Opened My Eyes
By Mehadi Chowdhury
PupilPrep is a volunteer-based organization that aims to lessen the gap in quality of education due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. PupilPrep accomplishes this by pairing children from grades K-8 who struggle financially or struggle due to language barriers with high school mentors that not only tutor but also provide support in any way they can. Looking back on the time I have spent in PupilPrep, to me, it is a way for me to pass on my love of learning to my mentees and provide the experience of having a caring teacher, as COVID-19 has led to many kids not having this experience. This ties into why I joined PupilPrep in the first place, as I want to be a role model for my mentees and help them succeed. My purpose in PupilPrep now is not different from my original purpose, except it has expanded to encompass making sure that new mentors in PupilPrep feel welcome now that I have the responsibility of being a mentor coach.
In my time at PupilPrep, I have improved myself as I juggled my work here and other responsibilities. I developed my time management skills as I had to balance my tutoring and coaching responsibilities with other extracurriculars and school work. Subsequently, I learned self-care skills and to prevent burnout from all the work and stress from these activities by balancing how much time I invest in each activity. I have realized that it is better to do these activities less, as this results in more work being done overall instead of being tired every day juggling all these activities. I have also learned how to effectively reply to emails, schedule emails, and make a contact list for group emails due to my responsibilities as a coach. All of which are great skills to have in the future for work.
Besides learning these skills from being a part of PupilPrep, having a mentee and the responsibility that comes with it has allowed me to grow and develop as a person. I have learned to explain concepts in many different ways and have developed a better understanding of these concepts. I have learned to explain concepts using colorful imagery and relatable analogies and show the importance of the concept, along with its connections to previous things my mentee has learned. Also, it’s been amazing to see how much of a difference I made in my mentee’s life by helping them overcome their weaknesses and develop their strengths. It opened my eyes to the responsibility and difficulty that comes with teaching, along with the rewarding and fun moments.
Overall, I would like to thank PupilPrep for allowing me to give back to the community and the ability to help the next generation with their learning. It’s been amazing being a part of this, and I hope I’ll be able to continue doing this next year as well.
