Connection helps students teach, tutor

Campus Times
November 12, 1999

by Leah C. Sahagun
Staff Writer

The University of La Verne Honors Program will again have its College Connection during the January Interterm, at which time students will teach in the Azusa Unified School District.

Honor students can enroll in the CORE 305 class for their service learning unit or, if that has already been completed, toward the colloquium units needed for the Honors Program.

"Either way, the honors students do benefit from the interterm class," said Dr. Andrea Labinger, Honors Program director.

On the first three Saturdays of January, for four hours, honors students will teach a selected group of fourth- and fifth-grade Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students material that they choose to teach.

"I enrolled in the program for three years, and I taught a science seminar. In high school physics we did an egg drop where we made a carrying case so that when we dropped the egg, it wouldn't break," said senior Amy Attiyah. "It was fun working with the kids."

"Last Interterm we taught the kids how to express themselves through art. We drew pictures that represented something about themselves and mobiles of things they liked. The final project was a collage," said senior Kelly Young.

Sixteen hours will be completed by the end of the three Saturdays, and nine hours will be completed by the honors students through tutoring sessions with GATE students.

On the final Saturday, GATE students and their parents are invited to the ULV campus. The students are given a tour of the campus to show them what a college campus looks like.

"We try to promote attending college, they are excited to come and see ULV. We try to make it a special day for them," Attiyah said. "I think that its a great program and ULV should increase funding because all the funding for the program now is coming out of the honors program."

"The school gets great publicity through the program, the Inland [Valley] Daily Bulletin has also written an article. It is terrific public relations in the community," said Dr. Labinger. "The honors students get to know what it is like to be a teacher and what it takes to work with children," said Dr. Labinger.

She added, "For the GATE students, it is an enrichment for them and they learn that they can go to college. We show them what the environment is like."