Pier Reachings Soar to New Levels
In the vibrant, culturally diverse neighbourhood of City Heights, San Diego, a volunteer-led initiative known as the Rosa Parks Tutoring Program (RPTP) is making a significant impact. Housing large refugee populations from Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, City Heights faces economic and social challenges that the RPTP aims to address.
Established in 2010 by graduate students at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), the RPTP was initially inspired by outreach programs within the university, particularly the Grassroots Diversity Action Working Group (GDAWG) and the Team for Inclusion and Diversity in Education and Science (TIDES). The program started by hosting a science booth at the City Heights Farmers' Market to reach out to underserved communities.
The tutoring sessions began at the City Heights/Weingart Branch Library, the busiest city library for public computer usage in San Diego. The library has since become the permanent home of the RPTP, which operates every Saturday.
The RPTP's mission is to promote diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and to give back to the community. During the 2017-2018 academic year, the program served 48 Rosa Parks students, with 10 to 20 students receiving hour-long tutoring sessions each weekend. The tutoring program includes volunteers from various departments at UCSD, including the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE).
Julia Dohner, a Scripps student studying marine chemistry and geochemistry, is a principal organizer of the RPTP. The program has 23 volunteers, who together tutored a total of 235 hours in the 2017-2018 academic year.
The tutors work with students on homework and help them gain proficiency in reading, writing, math, and language. They often face the challenge of students being mismatched between their age, grade, and reading/comprehension level. After realizing the need for tutoring and homework help, the volunteers began working with teachers, parents, and social workers at the nearby Rosa Parks Elementary School to offer free tutoring services to at-risk students.
The RPTP was recently honoured for its outreach efforts by UC San Diego's Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Awards Program. The program is now considered an official UC San Diego student organization. Any graduate student at UCSD can apply to become a tutor with the program by contacting [email protected].
With the hope of attracting more students to further expand their reach, the current main organizers of the RPTP at UCSD are working diligently to continue making a difference in the City Heights community. The median income of City Heights is roughly half of the city's overall average, making the RPTP's efforts all the more crucial in helping to bridge the educational gap and foster a love for learning in the next generation.
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