A Moment of Happiness

I have a very close friend who is entirely in love with Halloween, she plans her costume a month in advance, overbooks herself for parties and gatherings, and then spends two days recovering. I, however, have no such soft spot for the holiday. I didn’t go trick-or-treating as a child so I have no nostalgia, no need to go out or dress up or any of it (apologies to the Fell’s Point faithful, you guys keep on keeping on) – to be quite honest, I spend the last weeks of October willing Thanksgiving to get here faster and singing to Frank Sinatra holiday music.

But, for the last four years, on the Thursday before Halloween, I’ve been given a reason to care, a reason to get excited over the costumes, the candy, the fantasy of it all: the Tutorial Halloween party. I’ve spoken about this party for the last three years, my freshmen year when I was a tutor taking my kid around to trick-or-treat, as a sophomore as an organizer being in charge of my six pairs and dressing up as a cowgirl, as a junior as the Student Director running the whole shebang dressed up as a footballer and this year, for the last time, as Cruella de Vil while my orgs were dalmatians.

Please note how ridiculously adorable and perfect my staff is, and the fact that I am trying to keep a "mean" Cruella face on when I really was smiling the entire time.

Our Halloween party consists of ushering our many princesses, zombies, butterflies, and Scream-masked kids to the freshmen dorms where they filled bags with more candy then they could ever hope to trade during lunch. That was followed by a pizza party, viewing of the Goosbumps movie “The Blob That Ate Everything,” face painting and all the gross food that my boss Young decided to grace us with. There was “boogers” which was cheese dip with green food coloring, “worms” which was jello that was formed in straws, and “kitty litter” which was cake complete with “poop” aka tootsie rolls. I basically refused to try any of the gross foods until I saw somebody else eat and enjoy them, and two of my dalmatians, Hannah and Aaron, convinced me to eat the actually super delicious kitty litter. Plus, their dog ears were really just so cute I couldn’t say no.

Hannah and Aaron eating kitty litter.

Basically, it was a fantastic way to end this four year tradition. I could talk about it forever and how every day when we drop the last kids off at home, I have a quick quiet moment where I realize that the number of times I will do this is now becoming finite. While the three lovely SAABabies, Erica, Joseph, Kevin, are just beginning their adventure, I have my usual overwhelming sense of finality. I need to remind myself to enjoy these moments now and then, I’ll deal with the finality of it all next May!

Our one normal group shot!

I love these people.

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The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

-Buddha

The much promised entry about my end of the year experience with Tutorial has finally come into existence. The last week of Tutorial always has Graduation for the kids, and it is an opportunity to express our gratitude to the tutors and the families who are so dedicated to the program, as well as making sure the kids get their moment in the spotlight for their achievements and hard work. Plus, as any of our kids will tell you repeatedly as the date approaches – we have cake.

Like more of my experience with Tutorial, is has been one of increasing participation. From sitting in the audience with my tutee Malik, to sitting on stage with my packets and certificates for each of my pairs as an org, and finally organizing the entire event along with Young, our director, as Student Director. The perks of being on top include being able to steal a piece of cake from the M/W graduation and making sure that everybody knows that they are beyond-words appreciated.

When I left for pick-up the day of graduation, I left my blackberry at the office – this meant that rearranged icons, a new background and many new pictures of my orgs were found when I was reunited with my phone. Some of those pictures I would never dream of sharing because they are hilarious and the people in them would probably kick me if I ever did, but I can share our staff pictures. Usually the instructions from the SD are “look nice” for graduation, this year at the insistence of my orgs Sargon and Abir – everybody was required to, in the immortal words of Barney Stinson, suit up.

The week of graduation for Tutorial usually ends in a Tutorial dinner for both the M/W and T/Th staff as well as the student works who we all love very much and like to fight over.

As a present for Emma and myself, Young and the student workers had our kids decorate a plain bag for us that we can use for everything aka school. The thing with having surprises when there are children involved is that most likely, somebody will spill the beans – this happened to Emma and nearly to me, but even knowing the surprise didn’t take away from how much I loved the bag and the picture frame that my orgs signed for me containing a picture of all of the kids and their tutors as well as the orgs.

Staff dinner is usually followed up with a SD lunch sometime during reading period where the incoming and outgoing SDs or SDs that are staying discuss amongst themselves and Young any issues, concerns or comments we have concerning tutors, families, kids, or particular pairings.

So that is the end of the end-of-year Tutorial shindigs that commemorate all the hard work so many people put into running the program all-semester long, and I already miss everybody and can’t wait for Tutorial to start up again in August.

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This past week, I had to choose between writing this blog and sleeping. And then between sleeping and studying. And studying always win. Also I watched Liverpool lose on Wednesday, but we won’t talk about that.

i like to remember happier times.

I very rarely stay at Hopkins for more than two weeks at a time, of my own choosing I like to go home and recharge away from the campus bubble. But until this past Friday, I had not gone home for a weekend since I came for Tutorial training a about a month ago. So I was in desperate need of a break from late nights at Gilman and constantly thinking about what parents needed to be called for Tutorial testing.

it is not like my iCal is insane looking

One of the reasons that I love Tutorial so much is that it allows the students that participate in it to disconnect from the Hopkins universe for a few hours a week and appreciate the reality of the city we live in as well as everything that has been offered to us. I always want to remind students at Hopkins that in a few years, this biochem exam that didn’t go so well will be completely forgotten. Eventually, the names of professors and TAs will be a fuzzy memory and Hopkins will, and should be, remembered as a place where your intellectual curiosity was pursued, where you made life long friends, where you explored your interest, pushed your comfort zone and contributed to the world in the way that only college students can.

