Stories
This is a page to share your stories and experiences as a STARS volunteer. Please use the comment box below to share a story about your work with STARS.
STARS watcher’s Weblog
Looking in on the Woodland STARS program
Looking in on the Woodland STARS program
This is a page to share your stories and experiences as a STARS volunteer. Please use the comment box below to share a story about your work with STARS.
I had a new student for tutoring this week.
He has his HS Diploma, but is not functioning in math skills beyond the elementary grade level. He is far from TABE Math scoring, which is required for grad from Job Corps.
Is there something wrong with this picture?
You bet there is!
We STARS volunteers are here to help those who have been passed over by the system.
It is my honor to help Mr. New Student finally achieve real recognition.
That is what we are all about.
Volunteerism is a mighty thing!.
It just so happens that I have found the arena that my talents are suited for my individual volunteer skills.
My arena is not everyone’s.
I commend those that have their own talents to deal with battered children, abused wives, the homeless, those recovering from addictions, those returning frrom prison, and the forgotten elderly.
I am not in Job Corps and STARS so much because our mission is more important than the miriad of other organizations out there, it is because that is what my skills provide me. I am an engineer. My skills are on the math side.
Job Corps, and STARS, puts volunteers into the position of dealing with youth who, for the most part, are probably on the path of leading to further problems in life, such as low-income due to lack of skills. And we know where that can lead. Street life, addiction, crime, and imprisonment.
I have seen a close person in my own personal life spend substantail time in a federal prison cell.
STARS is about close mentor and tutoring to prevent that.
I dont want to be the volunteer that deals with the damage after it is inflicted. Job Corps and STARS is my way of volunteering to try to help that from happening.
If your volunteerism is to stop the germ before it spreads, call Mrs. Coliton at 301-362-6045 and come visit us!
There is one really unique thing within the STARS tutoring and mentorng program that is truly different from most organizations.
If you come to STARS as a volunteer mentor or tutor, you willl never be considered from day one, as an outsider.
This is not as clique organization.
You will be, from day one, the same as we all are. The STARS volunteers are not here to build status., but to buld our youth.
STARS is what Pres. Oboma has challenged us to to achieve. A minimum of a high school diploma, or GED certificate.
It is hard to do that..
if you think that I am just spouting rhetoric BS, just come and see our progran. If you have the time and motivation to serve the youth of this natiion just stop by Woodland Job Corps,and you will it in action!
LOL!
Gloria, we give you our love and support!
All in the program, from students, tutors, and mentors, have experienced heart breaking loss in our past, and are with you in your time of loss.
We cannot change the past. STARS can only change some futures.
That is the neat thing about STARS. It is about giving mentoring and tutoring skills to those who have lacked such guidance in their prior lives.
President Obama challenged us to seek mininmal GED skill training, as teachers, in his innaugural address. STARS is a star in doing that!
As the Manager of the STARS program, I am honored to have the wonderful and committed volunteers that we have. Mr. Garrett described the STARS students, and volunteers as family, and in every best way that is what they are like. Thank you to all of the students and volunteers for all of your support and encouragement during this very challenging time. I can honestly say this has been one of the most difficult times in my life and knowing that all of you are there to support me and my family brings great comfort. You are an amazing group of people and all of you hold a very special place in my heart.
To all my fellow volunteers,
STARS has become a family of staff, tutors, mentors, and students.
When one of our family suffers a loss, we all feel it.
Our STARS Coordinator, and compass for all we do, Gloria Coliton, recently suffered a personal family loss of her brother.
Gloria, your personal loss is felt by all in your extended STARS family. We are here for you.
Let me talk about tutoring at STARS from a totally different perspetive.
I think you get the message about what you can give to our Job Corps students, and what you can simply get from that.
I want to tell you of your acceptance by our current staff. If you come in and just visit, you will find some of the most loving and caring volunteers that exist on this planet. Educated, dedicated. We have real professionals tutoring and mentoring here. Many of us have been here for years, but that should not make you hesitiate to join us, for a new mentor or mentor is as welcome as our old shoes.
Our tutors and mentors range from young and old.
From current students to PhDs.
I have been in STARS now for over three years, and I have not had a single incident with anyone in the STARS staff that has been anything other than rewarding.
So if you have any apprehension about not being welcomed into a long tine staff, and having to “prove yourself,” that is not what you will find here, and not what we are all about.
Just come and meet us, and all of my prior words will float away…
If you have ever even THOUGHT about giving volunter time, well, we need you, big time!
