A true Companion by Carla

A true Companion by Carla - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

This past school year, I had the opportunity to volunteer and work with a kindergarten teacher twice a week through a special program called “Cub Companions.” The purpose of the program was to work with students in a local elementary school that were having some challenges in the classroom. My high school offers this volunteer opportunity to both junior and senior students who are a part of the Center for Education and Human Services, a special academic program designed for highly academic students that live in Henrico County, VA. Students apply to the Center during their 8th grade year and must meet certain academic criteria in order to be accepted into the Center. As part of the Center, I took part in the Cub Companions program to help students that had behavioral problems, that may have had some reading difficulties, or that struggled in other academic areas. In many cases older students would have a positive impact or influence on the younger students, which encouraged them to work harder. I would have to agree with that because I could definitely see how the students would respond positively to my being there. The responsibilities of a cub leader are very simple and could be achieved by anyone with the willingness to work with younger children. Sometimes it would be something as simple as eating breakfast with the children, doing local community service projects with them, and encouraging them to continue to work hard in school, or help them with their classroom assignments. I would also work to build a personal connection with them.

During my Cub Companion experience, I was linked to a teacher who was the epitome of a person that was sincerely dedicated to her job. On my first day as a Cub leader, I went to Ms. Smith’s* classroom. I was welcomed with a warm smile. She told me a little about herself and then I sat beside her at her desk and watched her interact with her students. The children were trying to grab at her attention all at once, and although it seemed chaotic, Ms. Smith was able to remain calm and in total control of her classroom.

Next, she went over some of the activities that her students were working on, and then she introduced me to the student with whom she needed me to work. This boy had attendance issues; he had difficulties with reading comprehension, and he struggled with math intuitiveness. Furthermore, the student was reclusive and he did not seem very interested in learning or participating in activities with his fellow classmates. I knew this would be a challenge, but with Ms. Smith’s optimistic spirits, and my unwillingness to give up, I knew I was up to the task. The first couple of weeks that I came, the student did not come to school that day so I worked with some of the other students and observed Ms. Smith at work in her classroom. After two weeks of attending, my student finally showed up. The first few months after that was a struggle because it was tough for me to figure out how to keep a child so young engaged in school. At such a young age, many children are very interested in learning, so I was surprised that he lacked so much motivation so early into his academic career. So what I did was ask him what he liked to do and I honed in on that; he told me that he liked watching Batman movies and playing video games, so we talked about that and from there, he began to open up. In fact, he started to come to school on the days that he knew I would be there. That made me feel really good, and I felt that I was making a significant difference. Eventually, I worked even closer with Ms. Smith, creating lessons that would help to tap into his personal interests. He started to participate in the activities with the class and even started to turn in his homework each day. Once my student started to improve more, I started to work regularly with other students in the class. Ms. Smith really liked me helping as many students as possible because she could not always work with every student that struggled. She also started giving me the opportunity to help set up activities for the day.

I really enjoyed watching Ms. Smith’s passion for helping students. She always seemed very connected to her students, and was thrilled when they got an answer correct on their own.
One of the most memorable lessons that she was create innovative ways for her students to learn about the days of the week and the months of the year. She created easy jingles and rhymes for the students so that it would be easier for them to retain the information.

Ms. Smith didn’t just teach because it was her job; she taught because she cared that the children learned and that positively affected my attitude about education. I was so blessed to have worked with a teacher who made education fun and who reminded students that school was not just about grades but it was also an avenue for applying the information that they learned into their everyday lives!

*Name changed to protect the innocent.