Mount Vernon, Baltimore

That’s just my inspirational speech for today. I’ll check that off my pages long to-do list (and I just crossed off get wireless internet FINALLY in my apartment). But, really, though – if I could give one piece of advice to any prospective student or college freshmen it would be to participate in one activity that puts you out of yourself, that makes you think of someone else for at least a certain period of time – not of the paper you have due, or the party you’re going to next Saturday, etc – just that other person. It’ll open your mind, not to mention your heart, to a whole new frame.

Eventually, after my Physics midterm on Tuesday – I owe this blog a first-impressions of my class entry.

Peter and I during the first SAAB meeting. Yeah, we're like that in real life.

All the best!

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Student Organization Name: The JHU Tutorial Project

Category of Group: Community Service

Year Founded: 1958

Your Name: Wafa K

Your Year: Class of 2012

Your Position: Organizer

Website: http://www.jhu.edu/csc/tutorialproject.shtml

One of the most meaningful and fulfilling activities that I participate in at Hopkins is the Johns Hopkins Tutorial Project. The Johns Hopkins Tutorial Project is an “after-school tutoring program for elementary school children in Baltimore City” and is one of the most inspiring activities I have been a part of ever, and that I get to witness twice a week. The Tutorial Project was founded in 1958, making it the longest-running program of its kind in Baltimore, and since its inception has served more than 5,000 kids.

I choose to become involved in the Tutorial Project because it was one of the many things that initially attracted me to coming to Hopkins in the first place. Having an organization of this nature that runs for over fifty years requires dedication and passion that is synonymous with the Hopkins student population. Further, it is the founding block for the Center for Social Concern where many of the socially and community-minded organizations at Hopkins find their home.

The Tutorial Project encompasses approximately 100 children that come to the Homewood campus twice a week either by bus or by their families, and each child has their own tutor.  The tutors, who are trained at the beginning of each semester, offer individual help in reading, math, science, geography etc. The tutors plan an hour of activities and educational games based on their unique child, based on assessments conducted at the beginning of the semester.

The people that conduct those assessments, and who are imperative to the smooth operation of the Tutorial Project, are organizers. Being an Organizer, which I am, requires one to be in charge of between four to six pairs of tutee-tutor, including training of the tutor, testing at the beginning and end of the semester of each tutee, and checking on the pairs every session, as well as dealing with making snack, riding the bus, special activities, behavior problems, monitoring play time at the end of every session, etc.

In addition to the elementary school children, this past fall semester, the Tutorial Project also began its first semester of a sister program called LEAD, which is catered to middle school kids. Instead of traditional tutoring, these students are paired with a graduate student and spend the semester developing projects in areas of academia that are of interest to them.

All Hopkins students are encouraged to become tutors. Nobody is turned away, because every additional Hopkins student we get to be a tutor means we get to say yes to another Baltimore family that wants their children in the program.

The Tutorial Project is so amazing because it epitomizes all the best things about Hopkins: encouraging academic pursuits, helping one another out, inspiring children, and giving back to the community in a touching and significant way.

Many children in the program come from tough family situations and even tougher neighborhoods, and it is the height of their week coming to the Homewood campus to interact and learn with Hopkins students. Being a part of that experience, and seeing it constantly, is indescribable and something I plan to be a part of for the rest of my time at Hopkins.

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One of my favorite things about the last week of October is the Halloween party we throw for the kids  at the Tutorial Project. Last year I was a tutor, but this year I am an Organizer (which means I am in charge of five pairs of tutors and tutees and help the program run efficiently). But, obviously, one of the most important parts of being an Org is dressing up for the Halloween party.

The party, that is an annual tradition and is a collaboration with the Black Student Union and the Resident Advisory Board, has the kids in the Tutorial Project go trick-or-treating in freshmen housing and then go to the common room in AMR II where we have pizza, Halloween games, cartoons, books, arts and crafts, face painting and, a personal favorite, a haunted house run by the members of the BSU.

Our theme this year for the Organizers dressing up was Cowboys and Cowgirls: I realized as I was planning my outfit for Thursday that I had nearly nothing a Cowgirl would deem appropriate attire, and so I borrowed a plaid shirt from my roommate and boots from a friend. Further, our director, Young, had to go get us all Cowboys hats and those nifty horses on sticks that most people have as kids. I basically was in love with this stupid horse toy and one girl, one of five sisters four of which that are in our program, named him Charlie for me. She then proceeded to carry him the entire time they collected candy from freshmen in AMR II and promptly forgot about him when one of her sisters tried to steal some of her candy. Charlie Horse, as he is know known, who was involved in a long adventure of taking down decorations and bringing them back to Levering Hall, is currently resting very comfortable in the corner of my room.

The Haunted House that the BSU runs is usually a highlight during this party, a good percentage of the kids enjoy it because they either think it is hilarious and/or terrifying in a good way, and another percentage of the kids will not even consider going near it. I am not one of the kids of Tutorial, and I would still consider myself to be part of that latter percentage. The BSU does a REALLY good job of putting on this haunted house and I have a very low threshold for scary things and experiences. I’m in full agreement with the quotation from Scooby-Doo at this beginning of this blog. To put this in perspective, I should tell you the last scary movie I watched was Jeepers Creepers 1 when I was thirteen at 2 in the afternoon and I covered my eyes through a good three-fourths of the film. I have not watched a single scary film/ghost story show/paranormal anything since that day. At all. I realize and totally accept the craziness of this quality. But, I was not the only Org scarred at the perspective of going into the Haunted House. Janine, a fellow Org, and I decided to face our fears together and went in on literally the last tour and held hands the whole time, emerging a bit shocked and terrified. So mission kinda accomplished.

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