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Top student employee brings role models to inner-city students
By Jessica Ullian
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Erica Blom (CAS’07) was named the Student Employee of the Year for her work with the Boston University Initiative for Literacy Development. Photo by Vernon Doucette |
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Erica Blom was in the middle of her second year as a tutor with the Boston University Initiative for Literacy Development (BUILD) when one of her second-grade students at the Farragut Elementary School in Roxbury told her that she didn’t want to go to college. When Blom asked why, the girl told her that only white people would be there.
“Immediately, her response was, ‘Something’s got to be done about this,’” says Dyan Smiley (SED’08), Blom’s supervisor at BUILD and a postgraduate student in SED’s literacy language program. “Many people think that, and it ends right there. But Erica decided to start a program where she’s bringing in professionals of color to read to the students.”
The initiative Blom (CAS’07) showed by founding the school’s new Diversity Reads program, in addition to the responsibilities she shoulders as the lead tutor at the Farragut School, made the sophomore sociology major an apt choice for the University’s Student Employee of the Year, BUILD’s leaders say. And the Northeast Association of Student Employment Administrators augmented the honor by naming her the NEASEA Student Employee of the Year for Massachusetts.
Two other students received Outstanding Achievement awards from the University: Carol Boettcher (CAS’05) works in the Dean of Students Office and helped coordinate the Breakfast with the President series. “She has played a vital role in continuing to allow students face-to-face access with our highest ranking administrator,” says Steve René, the administrative secretary in the office. Brittni Homer (ENG’07) works in the Office of Special Programs at Metropolitan College and assists with the Lifelong Learning program. “Her talents would be apparent to anyone,” says Kara Nielsen, a senior staff assistant in Special Programs. “But she particularly deserves credit for being the youngest member of the team and the assistant who works the hardest.”
The University will recognize all three students at a luncheon ceremony on April 14. Boettcher and Homer will receive certificates and $100 savings bonds; Blom will receive a plaque and a $500 savings bond.
“I feel really honored,” says Blom. “But it’s really because Farragut and BUILD have such awesome coordinators. I just want to contribute to the atmosphere of the school as much as possible.”
The BUILD program operates at 14 sites around the city and places 130 tutors, most of them work-study students, into in-class and after-school programs. Blom, who hopes eventually to work with at-risk teenagers, began the program as a freshman work-study student. The Newbury, N.H., native came to BU seeking “a city experience,” and BUILD was a way for her to both work with children and explore beyond campus.
“I’d never experienced what urban life was like for children,” she says. “It made me really appreciate education. It’s amazing how different these kids’ lives are when they can read.”
Tutors generally work at the schools twice a week for a minimum of eight hours, and their assignments range from one-on-one sessions with struggling students to leading the entire class in a special project or curriculum. Blom focuses on the “outer ends” of the second-grade population, targeting those who are either academically ahead of, or behind, their peers.
During these twice-weekly sessions Blom came to realize that her students, mostly African-American or Hispanic, had few role models. The majority of the volunteers and teachers at Farragut are white, and even the students whose parents are working professionals believed their families were the exception, not the norm.
“A second-grader who can see that is already at a disadvantage,” Blom explains. “I just thought that should be addressed.”
Blom discussed the options with coordinators at the school and at BUILD, and began recruiting students, faculty, and staff from the University — as well as employees from local public safety departments and hospitals — to participate. The program is scheduled to begin this month, and each participant will visit the classrooms, read a story to the children, and answer questions about what they do.
“Our students are of various ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds, and our volunteer population doesn’t necessarily reflect that,” says Larainne Wilson, the student support coordinator at Farragut. “Erica noticed that and decided it doesn’t necessarily have to be a fact of life. She sees herself as part of the larger things happening in this school.”
Blom was promoted to lead tutor at the beginning of September, which requires her to put in additional hours managing the four other tutors at the school and acting as a liaison between BUILD and Farragut. She has devoted further time to finding new resources for the school’s literacy development efforts, such as a $1,000 grant for books offered by a local insurance company. And on weekends, she volunteers at a cooperative homeless shelter, as a way “to work with different parts of the population.”
She views her community service work as a form of training for her planned career in sociology, but admits that the most challenging part is the emotional connection that develops with her students. “For how young they are, they go through a lot,” she says. “It’s hard to hear that they can’t celebrate Easter because they can’t afford it.”
The overall experience, however, has been deeply rewarding. Through her work at the school, Blom has seen the difference that literacy can make in an inner-city student’s life. She has learned what life is like for young children with backgrounds dramatically different from her own. And she is in the process of discovering her role in helping them grow up.
“I’ve changed and grown a lot, working for them,” she says. “It was a completely new experience, and it’s awesome.”
8
April 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations