Education Student Runs Neighborhood Tutoring Program with Professionalism
Catherine Harris ’10 puts her teaching skills to use before graduation, leading local classrooms through a 13-year-old volunteer tutoring program.
By Karen Mercer | March 30, 2010
“Shoulders… nose… ears… eyes on me.” With the lights off, senior Catherine Harris, director of the Neighborhood Tutoring Program, delivers this attention getting statement to eight students and their tutors. Every student follows directions to the letter, looking at her with anticipation of what is to come.
Harris, a native of Chesapeake, Va., has known she wanted to be a teacher since she was a little girl. Her mother is a teacher and other family members have worked in the education field.
“I remember a career dress up day in first or second grade and my mom helping me dress up as a teacher - with a smock, clipboard and glasses,” said Harris.
She has spent quite a bit of time in the classrooms at local elementary schools, having been a permanent substitute teacher at B.M. Williams Primary School in Chesapeake, Va., and worked as a teacher assistant in their summer school programs, as well as serving as a substitute in other Chesapeake schools.Kristen Sparks Sanderlin ’96 was named the 2011 Landstown High School Teacher of the Year. View additional Virginia Wesleyan Teacher of the Year Recipients
Tiffany Leppert-Tran ’08 recently received a $7,000 grant for her students at Georgetown Primary School in Chesapeake, Va.
“Virginia Wesleyan’s Education program has been extremely valuable to me,” said Harris. “I’ve enjoyed the hands-on activities and extremely knowledgeable professors that have prepared me for teaching. The program has made me feel confident and ready to start teaching with a variety of tools and strategies to aid me in any classroom environment.”
The Neighborhood Tutoring Program has been a part of the College’s Community Service offerings for 13 years. It is currently housed in a classroom at Heritage United Methodist Church, just beyond the College baseball fields. Diane Hotaling, director of community service for Virginia Wesleyan, says that the program has never looked or functioned more like a classroom than it does now under Catherine’s direction.
“Catherine has brought a layer of professionalism to this program that has not been there in the past,” said Hotaling.
For the first time in the history of the program, tutoring is now being offered two days of the week - Monday and Wednesday from 3:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Students who participate in the program receive homework help, read aloud, enjoy recess and a snack, and participate in themed activities such as celebrating National Noodle Month by painting with noodles. Students are active participants, thanks to Harris’ hard work in structuring the program to closely resemble a classroom. Student jobs include helping with snack time and cleaning up before dismissal.Kelly Tisdale ’11 is the recipient of the 2010 Virginia Association of Colleges of Teacher Education Scholarship Award.
Students in the program must attend one of the Bayside Tri-Campus schools (Diamond Springs Elementary School, Newtown Elementary School and Williams Elementary School) and be in grades 1 - 5. The program can accommodate a total of 20 students and is on a first come, first serve basis. All tutors are students at Virginia Wesleyan who volunteer their time.