Rebecca Vichniac

            Throughout high school I was very involved with tutoring inner city youth.  When I came to Cornell, I knew I wanted to continue tutoring.  As a Freshman, I tutored through the REACH (Raising Education Attainment Challenge) program.  This year I took a leadership role in the program by becoming a fellow.  As a fellow, I am in charge of implementing and maintaining two educational resource rooms at GIAC, a community center in the commons.  I am also in charge of recruiting and training Cornell students to become tutors and maintaining communication between my site, the public service center and the Cornell volunteers.  By the end of June, I will have finished the Americorp requirement of three-hundred hours of service.  I was also one of three fellows chosen for outstanding commitment. 

            Working through REACH has been the highlight of my year.  I spend four days a week down at GIAC working mostly with elementary children but also with the Pre-K and middle school programs.  This year, I have recruited and trained over thirty-five Cornell students.  Every day of the week there are at least five tutors between the four programs, (pre-K, elementary, middle, and high school). 

            I think the largest contribution I have made to the site is the implementation of hands on math and science activities. During the first semester we had the largest staff on Fridays. I took the initiative to make Fridays a hands on learning day in the Math room.  I read through many books, surfed the web, and talked with professors and friends to find good learning activities.  Activities included solar systems, bubble bursters, parachutes, spinners, catapults, soap, silly puddy, and color climbers.  The Math room was new to GIAC this year and I believe that these activities have helped make the room an exciting place.

            During elementary school, students are either turned on or off to different subjects.  Math and science are rarely one of the more popular subject materials at that age.  One of my main goals was to show students that math and science could be enjoyable while at the same time trying to improve their skills. 

            While helping students with their homework, I am consistently worried about their dislike of the subject matter.  I try to incorporate the skills that they are learning into fun activities.  For example, the second graders were learning how to use different measuring tools like rulers.  I heard so many complaints about how boring and useless it was.  That Friday, when making parachute men, they were able to see how sometimes rulers can be used to make fun toys.  Tiffany turned to me and asked, “Becca I didn’t realize I could use rulers to make fun stuff, I thought they were just for drawing lines on paper.”  I believe that helping a student understand a problem on a worksheet is a huge accomplishment, but making a student excited to learn is a greater accomplishment.  I hope that the weekly activities that I have planned have encouraged some of the GIAC youth to appreciate and enjoy math and science.  

            This year I was the Buddy Chair for Cornell National Scholars.  I matched up all incoming freshman with upperclassmen in their field of interest.  Throughout the year, I helped use the buddy system to increase participation in events.  I ran the first event of the year for buddies to meet in person and take a walk down to the commons and get some ice cream.  The event had the largest turn out of the year.  I also ran a dinner for underclassmen to get advice from upperclassmen on classes.  I was also involved in the mentoring program.  As a member of the leadership team, I was a regular participant at every event and was on the appointment committee for next year’s executive team. 

            With academics, REACH, and National Scholars, I do not have much free time left.  I have dedicated some of my spare time to getting involved with Cornell’s Habitat for Humanity.  I went to Rocky Mount, North Carolina during spring break to help with flood repair and have taken part in several day long building trips in the local area.