Volunteering with MASA

In my line of work, I don't really get to develop relationships with students. They come in for a day or two for assessment, and sometimes they come back for tutoring, but at most I see them only three or four times. With some kids, let me tell you, this is a blessing. But overall I miss working with students for extended periods and watching them learn, change, and grow. One of the reasons I became interested in volunteering with kids was to scratch that itch. Another is the simple fact that I believe people who have been as lucky as I have should give something back to their communities. Finding volunteer work, however, was easier said than done. I had a couple of false starts, but nothing really seemed to be falling together. Then I came across a website called Volunteer Match and signed up. Within five minutes, I found MASA and my search was over.

MASA stands for Mexican-American Student Alliance. The organization was formed a number of years ago by a Mexican-American man who was concerned that students of Mexican descent, while representing the fastest-growing ethnic population in New York City, had the lowest graduation rates of any demographic in the city. The reasons were pretty simple: for one, many students immigrated to the United States midway through their school careers. They didn't speak English when they arrived and after years of ESL they still lacked real proficiency. Many of them, sensing that school was taking them nowhere fast, dropped out to get the kind of jobs you don't need English to hold. Another reason is that although the immigrant parents of our students are extremely dedicated to their children and believe that education is of the utmost importance, many of them speak only very rudimentary English, and most have not completed schooling above the elementary school level. This makes it tough to help their kids with homework and even to monitor their kids' progress in the classrooms of English-speaking teachers. Enter MASA. 

In the early stages tutors were simply paired with students duration of the school year to do homework. But the program is expanding and improving all the time. MASA offers summer enrichment programs now, and ESL classes have been added for parents. Because the MASA staff has become disgusted with the test-centered curriculum that doesn't include much more than math and reading worksheets, they would also like to add enrichment component the second part of each evening that will allow the kids to explore science, work on writing, etc.; I'm told that enrichment will kick off next semester.

I wasn't totally sure what I'd be doing at MASA when I first discovered it, but I felt it had potential. After being interviewed by supervisor Jessica and attending an orientation session, I showed up for the first MASA session of the school year last week. We meet in the multi-purpose room of a Catholic school in the Bronx; I have just enough time to make it there from work by 6:00. Last week, I met my students for the first time. Or, at least one of my students. Originally, I have been assigned to work with Janet and Henry, both fourth graders, but the first week only Janet showed up. Apparently Henry's mother has somewhat hectic work schedule, and had contacted Jessica to let her know Henry would not be attending. Henry, I was told, struggles a great deal with reading, which is why Jessica matched him with me. Janet, however, doesn't struggle with much of anything, so Jessica gave her to me to balance Henry out. Sure enough, Janet powered through her homework with virtually no assistance and settled into a book afterward, both last week and this week. She looked up at one point to exclaim, "I love this book! It's so interesting!" and proceeded to tell me all about the plot. During a break, we chatted about how much she loves school and couldn't wait to get there for another day tomorrow. I could see that I wasn't going to sprout any gray hairs over Janet. Zailie, a quiet girl with long, straight, black hair, worked at our table without a tutor. I checked with Jessica to make sure Zailie didn't slip through the cracks and learned that this is her M.O. She read for a while, then wrote and wrote and wrote in a notebook. She seemed more shy than sullen.

Tuesday of this week, I noticed that Jessica had added another student to my roster, a girl named Cattella. But when I got to the table, two other tutorless girls were there, too, and so I ended up working with the four of them. Janet and Zailie were pretty self-sufficient, again, but Yancy and Cattella needed lots of help with math and reading. I hopped between them as best I could. Once everyone was done with their work, they all chose to fill the remaining time drawing. Yancy turned out to be a great artist, and drew a witch in a black dress with bright blue buttons up the front throwing a small black bomb with a pink skull drawn on the side of it. We chatted about holidays, and their eyes grew big when I said that I had grown up in California and so had never had an Easter egg hunt in a park. Cattella asked me where I lived and whether I liked my job, and Zailie asked me if I had known that her dad worked in Manhattan at a restaurant on 81st Street. I said I hadn't. I was pleased that we were all bonding, but then it was 8:00 and they all flitted away without a backward glance. 

I met Henry, who had come in late and been assigned to someone else for the day, and I have a feeling next week will be less peaceful. Henry is a husky kid with a penchant for drama, though he seems good-natured. I've learned two things about MASA so far: I really like it, and I never know what the following week will bring.