I participated in my first University Honors Program experience during the Spring 2020 semester as a Bearcat Buddies lead tutor. Each week, I led a group of eight UC students to Riverview East Academy to serve as tutors for a class of second graders. While we primarily taught students math and critical thinking skills through station activities, our purpose as tutors was to strengthen the value of education in the Cincinnati community by representing the opportunities higher education can provide and being trusted mentors for local children. As part of the Bearcat Buddies lead tutor program, I received additional exposure to community engagement concepts. Our first lead tutor meeting was held at St. Vincent de Paul where I participated in a poverty simulation activity that highlighted the struggles that many local families face. Other meetings included discussions on implicit bias and a panel of first-generation college students participating in UC’s Gen-1 program. As part of the tutor engagement committee, I focused on sharing these insights with the general tutors I worked with in order to form stronger relationships with students and families in the Cincinnati Public Schools system.

​

Being a lead tutor with Bearcat Buddies was the perfect honors experience for me. Rather than a singular project that I completed in one sitting, it was so rewarding to work with the same group of children each week and watch their growth as students and as people throughout the semester. As an engineering student, many of the problems I solve have clear, step-by-step solutions. However, there is no theorem or formula for teaching second graders. Being a lead tutor pushed me to reflect on my own identity and relate my experiences to those of others, resulting in a greater understanding of the challenges families face in my own community. The largest takeaways from my experience as a Bearcat Buddies lead tutor are the relationships I formed with second grade students at Riverview East Academy. The best way to share these with you is with this class photo I took with the other Bearcat Buddies tutors. Students’ faces are blurred for privacy. As I continue to explore the University Honors Program, I would like to participate in more experiences that allow me to connect with and understand my local community.

​

​

​