I dont think, with all the prior posts, that I have to sell Job Corps STARS to you. It is the premier opportunity for anyone desiring to give volunteer time to our youth.
STARS tutoring and mentoring is not guaranteed to all students at Job Corps. Ms. Coliton interviews potential STARS students,and selects those who have a real commitment.
The students at Job Corps are street- wise and saavy.
They are not told to come to us. Their peers refer them to us because they see what we have to offer, and listen to those who are now in STARS.
We now have over 20 tutors,.who come in on their voluntary time two days a week. But that is not meeting the surging demand.
Ms. Coliton now has a waiting list that doubles the number of students now in the program. We need tutors!
Just come and talk with Gloria Coliton (301-362-6045)
Thanks,
Robert
I had a current Job Corps student approach me from out of the blue yesterday, as I was wondering down the hall, asking for help in math tutoring.
She is not currently in the STARS program, and was referred to me by one on my current STARS students, who told her of all the great things our tutoring program had to offer. She was crazing our help.
Unfortunately, I don’t control who gets our STARS tutoring… Ms. Coliton does that, so I had to refer her to Ms. Coliton.
I don’t evaluate who gets STARS tutoring, and who does not.
But the point is that the students recognize the real value of our individual tutoring program. I understand that the waiting list to get into our STARS tutoring program is now about 40, which about 10% of the Job Corps enrollment at Woodland. It is staggering.
I would love to have told her that, based on her willingness to come for tutoring, I would give her my skills tomorrow. But it doesn’t work that way.
STARS is serving those that have passed the entrance criterion. Many meet the basic criterion but cannot be put into STARS. It is now simply down to supply and demand. We don’t have near enough tutors to meet the demand of those who need to achieve academic levels.
If you have any interest in volunteering your math, English, science, or social studies skills to volunteerism, STARS is the place to do it.
Call Ms. Coliton at 301-362-6045.
You wont regret it!
My weekly update!
We have new STARS tutors joining our staff weekly, so the word and message is spreading! That is neat!
But, Mrs. Coliton is continuing to do her job too well (poor English?)
LOL
She is bringing new students into the program at a rate that is double the rate of new volunteers. Job Corps students see the value of one-on-one tutoring. We need more tutors!!!!!
That is great, because students only come to STARS because they want what we have to offer. But just asking to be in STARS is not enough. They must meet with Mrs. Coliton, and make a commitment to the high standards of the program.
What a STARS student gets in our personal tutoring is something that would cost $200 an hour in the private sector. We give it as volunteers for $0 an hour. All we ask is their commitment. And we get it!
It is rewarding. It is not PhD level, it is heart level.
I am not a recruiter, just someone who has done volunteer work for a few years now, and see a program that is at least worthy of your phone call to Mrs. Coliton.
WOW!
We literally had to spill out into the halls this week to do our tutoring!
Our prior room can no longer acccomodate our current weekly tutoring demand!
And that does not even speak to the long waiting/wanting list of students that our Coordinator, Ms. Coliton, is now trying to accomodate. Students are waiting for STARS tutoring, and we only need new tutors to help those in need of our devotion.
If you are even thinking about where you can deliver your volunteer services, STARS is not a sham program. Job Corps is a federal program with over 16,000 students, and is recognized as the premier educatioal and vocational program in the USA.
Call Ms Coliton at 301-362-6045, and join us at Woodlland STARS!!!!
I experienced, this week, an ultimate tutor high!
I have a math student who I have been tutoring regularly over the last year.
She is a refugee from another country, and has only been in the US for about three years. A year ago, her TABE scores were very low, and her English was just passable. She was not one who would be predicted to rise very quickly. But she is a unique student. She came into STARS.
Through HER hard work, with the assistance of myself, Ms. Bolt, Ms. Maloney, and her tutor, Ms. Martines, she passed her math TABE test this week!
We STARS volunteers are very proud of her.
I must add these comments. I was skeptical about bringing a current student into the fold as a STARS tutor. My concerns were two-fold. Did this student have the math skills to teach others, and could a student/peer gain the respect that we tutors have always expected and received?
Our new student tutor, who I shall only identify as J, has shown to me, and I think to Ms Coliton, the ability to do both.
He is a valuable addition, not only to the tutorng program at STARS, but more importantly, the respect that he will soon gain as a peer with we old tutors in the program. I can think of no better thrill, if I were his age, to be accepted into the elite tutoring community that is STARS,
J, you are a STAR!
STARS, due to Ms. Coliton’s exceptional management, has recently intoduced a whole new concept into STARS tutoring….
