From Tutor, Shawn Meislik: Davante, a great kid with a smile always on his face, loves to learn. Working with Davante for the past 4 months, I am constantly impressed how hard he works; his enthusiasm, attitude, and willingness drive his passion for learning. He enjoys reading; particularly his new craze, Mad Libs. I really enjoy working with Davante each week and look forward to seeing his future growth in the 6th grade.

Way to go Davante! Great job!!

Alicia has been a tutor with us for a little over a year. She has moved around to a couple of shelters for us with never a complaint. She now has stepped up and become the Tutor Coordinator for Lydia House and a valuable part of the Region 4 team. If any of you have a little extra time, I have room for more Tutor Coordinators.

Next is her student, Dennis, he is an 11 year old boy who is busting with talent. Besides playing the violin, he also is a singer/songwriter and can draw like a young Picasso. These are great examples of what Region 4 is all about.

Petra Kauraisa has been tutoring her student Carlos (16 years-old) every Wednesday evening at Beachwood Group Home for almost six months. She felt this honor was, “An acknowledgement of Carlos’ achievements, I’m only along to support him on the ride.” Besides being a great young man to spend time with, Carlos is doing very well academically as Petra pointed out,“Carlos has great SAT scores, he’s taking college-level summer classes, while holding down two internships. Carlos is an inspiration to everyone he meets.” Petra feels very fortunate to have been assigned to tutor him. To which we can only add, Carlos is also very fortunate to have someone tutoring him who is as caring and dedicated as Petra.

The San Fernando Valley student of the month is Janette. She loves to read and is not scared to read aloud, in fact she is very articulate and very animated. When we first started working together, Janette preferred reading to math because she did not know her multiplication and was behind in class. She thought it was too hard to learn multiplication – an overwhelming task. By breaking the task down to manageable sections, we were able to overcome her trepidation. We began practicing and testing her 2’s until she could complete her 2’s test at school. We moved on to her 3’s, 4’s, etc. and she continued to pass her tests. The absolute joy in her face when she would run up and tell me that she passed another test was so rewarding for me. Janette and I began spending more than our scheduled hour together because she was now enjoying her homework, even her math homework. We spent two to three hours each session and I believe she would have gone on all night if she could. She still loves reading more than math, but she is now catching up to her classmates in math and I hope she keeps up the hard work. I am sorry that I will not be able to continue to tutor Janette, but her family is moving away to a new home.

Brianna has been a School on Wheels student for the past two years. When we met her, Brianna was ending third grade and hadn’t gone to school much. She struggled to read basic words or introductory readers. However, two years later, Brianna is preparing to begin 5th grade. After spending time with her tutor Pamela Giannuzzi Savelli and with the help of her teachers, Brianna is reading books and wants to read more to her tutor. There is a look of confidence on her face when Brianna says that she has many friends at school. Brianna is the student of the month in Region 8 not only because of her success in learning to read but also because of the great effort she has put into that happening. Congratulations, Brianna, for your success and thank you, Pamela, for being there to help Brianna learn about her abilities!

From Tutor, Ravi: Our Student of the Month for Orange County is Konrad. He lives at a confidential location and is a kid with special needs. He's a great kid and very interesting. When I first met Konrad he was obsessed with Michele Obama. It was really cool. Now it looks like he's moved onto a new lady…

Since he doesn't have any homework during summer school, we have decided to mail a letter/email to "the powers that be" of his favorite TV show: Total Drama World Tour. The premise of the show is similar to any reality TV elimination show, but with cartoon characters. His favorite character is Sierra and he's extremely committed to making sure she stays on the show. That said, we've been working on the formulating a basic argument to keep her on the show by starting with a cluster/brainstorm and he is almost finished writing the letter. Once completed, we will type it up and send it off to the Cartoon Network. The goal is to get a response, autograph or something tangible back from the network to show Konrad that a little effort can go a long way all while helping him improve his writing skills.

Thanks again for pairing me up with Konrad. I look forward to meeting with him every week. He is a brilliant kid that just needs a little push to help him realize his potential.