Here at New Haven Reads we want to share some data and testimonials about the IMPACT our tutors are making as volunteers with us!
Posts Tagged ‘tutoring’
Ryan Ritraj volunteers at the Dixwell site for New Haven Reads, and has been tutoring with them for four years. His sister taught him how to read as a boy, and he still remembers how it felt to start reading on his own. Ryan believes that reading is not only a fundamental and important skill, but can also be fun, and he really loves helping people realize this.
Often, the only thing that many tutors and interns at New Haven Reads have in common is an enormous heart, a love of reading, and a dedication to helping others. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess where they are from, how they found out about the program, what led them to working with young students, and any other personal details. We cherish this diversity of passions, experiences, and personality, and we are continually surprised at the awe-inspiring individuals that join us to help our students.
Piper O’Keefe, an Education Department Intern, continues to amaze us with her depth of experiences and with her drive for helping our organization. Now a graduate student at Yale, Piper graduated from Gettysburg College in 2017 certain that she wanted to give back to others. While studying abroad in Germany and Rwanda, she realized that spending extended time in other countries provides an invaluable perspective.
“You just learn so many new things while living in different areas, and you connect with people you absolutely would not have met otherwise,” Piper explained.
Combining this desire for more time abroad with her dedication to create change in the world, Piper decided to join the Peace Corps.
In the Peace Corps, she taught English in a rural high school in Sierra Leone. After returning to the United States, she received the Coverdell Fellowship, a program for returning Peace Corps Volunteers who wish to continue their service to underserved communities during graduate school.
After reflecting on how much she enjoyed her time teaching English in Sierra Leone, deciding how to continue her service while at Yale couldn’t have been easier.
“New Haven Reads seemed like a perfect chance to apply what I learned in Sierra Leone, and it allowed me to continue working with students during tutoring sessions,” Piper shared.
At New Haven Reads, she supports five students each week through individual tutoring sessions and assists the Education Department with various literacy projects.
Although the differences between the two experiences are clear — a full classroom versus one-on-one sessions, for starters — Piper cherishes her time at New Haven Reads, noting the similarities between her service abroad and in New Haven.
“With teaching you realize how similar students are, no matter what country you’re in,” Piper said. “The same methods to get my students excited in Sierra Leone, I can use with my students here. The same look you can see in a student’s eye when they have a book they love, it’s the same look here as in Sierra Leone. It’s really exciting.”
Robin has been tutoring with New Haven Reads for four years now, at Willow Street. She heard about NHR from a friend who is an author who had been tutoring for years and loved it. She decided that as soon as her schedule allowed, she would join as well, and she was able to in June of 2017. Robin was a regular classroom teacher who had struggled with supporting students who needed extra help in reading, and she found that NHR was a great program for just that! She loves the supportive and enthusiastic atmosphere of parents, tutors, and children collaborating together to provide the best experience possible for the children. In her own words, “Just walking through the door is an uplifting experience!”
Ilana K. has been tutoring for three years for New Haven Reads at Bristol Street. She had just moved to New Haven after finishing graduate school, and was looking for ways to give back to the community and meet people outside of work. Although she is a scientist by profession, reading has always been her true passion and she believes it is the foundation upon which so many successes are built. After driving past the Bristol Street location, and looking up NHR’s mission online, she found that it was like a match made in heaven! She loves the fact that she gets to share her passion of reading with children while also helping them gain important life skills. There is no one particular reason that Ilana keeps coming back to NHR- she loves all of it! She loves the relationships she can build with the children, as well as hearing about their weeks, sharing in their triumphs, and the amazing staff! The times she tutors are truly the highlight of her week, and she loves that NHR allows her to pursue her dream of sharing literacy skills with the next generation.
