I learned a lot, especially in terms of my own writing. It was interesting to see the way different teachers lead their classes and the different ways students approach assignments. Except for two of the days, we were in the Writer’s Room and different classes came in with different assignments. I think we mainly worked with the same classes. We were able to see the same students and how the same papers progressed over time. I remember it was hard to work with the students in the beginning, especially since they preferred to brainstorm on their own. But it was definitely easier to work with more content on the page.

There were three teachers that I remember working with. One of the first teachers had a very clear structure and specific goals for the students. At first, I thought this was a suffocating way to learn the writing process but I found out that she’s very accommodating to certain students. Many of the students stuck with the structure but some students were very adamant about deviating and those papers were just graded a little differently. After seeing that, I was more reassured (?) knowing that the students weren’t forced to stick to one thing.

Seeing the students work reminded me a lot of my own high school English classes. One teacher in particular reminded me of my high school teacher. He would passive-aggressively ask you a question when he knew you weren’t paying attention and if you happened to get the answer right, he would somehow make it seem like you said a wrong answer. Anyways, it was funny to see that after high school.

I think having college or grad students come in and volunteer with the high school students is really helpful. A lot of the students talked to me about random college things that pertained to me as a freshman. They were usually like 9th or 10th graders so they just asked like “how’s college” type of questions. I think this served as a conversation starter, especially since they were resistant to us only helping them. A lot of the students seemed genuinely eager to learn but others didn’t even care about the class and did the bare minimum to get a decent grade. That reminded me a lot about high school. There are always going to be students who don’t care and I don’t think it’s possible to force someone to care. I think the students also found it easier to relate to someone closer to their age.

Leaving O’Bryant was kind of bittersweet because the teachers and staff were really welcoming and accommodating. I’m glad I don’t have to wake up early on Tuesdays anymore but O’Bryant was definitely educational and enjoyable.

Sources

I basically just used all of these for various statistics. 

  

https://www.champlain.edu/centers-of-experience/center-for-financial-literacy/report-national-high-school-financial-literacy/the-case-for-high-school-financial-literacy  

https://www.cesisolutions.org/2019/03/should-financial-education-be-taught-in-schools/  

https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/  

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danipascarella/2018/04/03/4-stats-that-reveal-how-badly-america-is-failing-at-financial-literacy/#7929594a2bb7  

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/americas-growing-financial-literacy-problem/