I chose to attend two days of the summer program at Youth Base. During my freshman and sophomore years I did work study through Furman as a tutor at Youth Base. I kept in close contact with the director and visited periodically during summers throughout my college years. I accepted a position on the board of trustees this summer and it has been an awesome opportunity. I was so excited to have the opportunity to volunteer and be involved again because the population of students at YouthBASE has shifted dramatically since I was involved regularly. The population when I was doing work study consisted of a majority of African American students. Currently YouthBASE has a growing population of LatinX students. I was excited to volunteer because of this new change in demographics and the opportunities that I will have to use my expertise as a bilingual educator.
Because Youth Base is a program focused on helping students who have academic challenges I predicted that the students would be struggling academically. I found that many of the students were excelling academically in the areas of reading and math. For example, there were students there who I worked with two summers ago when they were in Kindergarten that really struggled. They were now older and doing well with academic and social skills. They were about to transition out of the program. I was so impressed by the growth that they had shown. I think that this forced me to confront the idea that I had that the home lives of students would have hindered them from making gains academically.
My emotional response to this realization was one of encouragement. I was so encouraged by seeing the older students who I had seen a few years ago and witnessing how much they had grown and progressed from the love, encouragement and instruction of YouthBASE staff. I believe that YouthBASE's philosophy was responsible for this grown and I think it is a great practice to adopt as teachers.
I felt that the staff at YouthBASE demonstrated aspects of culturally responsive pedagogy by valuing students' culture and celebrating it and using it as a resource instead of condemning it. For example, Cafe de Madres, the luncheon for moms who are interested in practicing English. It is such a great way to connect with the community and allow parents to feel like they have a voice.
One thing that I learned from this experience is that even though students come from hard situations that are not always the best for cultivating cognitive and academic growth, the efforts made by teachers can do so much to counteract that. I think seeing progress over time for the older students at YB really proved that.
It gave me hope to keep giving my all to students even when it may seem like progress is not being made.
Just as the love and support given by the YouthBASE team really made a difference for those students and I was so fortunate to be able to see that. Keep up the great work teachers! It is well worth it!
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