I hope we can encourage an environment where tutors and students can grow together and make math fun.

What is your favorite part about working with the students and interacting with the Buddies4Math community?

My favorite part about working with the students is bonding with the students and watching them open up through the academic year. When we meet students for the first time at the start of the school year, students are a bit apprehensive. As we continue to work together during sessions, students grow comfortable and their excitement about B4M sessions continues to increase. Their excitement over their improvement is infectious and makes me proud. Seeing the students reframe their mindset and embrace our philosophy that math can be fun is part of the reason that I keep tutoring. 

Besides the connections that I build with the students, I have also gotten to know my fellow tutors and leads. Sharing our experiences as tutors helps me improve my tutoring and leadership abilities, while also giving me the opportunity to make new friendships. Collaborating with other tutors helps me reframe my perspective when helping students practice difficult concepts.

Tell us your favorite story from working with the students this year.

My favorite story from working with students this part year was from the middle of the Fall semester. I was at Monta Loma elementary and was playing an outdoor module with some students at the start of the session. One of the students recognized me from the previous spring semester, and was excited to tell me about the new material she was learning in class and her weekend plans. While we played a warm-up game of Sneaky Statues, she noticed some of her classmates getting distracted and helped redirect her peers’ attention back to the tutors and I. Later, when we were playing math games indoors, she was excited to play Math Jenga, and kept asking to challenge herself with harder multiplication facts. Her enthusiasm and eagerness to help and participate filled me with pride, as her excitement is exactly what we try to inspire in the students through B4M. Seeing the students’ walls come down and getting to know the students is part of the reason I have kept volunteering with Buddies4Math. 

What future projects are in the works for Buddies4Math and the summer modules? 

This summer we developed a number of new modules combining math with Arts and Crafts, Card Games, Music, and more. We are looking forward to running these modules during the spring semester at each school and seeing how the students respond to the new games. We are working on combining the modules that the summer volunteers and leads have developed into a book. For the arts and crafts module, in particular, our team has worked on polishing and clarifying the instruction sheets so they are easy to use by any tutor. The activities are designed to be completed in 40 minutes or less.


What have you learned about being a leader from Buddies4Math?

When I first started at Buddies4Math, I was somewhat reserved and was still learning to lead large teams. B4M helped me find my voice and be more assertive, especially when leading sessions as a site lead. Through my involvement as a site director, I grew comfortable making quick decisions that change the flow of sessions. Managing a school helped me develop organizational skills, which were further improved by my responsibilities as an Executive Director. I have learned to plan curricula around the skill levels of students while also effectively allocating resources between the four schools. Most importantly, B4M has shown me how approaching leadership with an open mindset allows for the creation of a community centered around learning and growth.