And here is the skinny. Ms. Coliton has introduced a whole new concept of bringing the most advanced academic students here at Job Corps over into the STARS Program, not at just students and those being tutored, but now as fellow tutors!
She is assigning them, slowing, to the seasoned tutors in the currremt STARS program to learn the “ropes” of tutoring our precious STARS students.
We old time tutors have voiced some concerns with the initial concecpt, but Ms. Coliton is showing us that with care, that it can suceed.
This is the kind of innovative program implementation that makes STARS a dear part of my heart.
If you are reading these posts, and are teetering on the whether or not to join us as a mentor or tutor in the STARS program, just come by and see us in action!
Ms. Coliton is amazing. She has this program humming. We are bursting out of our old, single tutoring room, and are expanding to other rooms. Ms. Coliton now has a waiting list for new students in the STARS program that is at least double the number of students that she can now accomodate with her tutoring staff.
Students dont come to STARS because they are required to do so. It is voluntary on their part. They come because their friends tell them how much it is helping.
Those 20 or 30 on the waiting list only require your assistance as a tutor or mentor to make them a part of the program, and steer them toward success.
Just to pick up on what M Martenis posted in post 10. I am fortunate enough to be a math tutor to the same student that she is now mentoring.
“Current Student” is a refugee. She has only been in this country a few years. She has the drive and intellect to be a leader. So why is she here at Job Corps?
Simple She was not raised in America, and now is trying to build a new life here. She does not have a history of understanding of the culture, and thus her vocabulary and comprehension of things we normally take for granted is just not there.
But she is a motivation to both her mentor, and to me.
This is the type of difference we can make. Her mentor and I are working together, and sharing. All with the goal of making “current student” a future leader.
I was matched with a new student, just in the past two weeks, and I am chompin’ at the bit to share it with you!
She was in a bad accident three years ago, and had to drop out of high school for the past three years to recuperate.
She had the wisdom to come into Job Corps, trying to rehabilitate her education once her body was able.
In my first tutoring session, she was hesitant for about the first ten minutes. A little shy about her loss of academic skills over her extended recuperation period. Part of tutoring is mentoring, and it soon clicked.
And yes, she was right. Her skills had dropped, but her will and mind had not! So we began with the math basics. Each basic I threw at her involved the same progression. First puzzlement, and then re-recognition. Then immediate mastery. A very bright young lady. Her smile radiated as she began to realize that she was re-remembering (English tutors, forgive this non-word!). Believe it or not, she even knew her multiplication tables, without fingering for four minutes!
I felt her confidence grow in each five mintues of only our intial tutoring session.
It is raw pearls like these that make tutoring at STARS a gem!
I can say that being a STARS mentor has changed me. Over the past 2 years my eyes have been opened to the desperate call for help by our youth. Yes, some of these individuals have been through more than I can even imagine or may have made terrible choices. The individuals who have asked to be a part of STARS are there because they have a sincere desire to improve in ways such as academics and personal relationships with their peers, family members, etc. so that they may move on to the next phase of their lives with the confidence they need in order to be the person they want to be and can be!
My current student is very different from most others I have met at Woodland. She is a refugee from a foreign country who was too old to be place in High School. Instead, she came to Job Corps. I can say that I have never seen a 19 yr old with more drive and ambition that this gal. She will be a woman who makes a difference and will bless whomever she comes into contact with! She certainly has blessed me.
YES, STARS volunteers are a team and ARE passionate about what we do and who we help. I’m thrilled to be a part of this program!!!!
Tip, I tip my hat to you! Very eloquently said.
By our difference in our aqes and experiencies in life, our racial diversity, and our social diversity, mentors, tutors, and students here at Job Corps are from vastly different worlds. But that is what makes it so special! That makes it click for me.
I learn as much from the students as I hopefully pass on to them.
To those reading this blog, I think you can see from the posts the passion that resides in those who are part of the Woodland and STARS team.
“Nothing is Imposible,” unless you dont try.
Come, and at least try to feel what Tip Fallon has so eloquently expressed.
Do you believe that “nothing is impossible?”
I was asked to write a post on here and “share from my heart” what it means to be a mentor at Job Corps. I thought about it for a while …
Should I touch on the excitement of sparking a positive change in a young person’s life? Perhaps I could elaborate on the social impact it creates – the ripple effect it sparks in a youth’s life and community. I could go on for days about the personal joy I experience in simply connecting to a teen so different, yet so similar to myself in terms of basic human aspiration and need. To discuss the reasons that more people should learn about mentoring would warrant a short dissertation. To convey everything positive created through mentoring — I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
To share from my heart what it means to be a mentor, I would have to physically take you with me. We would start at the first stages of a relationship with a mentee, filled with awkward silence that contains the hope for a blossoming relationship. I would show you all the way through the matured stages where you must find your balance in encouraging and support but also providing the right amount of constructive guidance … and then be shocked as you are challenged to grow as a mentor as well.
