Blog 6 - Dina Seremet

Last week, my tutoring experience at the Edward M. Kennedy school was quite different from the prior week. We worked with Dr. Wender’s 12th grade English class. They just completed a Black Writers unit and were preparing to write. Their goal was to pick two readings and compare and contrast them. Our goal was to help them brainstorm, pick a theme,  and prepare to write. When we arrived, I sat down at a table with a group of three students. One of the boys at the table immediately struck up a conversation with me. He was so interested in my life at Northeastern, partly because he was also about to become a college student. He asked me about my dorm, how the food was, and even if there were parties. When he asked the last question, I tried to brush it off because I knew I shouldn't answer that question. I answered all the other questions besides that one. He told me about how it totally slipped his mind to apply to Northeastern, but that he applied to his dream school. He still hasn’t heard from them yet, but he has received a few other acceptances. He went on to tell me that sophomore year of high school, he failed a lot of his classes. This is because he didn’t see the big idea. He didn’t get why it was important to study or do well in school. Now, he sees the big idea. He thinks it is very important to work hard, turn in all his work on time, and succeed especially since he wants to be a computer science major. When he said this, it made me very happy. I got a little emotional for a second because it was so sincere and sweet. I am so glad that he sees that it is so important to work hard and try your best. For me, I was very fortunate that I knew this from the start. I always saw the big picture because I was surrounded by people, like my mom, that worked so hard. I don’t know this boy’s family background, but perhaps he wasn’t introduced to this work ethic early on in life. However, it is very impressive that he found it at the end of his sophomore year of high school. The next part that he shared with me was rather shocking. He asked me if I was allowed to turn in late work in high school. I told him it was very rare, but if we did points would be deducted each day it was late. In response, he said that that is how high school should be. He told me that the school is a good environment and the teachers are good, but they don’t push the students enough. The teachers will accept late work at any time. They are just happy that the student did it. He thinks this is wrong. He said that he has always turned his work in on time. This is because he knows that that’s how it will be in college. We did happen to get some work done, but he was very tired because it was the end of the day and he still had to go to work after school. Overall, this tutoring experience was very different from the prior week. It was also very eye-opening. I enjoyed talking to him and learning about his perspective on the school and academics.