MNIC

Finding a placement place was not as hard for me, as I had an internship with Minnesota Internship Center already. However, my internship was mainly based on research but the placement requires interaction with teen students so I had to find a way of integrating that in to my internship. Now I have 2-3 hours of a week dedicated to tutoring and interacting with students.I do that on Tuesdays. The students are mainly African Americans

I remember my first day. I guess I would say I did more observation than participation, which I think was good. The class was too loud. Out of 12 students, the highest number of attendance in weeks, may be one was actually paying attention. In fact, at some point a argument between a guy and some girls got so serious that they had to be kicked out of the class and taken to another room. All these incidents got me thinking " if it is this hard for the teacher to help them, then how can I, a stranger who just showed up today, help these teens?" Being from a different culture, I thought I was at a disadvantage in understanding there backgrounds and why they behave the way they do. However, I thought if I put myself out there and go and ask if I could help them with anything, may be they will want to talk to me. " No. I do not need you help" was one of the replies I got from one of the kids. Then I decide there might be a lot of sitting around rather than helping.

The second day was much better than the first. I decided to say hi as I came in to the class and Tiffany, who I decide to sit next to, looked at me and did not say hi back. They were having a science class, which I would be a great help at. But none of them wanted help. For some of them it is truly because they just want to do it by themselves, which makes me kind of happy because out of the 40 assets we talked about in class they have got most of the internal assets like positive identity and commitment to learning. The most amazing this that day happened when I had like an hour left to go and I had just finished helping Shady with her creative writing. Tiffany came and said “ I want to apply for college but I need help with filling the forms for finical aid.” I was so excited that she asked me out of the two other tutors that were there with me. I do not mean to sound selfish but I am happy to see that my greeting that went unanswered is now being the foundation for this interaction. I helped her apply to Saint Paul Community College and finical aid offices. In the process we talked about so many things, that helped open my eyes to the kind of life there kids come from. I feel like now I have a much better understanding of there situation that day one. Of course, I still have to do more interactions to get a much better understanding but this was an eye opener that we do not really have to do something that is rocket science to help these kids.