Tutors Prepare Disadvantaged Students for School

Student Alma Linda Chapa thought she would have to spend the summer working behind the counter of a mini-mart near her Long Beach home, as she had the year before.

Instead, Chapa found a job doing what she loves and hopes to do for a long time: teaching.

A sophomore at Pitzer College in Claremont, Chapa joined a summer tutoring program at an Ontario preschool that was made possible by a $15,000 grant from the Times Holiday Campaign.

The tutoring program, sponsored by a national group called Jumpstart, sends college students to preschools year-round so they can help disadvantaged children improve their social and literacy skills to prepare them for grade school and beyond.

Allison Couch, the program coordinator, said the summer session allowed more college students to try their hand at tutoring, thus increasing interest for fall participation.

This winter, Chapa is a Jumpstart team leader at another preschool in Ontario called Para Los Ninos. She is among 50 students from the Claremont Colleges who visit Para Los Ninos and other preschools twice a week.

Chapa joked that, as a child, she had wanted to be a teacher “to get other kids in trouble.” Now, she said, “it’s really about helping people, wanting to be a positive influence.”

The draw for the college students is acquiring experience with issues they hope to tackle in careers such as teaching or psychology. Plus, some said, it’s fun and satisfying.

Tutor Mark Gannon, a Pitzer freshman from Boston, said the commitment of 300 hours a year “makes me feel like I’m giving a lot back, rather than just being in classes.”

Tutors and coordinators say they see the effect they have when, for example, the children show interest in reading on their own. One preschooler, for instance, offered to “read” a picture book to his tutor, “and that was a huge development,” Chapa said.

Last year, Jumpstart workers asked the teachers at Para Los Ninos to assess their students -- those in the program and not -- in categories such as beginning reading and relating to adults. The children who had participated in Jumpstart, the workers said, showed dramatically sharper improvement than the other children.

This season, The Times is featuring Southern California charities that have benefited from its annual Holiday Campaign. Last year’s appeal raised $653,000, which was given to more than 50 organizations in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation. The foundation matches the first $700,000 raised at 50 cents on the dollar.

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HOW TO GIVE

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All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise. Acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed for donations received after Dec. 18. For more information about the Holiday Campaign, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.