{"id":3630,"date":"2013-09-10T10:37:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T14:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/?p=3630"},"modified":"2015-03-23T12:41:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T16:41:41","slug":"the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/2013\/09\/10\/the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Changers"},"content":{"rendered":"

BU undergrads help Boston Public School students shape their futures\u2014and discover their own in the process.<\/h2>\n

By Julie Rattey
\nPhotos by Kalman Zabarsky
\nAbove: An Upward Bound student studies robotics.<\/h4>\n
\"Upward
Upward Bound students learn to program robots with the help of BU students and faculty. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I have what it takes to get into college,\u201d the high schooler confided.<\/p>\n

Monica Catinchi (SAR\u201914) didn\u2019t agree. Her math tutee was bright: self-induced pressure and a challenging home environment, Catinchi believed, had made her tutee insecure. So as they worked together at Boston University\u2019s summer Upward Bound Math Science<\/a>\u2014a federally funded national program for low-income and potential first-generation college students\u2014Catinchi strove to boost the soon-to-be-senior\u2019s confidence. She helped her understand the college application process and talked up the impressive qualities colleges would see in her, telling her, \u201cYou have to believe in yourself.\u201d By the end of the session, Catinchi noticed a difference. \u201cI felt really blessed,\u201d she says, \u201cto have the opportunity to help her get that motivation she needed.\u201d She says she can\u2019t wait to work with her tutee again this fall.<\/p>\n

Catinchi is one of over 200 BU students who participate in the Boston University\/Boston Public Schools Collaborative. The organization, which oversees more than a dozen school support programs, is a winning arrangement not only for the city and its students, but also for undergraduates, who gain confidence, personal satisfaction, and even career focus. The collaborative was established in 1975 in response to the court-ordered desegregation of Boston\u2019s public schools\u2014which, Director Ruth Shane (SED’73) notes, former leaders of BU\u2019s School of Education helped achieve. The court order wasn\u2019t just about bringing black and white together, she says; it was about \u201ctrying to bring quality education to all of the schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt really blessed to have the opportunity to help her get that motivation she needed.<\/div>\n

Since then, the collaborative has been working to improve academics at BU\u2019s public school partners through in-school, after-school, and summer programs. Today, these include Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science; the literacy tutoring program Boston University Initiative for Literacy Development (BUILD); Step UP, a national literacy program through which BU works with schools in Dorchester and Jamaica Plain, MA; and A+ College Prep Academy, a two-week summer program run through BU that prepares middle and high school students for their upcoming coursework. The collaborative also provides mentoring for recipients of the annual Thomas M. Menino Scholarship, a 40-year-old program that awards full BU tuition to 25 Boston public high school seniors. The University renamed the scholarship<\/a> in 2013 to honor Boston\u2019s outgoing mayor and his leadership in public education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the University sees these programs as a demonstration of our commitment to the city and to the citizens of Boston,\u201d says Shane. \u201cAnd I think BU is outstanding among the other colleges and universities in the city for its understanding about what that commitment needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Upward
High school students from Chelsea, Brighton, and Charlestown, MA, work alongside BU students at an outreach event at BU's Metcalf Science Center. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BU undergrads, who serve as volunteer, work-study, or paid tutors and mentors, are critical to keeping that commitment. Shane points to undergrads\u2019 literacy tutoring at the William Monroe Trotter Elementary School in Dorchester as an example. Trotter has been one of the city\u2019s consistently underperforming schools, but Shane says that tutors\u2019 work has helped raise students\u2019 standardized test scores in literacy\u2014and boosted the school as a result. \u201cThey\u2019ve become an Innovation School, which means they\u2019re getting some additional funds, as a result of making so much progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academic struggles over issues like literacy aren\u2019t the only obstacles some Boston public school students face. Others include language barriers, lack of financial support, and family issues. \u201cSome of these kids are actually responsible for their homes because their parents can\u2019t get a job or have lost a job or never finished high school because they had to immigrate,\u201d says Catinchi. Yet thanks to their own determination, and the support of their BU mentors, students succeed. Brankley Garcia, for example, is one of several Upward Bound participants<\/a> who graduated high school as valedictorian in 2013. She is the first in her family to attend college. Alejandra Rodriguez (CGS\u201917) is a Menino Scholar who formerly expressed doubts about her future. A+ Academy tutor Jacob Ali (CGS\u201912, COM\u201914) told her, \u201cI hope one day you realize that your goals are achievable, and that you have great potential.\u201d After winning the scholarship, Rodriguez told Ali, \u201cI pursued this because of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching opens up realizations about you as a person.<\/div>\n

Helping students make this kind of progress is rewarding for BU undergraduates, and reminds them why what they do is important. A student who struggles today, suggests Ali, could become the scientist who discovers a cure for cancer tomorrow. The experience can also stick with undergrads long past graduation. Former BUILD tutor Erinne Losinio (SED\u201907, CAS\u201907) still remembers creating a spelling game that got her students excited about writing and reading. \u201cI felt a sense of satisfaction in helping the kids realize that working on literacy skills could be fun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

As undergrads help students find their potential, they discover and affirm their own. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where the experience will take you,\u201d says Mike Dennehy (CAS\u201992, SED\u201901), a former Upward Bound tutor who now directs BU\u2019s branch of the program. Menino Scholar Eve Kantakas (SED\u201908, \u201913) found her calling to be a teacher while serving as a work-study literacy tutor for BUILD. Catinchi, an aspiring speech pathologist at BU\u2019s College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College, says tutoring was good practice for helping patients overcome challenges and believe in themselves. And Ali says his interactions with Rodriguez affirmed his confidence in his people skills and a future career in public relations. \u201cTeaching,\u201d he says, \u201copens up realizations about you as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit the Boston University\/Boston Public Schools Collaborative<\/a> website to learn more about the individual collaborative programs. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BU undergrads help Boston Public School students shape their futures\u2014and discover their own in the process. By Julie Rattey Photos by Kalman Zabarsky Above: An Upward Bound student studies robotics. \u201cI don\u2019t think I have what it takes to get into college,\u201d the high schooler confided. Monica Catinchi (SAR\u201914) didn\u2019t agree. Her math tutee was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4966,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8958,8959],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4966"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4748,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/4748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/parentmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}