Student Profiles in Service

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Brianna Ott

Class of 2011
Major: Speech and Hearing Science

Most Inspirational moment :
When I was a substitute tutor one day for a boy from Honduras and the he later asked the site leader if he could have me as his personal tutor. He was struggling with English and having a hard time with his previous tutor, when I was assigned as his substitute we found a common ground with me being able to speak Spanish. He seemed to understand the concepts and structures of what we were learning very well, after I was able to explain and translate it for him. He is a very bright boy and now has no trouble with math. His English is getting much better as well.

Funniest GW service moment:
One time my student and I were doing some math problems and he wrote a number on the white board we use that was a little sloppy, so I asked him what it was. He said oh its a five its just "feo" which means ugly. The way he said it was so serious , and I just started busting up.

Important Lesson:
I learned that sometimes you have to explain things over and over again , in different ways until something clicks with the person you are teaching. Not everyone learns like a lesson plan tell you to teach. I also learned about the poverty in DC and how little attention teachers can give students that go to public schools and how it effects these children. Many struggle and are just pushed ahead to the next grade because there just isn't enough room. These are the lives tutors a shaping, and have a big impact on. As they say, children are our future and GW service is helping people realize that children that go to DC public schools count too.

Plans for service beyond GW:
I plan to hopefully teach English in a third world Latin American county. I am taking Chinese right now, and I am also hoping to be able to teach some in Asia. I am always up for new service opportunities and plan to be the team leader for Centronia next year as well.

 


Bianca Neri

Class of 2011
Major: International Affairs

Service Role Model:
I admire all the Heads Up tutors- volunteers and especially AmeriCorps members that have worked extremely hard to earn their 900 hours of service. Everyone is very dedicated to the students and shows a lot of resilience and patience in so many challenging situations. When I face a challenge I just remember that there are many other students balancing academic and social stress along with the stresses of tutoring just as I am.

Service History:
- First Year: ProjectHeath- FitNut volunteer
- Second Year: DC Reads: Heads Up

Inspirational GW Service Moment:
Although it isn't always clear that the students appreciate having me around, nagging them to do their homework and being picky about their pronunciation of words when they read aloud to me, but their true colors shown bright on my birthday. The entire week prior to my birthday, students in all grades would continuously ask me about my birthday as if to make sure the date hadn't changed. My birthday also happened to be the last day of the program for the school year so we had an outdoor picnic to celebrate. I was excited to go to the program that day not only because of the extra snacks but also to enjoy my birthday in the company of my favorite little people. I was greeted by a group of my students holding birthday cards for me. I was beyond surprised. Although I knew they knew it was my birthday I never expected them to go out of their way to make me cards- even some students that weren't in my class had made me cards. To me this showed that all my effort had been noticed; my coming to work on my days off to spend extra one-on-one time with a student, my consistent attention and energy I bring with my everyday and my unwavering dedication to my students was appreciated even by the students that I thought would like nothing more than for me to never walk back into the school. I can honestly say it was the best birthday of my life as silly as that may sound.

Funniest GW Service Moment:
Whenever the kids start singing and dancing. I am amazed at how well even the youngest students know popular songs and dances- maybe even a little too well.

Important Lesson Learned from Service:
I learned that even though working with children and teaching are the most difficult tasks they are also the most rewarding. I learned that all the cliches about teaching being rewarding and a two-way street are true. For as much as I tried to teach my students to learn the -th, -ch, and -sh sounds they taught me so much more about life. I admire them all for their bravery in living a much more challenging life than I ever had to. And they showed me that the greatest gift I can give someone is what I was lucky enough to receive myself- a quality education delivered by educators that guided, inspired, and believed in me.

Plans for Service Beyond GW:
I have no idea where my life will lead me after my time at GW. But I know that no matter what job or pursuit I follow after I graduate, community service will always be apart of my life because I strongly believe in giving back to the community in which you live.