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School may be out for the summer but the tutors at the Notre Dame Learning Center in Rochester, New York are already getting ready for the upcoming school year.
“We’re a tutoring center that meets after school with the city school children and we work with them on a need basis in math and English language arts,” said executive director Sister Evelyn Breslin.
Sister Evelyn recently lead 60 volunteer tutors in an education workshop so they’re ready to help the children of Rochester when school is back in session. She prides herself on the fact that children receive one-on-one tutoring at little to no cost to them. But it takes a lot of work to get ready for the tutoring sessions.
“New York State does the common core curriculum and it’s not something that we’re all used to,” she said. “Getting together to talk and share is very effective in helping the tutors learn from each other.”
The support from the tutors in badly needed in Rochester; it is one of the lowest-performing and poorest districts in New York State. S. Evelyn says there are 2,000 homeless children in Rochester and she knows that many of the students who come through the centers doors each day have difficult home situations.
“To see the light dawn on some of their heads, to see their smiles, just to say ‘I did better in school, I passed my math.’ Just to hear these little children say that is incredible,” S. Evelyn said.
In addition to tutoring younger students, the center also offers classes for students looking to get their high school diploma.
“We have ten young adults who come four days a week to study for their high school diploma,” S. Evelyn said. “There are four tutors for that group who teach every subject.”