By Katie Priester
Here at Northeastern, we tutored 25 kids from Orchard Gardens Middle School in Roxbury.
This semester at 8GA, writing coaches and students got to move on from high school application essays and work on more personal statements – short essays about role models, life experiences, and who or what is important in their lives. In our hour and a half sessions every other week, the students wrote creative, personal pieces about accomplishments like starting soccer teams, about their goals and aspirations, and about people who inspired them. These projects were fun for both the students and coaches because they allowed the 8th graders to practice their writing while exploring subjects they were excited about, and the coaches to learn more about the remarkable kids in this program. One girl wrote an essay about her inspiration: herself. She wrote about how she had overcome obstacles and made the boys football team; her coach told me that she “has such an enviable confidence.” These essays will all be published in hard copy in Bridging Magazine, along with the names and photos of their authors – a finished product we can’t wait to see.
After the Bridging Magazine project, we started work on a “legacy project”- letters to future 8th Grade Academy students about what to expect and how to succeed in 8th grade. The kids gave advice about how to navigate Orchard Gardens (make it to class by the second bell, always wear your uniform), and made insightful comments about how to make the most of school and the writing program. My favorite part of a lot of these letters was that so many kids finished them with the same words of encouragement: “I thought 8th grade would be really hard, but it wasn’t.” “I did it and you can do it too.” “Succeed in 8th grade and you can go on to high school and college!”
In our final session on April 28th we had a great wrap-up party, listening to the kids read selections of their writing and exchanging farewell notes and wishes. It was a great time for the coaches and students to hang out in a more relaxed way, without a project deadline, to celebrate the great work the students had done this semester, and to look forward to their first year of high school in the fall.
