Thirty-five years ago, the Baltimore Community School was founded, and since then it has been helping high school-age students in the Hampden area of Remington get their GEDs (General Education Diploma).
The school helps teenagers who have not been doing well in school or have dropped out entirely, but who actively seek to improve their education, receive the help and attention they need to learn.
Over the years, students from Hopkins have been volunteering their time to tutor students during after-school hours at the Community School; however, the two schools have not been this integrated for many years.
Within the past three years the Hopkins Center for Social Concern, Campus Kitchen and Office of Sustainability have stepped forward to provide snacks for the children, energy solutions for the school building and ways for students to get involved with the school.
There are currently eight to ten Hopkins students tutoring on a weekly basis. Most tutors work once a week from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., after the regular school day. Sophomore Stacia Koster is one of the tutors for the general high school curriculum, and she finds the program to be a great escape from Hopkins as well as an opportunity to help students interested in learning learn.
“A huge part of it is the realization you’ve made a difference,” Koster said. Hopkins students have brought along a great change and good influences for the school. Tom Culotta, the founder and president of the Community School, feels that Hopkins students are important tutors
“[We think that] interaction between Hopkins students with our students is very important — the students develop a relationship with Hopkins students because many have never known anyone going to college. This encourages them to do their best and pursue higher education,” Culotta said.
One of the most recent additions to the school has been the integration of the Community School Initiative program. Facilitated by senior Bobby Huynh, the CSI adds science labs and lectures to the curriculum, giving students hands-on and practical experience with science for better understanding.
“I heard about the Community School through a teacher and decided to give it a try,” Huynh said. “Later, Tom told me that he wanted a science lab, but he and the other tutors lacked the experience and means [of teaching them]. I volunteered to take up the task and help get it started.” Unfortunately the amount of work required to prepare and run a lab every other week for twelve or so kids, on top of schoolwork, was too much for one person.
Huynh asked his friends to step in and help a good cause. After working and planning during their junior year, they started teaching the science labs and lectures last fall. Senior Celeste Lipkes, a TA for Nervous System I and II at Hopkins, helps out by teaching lectures and working as an assistant during lab days at the Community School. She is glad that Huynh asked for her assistance and finds the tutoring to be very rewarding.
“It’s more fun than TA’ing for Hopkins classes. The [BCS] students are very interested in learning and understanding the material, and we see their results at first hand. Hopkins students only ask if the material will be on the exam,” Lipkes said. “I’m happy that more kids are genuinely interested in science after coming to the Community School.”
Another Hopkins student, senior Byung Park, has been tutoring the same kids since his sophomore year. He enjoys doing what he loves. “I can actually see the changes [in] the students’ abilities from when they first joined to years later,” Park said. Park is a first-generation American Immigrant. “I actually immigrated . . . with hardly any form of training in English — therefore, I struggled a lot. But some local high school and college students volunteered to help me with academics. A lot of them were very helpful and were, in fact, patient in helping me.
Had they showed some impatience, I think I would have been discouraged from learning from them or studying harder; however, they were not. When I first learned about the CS during my sophomore year, I just thought that this was it — it was my turn to give back to the society that provided me with a lot of support. I hope that this ‘good’ cycle perpetuates,” Park said. He is also thankful that Hopkins has been very supportive toward the Community School.
Currently, the majority of the tutors for the CSI program consists of seniors who will be graduating this year. “The only thing that is problematic is that people graduate — there is a time limit,” Culotta said.
The Community School is hoping that more students from Hopkins will volunteer so that the lab and lectures can continue being taught. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students. “Some students might be reluctant to volunteer. But there is a special environment [you feel] when you take your first steps into the school. You wouldn’t expect the students to be respectful or have a great willingness to learn, but after a few classes, you can see how eager they are,” Park explained. The school would also be happy to have more general high school curriculum tutors, who work with five to eight students after the regular school day on specific tasks.
For more information visit: http://www.baltimorecommunityschool.org