I would then sit you down over a beer and go on for days about how the time with your mentee can make you grow, connect, and gain perspective in ways shift the way you view the world. Perhaps after talking we would part ways with a hug, where you would feel my heart beating through my chest from happiness of sharing my feelings about mentoring. I suppose that would scratch the surface of what it means to me to be a mentor. But to convey the depths to which mentoring touches the human spirit by way of a blog … I stand to believe is impossible.
I was very fortunate to attend a number of Presidential Inauguration activites. I went to a few parties, the Opening Ceremony concert, the Swearing-in Ceremony, a reception on Captitol Hill and one of the official Inaugural Balls. In each venue, I was uplifted by everyone’s positive feelings about our new President – Barack Obama. The whole city of Washington was electrified by this historic event, and everywhere I went I saw excitement in people’s eyes.
I think most everyone wants our new President to provide a new type of leadership and change. I feel that our country really wants President Obama to be successful in guiding us through these tough times. The spirit of unity is overwhelming.
I thought it was very relevant to my role as a mentor when I heard President Obama speak about each citizen service — within our families, communities and at the national level. I think the Job Corps is all about that kind of service. Now is the time to get behind our President and make the necesary sacrifices to turn our country around and make it a better place for future generations.
After having been a manager for many years, I know the strong benefit of feedback and recognition of achivements.
If you dont know what TABE is, it is a basic evaluation test that assessess level of academic achievement in the basic areas of Math, Science, and Reading. TABE is the acronymn for “Testing in Adult Basic Education.” Students are expected to reach minimum TABE score levels to complete academic completetion of the Job Corps program. When students initialy come to Job Corps, they are given an intitial assessment TABE test at the “abc” and “1+2=3″ level. Then progress is evaluated, and higher level tests are given. Passing of minumum TABE score levels is a major achievement within the Job Corps program.
At least once a month, at our tutoring sessions, our leader, Ms. C., reads off the gains that have been achieved in Math, Science, and Reading TABE scores.
The students, as well as their tutors, take great pride in the recognition of these gains. They are celebrated.
JFK challenged us, back in 1960 (God, I am old!) to “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Our new President Obama has thrown down the same torch of challenge.
If there is a more deserving volunteeer tutoring and mentorng program that exists today, let me know. But I dont think so.
Tutors get paid $0 per hour, and we now have close to 30. That kinda says it all. (travel is tax deductible)
Call Ms Coliton at 301-362-6045 and talk with her. If you do, you will soon be one of our outstanding tutoring group of volunteers!
Robert
I have been tutoring Math in the STARS program for a little over a year now. My first experience set the tone for the rest to come.
The first student Mrs. C. paired me with, let’s call him “D.”, hesitantly came every Monday (and I mean EVERY Monday) to get Math help. I could tell right away that he KNEW the math, but didn’t KNOW he knew it. I convinced him that he already knew it, but was just working himself up too much about it. Each week as we worked through the various math topics that he selected, he would make the statement “I Hate Math”. I then would jokingly tell him that everytime he made that statement, I was going to double his workload.
I watched as the “lightbulb” went on as we worked the problems. He realized that if he just stopped to READ the problem and identify WHAT the problem was asking, he KNEW it!
After about 6 months of working together, D. went on to take the SAT test (his goal was to go to College and be an Art Teacher). The Monday after he took the test, he couldn’t wait to get in to see me. “I ACED it!” he beamed. “I didn’t get the results back, but I KNOW I did!” My heart soared, right along with his. THIS, I thought, is WHY I’m here!
That day, D. told me that not only did he not “Hate math” anymore, but he wanted to TEACH it. WOW! The is, by far, the MOST rewarding tutoring experience I’ve had.
If you’re looking for a way to make a difference and know RIGHT away the impact you’re making, THIS program is the one for you. Come join us, and see. What have you got to lose, other than a few hours out of your time?
I am a volunteer tutor for the STARS program at the Woodland Job Corps center. The students I work with all need help with reading. Many of the young people here have gaps in their education. These gaps might have occurred because of changing schools frequently during the very important grades where reading and math fundamentals are taught. In other cases, the students may not have attended school at all for long stretches of time during their growing up years. Some of our students are new to English and must acquire very basic literacy skills.
