SPECIAL TO THE TIDINGS
Seven years ago, Tom Zeko was searching downtown Los Angeles for a service project for Loyola High School students. As the venerable Los Angeles school's newly appointed service director, he not only wanted to find something that was fulfilling to the students, but one that would also make a difference in the community.
After extensive research and discussions with area Catholic middle school principals, he finally found a common need: They all wanted help preparing eighth graders for the Catholic High School entrance exams.
Good grades are important for acceptance into a Catholic high school, but eighth graders must also pass an entrance exam --- no small feat, especially when test jitters can cause nervous students to under-perform. While some parents can afford to pay for special tutoring for their children to pass the test, other parents struggle just to cover the tuition, let alone special programs.
With the help of then-principal Bill Thomason and Zeko, Loyola developed a free, six-Saturday tutoring program designed to prepare students for English, Math and the interview skills needed to conquer their fears and to help them excel on the entrance exam. From its beginnings with 200 boys and girls from 20 Catholic grade schools, the program has now exploded to 700 students from more than 50 grade schools in South and East Los Angeles as well as Compton, Inglewood and Gardena.
Jesuit Father Gregory Goethals, Loyola president, said that the program "really does work and its benefit is great. It gives the kids the boost-up that they need. It makes high school a little less intimidating."
Bryson Rouzan-Thomas, 14, attended the tutoring sessions last year as an eighth grader at Curtis School on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. He felt the Loyola tutoring program provided students with individual attention that prepared him well for the entrance exam. Now a freshman at Loyola, he is serving as a tutor and is able to give back to younger students.
"The high school entrance exam is very stressful, so you need all of the help you can get," said Rouzan-Thomas.
Tutoring sessions focus on three main areas: helping students acquire the academic knowledge, building their interview skills and improving their test-taking and interviewing confidence.
"They learn the ideas and practice the ideas," Zeko said. "We keep drilling them on it so that when they take the real test at the end of January or early February, the 'fright factor' is minimized."
Loyola freshman Alberto Nunez went through the program last year as an eighth grader at St. Anthony School in San Gabriel. "I thought it was very helpful to me," he said of the sessions. "It helped me get through my test more easily and calmly."
Now Nunez is the one tutoring others. Having been on both sides of the program, he said that he understands why "student-on-student works a lot."
"It is easier to interact with someone who is close to your age instead of having an adult do it," Nunez said.
The well-coordinated project relies completely on volunteers. The program is unique in that the majority of student tutors are high school freshmen from Loyola. This year, they added student volunteers from Notre Dame Academy, Marymount High School, Mayfield Senior School and Bishop Conaty-Loretto High School. Assisting are more than 200 teachers, alumni and parent volunteers. To date, more than 2,000 boys and girls from 45 grade schools have completed the program.
In addition to the student tutors, there are two adults in every classroom "Our moms and our alumni are very generous and the dads too," Zeko said. "The Mothers Guild has been an integral part of this since the beginning. There have been hundreds and hundreds of women through here helping us."
To support the program, Loyola alumni have made monetary contributions in addition to volunteering. Arturo Martinez (class of 1987) was in the midst of planning his 20-year reunion, and he wanted to see how his class could help the school. Zeko asked him for help funding the breakfasts for the six sessions. Raising the $7,500 needed "wasn't a hard sell," said Martinez, who keeps in touch with many of his former classmates.
"It didn't take that many phone calls," he said. "Seven classmates later, we came up with the money."
Father Goethals said that the genesis of the program lies in that philosophy of Jesuit education, which is to "form men for others."
"High school can be a very narcissistic time," he said. "What we hope is to take the students and reorient them into the world to give back into service."
Zeko said that the effect of serving others is so contagious that many of the freshmen sign up for more than two tutoring sessions and upperclassmen still sign up to help.
"By and large, the guys get swept up in it and do a good job," Zeko said. "These guys are generous."
Student Nigel Davies enjoyed his role as tutor so much that he continued through his senior year.
"It is a great experience knowing you are helping people out," Davies said. "I just want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to get into the school they want to get into."
Zeko said that for the Loyola students and the other student tutors, what he hopes to instill in them is gratitude for what they have and a lifetime desire to give back.
"From the start we let them know that their education isn't just for them," he said of the Loyola students. "They learn that there is the element of the common good that is much more important." |