Hongyang Zhao, a student at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), deepened his connection with West Philadelphia in new ways thanks to a GSE tutoring program.
The tutoring program is one of many GSE community engagement opportunities that address issues faced by local public schools and build connections between public school students and Penn students and faculty.
“My biggest takeaway from this experience is that to be a good teacher or tutor you have to really put yourselves in the shoes of the student. West Philadelphia is not a community that raised me,” Zhao said, “but… I have to put myself into the position of someone who was born into and raised by this West Philadelphia community.”
Another GSE student, Vicki Swanson, had a similar experience. “Working there with the students, the school community, and their families has been super impactful learning how to function within that space and build relationships,” she said. “It’s been an incredibly impactful professional and personal experience for me.”
The tutoring program helps bridge inequities by improving the quality of kids’ education in low-resource public schools, according to Caroline Watts, the founding director of GSE’s Office of School and Community Engagement.
“It is about engaging in the complicated process of working together to make the city a better place,” Watts said.