Whatever the reason for their academic difficulties, the students in the tutoring program at STARS are eager to catch up. They want to do well in a trade, and they realize that they need to be able to read no matter what trade they choose.
It is a brave young person who realizes how far behind he/she is and is eager to improve. Sometimes the students I work with have to go all the way back to learning the letters of the alphabet. Others may be able to read the words in a passage but not fully understand the meaning of the passage. Some of the more advanced students need help with writing or preparing for SAT’s. In other words, our students have a wide range of abilities.
There is an expression often used by literacy tutors, “If you can read, you can help someone else read.”
We need more tutors at Woodland. We have workshops and experienced tutors who are willing and eager to help new tutors. We invite you to join us.
This my weekly update, from the perspective of a volunteer tutor here at Woodland.
Our STARS Coordinator, Gloria Coliton, is doing her job too well!
She has shown the sucess of the STARS tutoring program to all students who attend, and the word has spread through the students at the center. They are signing up for tutoring at a rate that is now exceeding the number of tutors.
We tutor every Monday and Thursday afternoon, and usually have at least a dozen tutors on any day. But it is now come to the point where some tutors are now having to double up with students for each session in order to keep up with the demand. It is best for tutors to be one-on-one with each student.
I am not a paid employee of the program, trying to solicit your involvement for any personal gains. I am just a volunteer tutor here in the program who gets a whole lot of satisfaction from it, and think you will too. I see what we can do to help. If you are sitting on the fence about volunteering, just come for one session, observe what is going on, and make your decision. It hooked me.
And we need you!
If you are inquisitive about what the average STARS math student needs, let me put together some typical profiles. Most do not have high school diplomas, and have been out of school for a few years, and have thus lost most of the math they once knew.
Then you will get students with high school diplomas that cannot pass the basic TABE (Testing Adult Basic Education) competency test, let alone the GED test. Many HS grads cannot qualify at the 10th grade math competency level.
I have put these common profiles together based on many prior students, and won’t mention any names, but give it a read, and I hope it shows you what is needed.
Student 1(typical new student):
Does not know their multiplication tables. Finger-flipping is the normal means of doing basic addition and multiplication. These strudents waste almost all of their time in taking TABE and GED tests just doing the basic computational processes needed for any higher math problems, and often cant solve them because 7 x 6 does not give them 42. Be prepared for patience, as they progress.
Student 2.
Does not understand how to convert a fraction to a decimal or percent. Aso needs help in how to reduce fractions to their lowest level. A majority falll in this category, but they pick up the concepts quickly.
Student 3.
Needs basic geometry skills. What is a perimeter? What is area? What is pi? And the hardest thing, how to calculate the area of a triangle!
Student 4.
This student is very bright, and has put time into learning the basic math skills,l but has a problem in then applying them to word problems. Student 4 suffers from poor English comprehension. Many STARS students are immigrants, and thus have English comperhension programs, so be prepared to work on word problem comprehension.
Student 5.
This sudent is the exeption for most math tutoring. He or she has a basic understand of working with whole and decimal numbers and fractions, and is ready to move into the more abstract world of algebra, and learn how to deal with variables. This is needed for both TABE and GED. Algebra skills include only one-varibable equations, and simple linear equations, at the most basic level. What is slope of a linear equation, and how does one plot points on a graph. Complete plotting and graphing of linear equations is not normally a part of TABE or GED.
I hope that gives you an idea of what to expect, at least in math tutoring.
Robert
I have been a math tutor at Woodland for about 2 1/2 years now.
I have also tutored at both Hight Point High School in Beltsville, and also at the Md. Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) in Jessup.
In terms of personal rewards, the Woodland STARS and the MCIW programs have been the most fulfilling, primarily because the students want it, and dont look at it as a chore or assignment.
But from an overall point of view, the Woodland Stars program is by far the best I have seen. Gloria Coliton brings firm organization, but with a heart of gold, and love for the program that makes both students and volunteers recognize and appreciate what the program is all about. The program is very well managed. Other tutors will give you all the help and support needed.
If you want to put some volunteer time into education of extremely receptive and needing youth, I encourage you to give Stars a try.
And dont worry if your skills may not be what they were when in college. This is primarily elementary school and Jr High level tutoring. Not rocket science.
For example, math tutoring primarily involves very basic skills, such as decimal mullitplication and division, fractions, ratios and proportions, and basic geometry. Geometry does not get more detailed than areas and perminters of basis geometric shapes, and the Pythagorean Thoerum. No trignonmetry, for that is not a GED skill.
Come join Gloria and her staff!