If washing dishes at Dewick or watching sweaty kids work out at the gym isn't your ideal job, you're not alone. But few Tufts students realize that there is an alternative to the work-study jobs most commonly held by undergraduates.
The Tufts Literacy Corps (TLC) offers work-study opportunities for students who want to tutor children in Medford and Somerville. The program covers transportation costs as well as preparation time for planning lessons.
TLC was established in 1997 through Tufts' Center for Reading and Language Research and the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Department, yet few students are aware of it. The program's mission is to help children in Medford and Somerville succeed in school.
As part of the program Tufts students are trained as tutors through a yearlong seminar led by Program Director Dr. Cynthia Krug, a reading specialist. Throughout the year tutors meet with Dr. Krug once a week as a group for an hour and a half. During these meetings they discuss problems and situations that they have encountered during the week and try to think of solutions for each other. They attempt to develop new strategies for tutoring and innovative ways to keep the students' interest. They also use different collections of available literature to devise games and different teaching methods.
The training comes into practice when each tutor visits a school twice a week to work individually with two children. The TLC hired 35 tutors last year, who worked in three public schools in Medford and three public schools in Somerville. Students in many different fields are drawn to the program and certainly everyone is encouraged to apply. However, most tutors tend to be Child Development majors.
According to junior Lynelle Cortellini, tutors do not work with children who have intense learning disabilities. They work with children ranging from grades one to five, but most often third-graders who are a grade level behind their class in reading or math.
"The two boys I'm working with now are working on writing stories. At the beginning I tried a couple of strategies that I didn't have much success with; they weren't really interested," Cortellini said. "Then I had this idea to have them draw a picture and write a story about it and they wrote great stories. It was great, they were so excited - it was a matter of finding a way of connecting with them."
Working with children is an extremely rewarding experience, according to past tutors. One past tutor practiced reading and writing with her student and at the end of the year they exchanged letters.
Junior Chuck McGraw also believes TLC to be a rewarding work-study experience.
"I thought [TLC] was a thrilling way to fulfill my work-study. I worked with a third-grader and I got to know him pretty well. He was more of a trouble student, he seemed like he didn't have much direction in school and I think I was sort of a role model to him," said McGraw.
However, tutoring children is not for everybody.
"It's not the kind of thing where you just go in there and let the kids do what they want. You have to have time for it, you have to be prepared. If you don't have some structure you're not helping them at all. You can't get frustrated with the kids if they lose interest. You just have to keep trying to bring them back to it," said Cortellini.
"I definitely got a lot back from the program. I think maybe I affected this kid's life some way," said McGraw.
