Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/96437
During my middle school years at Latin, I was introduced to service learning during Project Week. We spent time tutoring at McCutcheon Elementary, a Chicago Public School in the Uptown area. McCutcheon is composed mostly of students from poorer backgrounds, often immigrants from Asia and Africa. A great majority live in homeless shelters. These young students were so grateful to have us there. The excitement in their eyes was inspirational. Those days at McCutcheon strengthened my desire to become an elementary school teacher, and equally important, to give something back to the community. There were so many children in need of great teachers, and I wanted to become one of those mentors. Twelve years later, I returned to McCutcheon. As an eighth-grade teacher and reading specialist, I now have a chance to make a difference in the lives of students like Hien, a Vietnamese boy with autism. When he initially started school, Hien was mute. Years later, even as an eighth grader, he depended on his grandmother to bring him to school and pick him up at the end of the day. But Hien was eager to learn, and with patient and gentle nurturing, he was eventually able to read, write and do some basic mathematics. Yet, as eighth-grade graduation time came closer, both the special education teachers and I became concerned about the idea of sending Hien to a large high school, which could be overwhelming. Fortunately, we were able to get him placed in an occupational school that would teach him the skills to become an independent adult one day. Hien was so excited that he was accepted into this school. He was very hopeful about the future and told me that he dreamed of making enough money one day so that his grandmother would not have to take care of him any longer. One year later, Hien returned to visit my classroom to show off what he had learned in his new high school. "Ms. Askounis, I took the bus here all by myself! My grandmother is so proud of me!" he said glowing. He showed me a card that hung around his neck with directions for going back and forth to school. For the next 30 minutes, he eagerly told me all about his classes and teachers and gave me a special key chain that he had made in class. Students like Hien, with his gentle and earnest spirit, make my job so rewarding. There are teachers at Latin who still stick out in my mind. Teachers who made a difference in my life. Teachers who believed in me and never gave up on me. That is the kind of teacher I want to be at McCutcheon. The fact that I have impacted one student like Hien is what makes teaching worthwhile. Not every student is meant to go to Harvard. But Hien, a child with learning challenges, growing up in Uptown, is reaching his personal Ivy League. And, so am I. "There were so many children in need of great teachers, and I wanted to become one of those mentors." Katherine with a recent McCutcheon graduate; a more recent generation of Latin middle schoolers tutoring students at McCutcheon. Latin School of Chicago 25