Tutoring
Who is San Diego Refugee Tutoring (SDRT)?
“In 2008, SDRT was formed out of a brainstorming session of teachers who saw the unmet needs of a growing refugee population in an eastern City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. Dealing with more than just an educational gap, teachers noticed a wide cultural gap that made it difficult for students of refugee background to keep up with their peers. Most students do not receive any additional instruction outside of school from someone who is fluent in English or assimilated to American culture since they often live in ethnic enclaves. Additionally, there are extremely limited after-school options for accessible tutoring or extracurricular activities.
When SDRT started, it focused on meeting the needs of the Ibarra Elementary School students (K-5th grade), their siblings, and their parents. As the parents began getting jobs, learning English and acquiring full schedules, the parents could no longer spend 90 minutes with us. Now, SDRT focuses mainly on the students and their siblings, who range in age from Pre-K to High School.”
(*From SDRT’s Website, “About Us” page: https://sdrefugeetutoring.com/about-us/)
Where do the Students Come From?
“San Diego Refugee Tutoring works with students of refugee background from Ibarra Elementary and their siblings (preschool, middle school and high school). Our students have lived in the United States anywhere from one month to eight years. They are Burmese/Karen/Karenni, Burundian, DR Congolese, Somali, Sudanese, Central African, Syrian, and Haitian. Most of our students speak several languages other than English.”
(*From SDRT’s website, “About Us” page: https://sdrefugeetutoring.com/about-us/)
What are the requirements for becoming a tutor?
1) Be passionate for helping the next generation grow in knowledge, and like being around elementary/middle/high school students.
2) Have proficient basic knowledge of math or English and/or science or history skills. (just enough to teach basic multiplication or elementary school level reading skills, or have the basic understanding of some of the most significant events in history (wars and etc.).)
3) Be a US citizen or have a valid VISA (this is a VERY important requirement, as I have worked with potential tutors that were very excited to participate, but unfortunately in the end, could not, given they didn’t have the proper paperwork and requirements. Please make sure you have at least one of these!)
*One quick note*: You don’t need to have tutored or done anything like this previously in order to tutor with us! (Don’t worry, I didn’t have any experience before I started at SDRT either, and I promise you, our board members will make the process easy, and be here for any questions or issues that may arise.)
The Process for Becoming a Tutor
We are excited that you are interested in becoming a tutor for SDRT! Since we are an on-campus organization, there are a couple of certifications that all interested student tutors will have to complete, in addition to San Diego Refugee Tutoring’s (SDRT) own new tutor orientation. SDRT does require that all new tutors take/participate in a new tutor orientation night, before signing up to tutor on either Tuesday or Thursday nights. In addition, the organization requires the creation of an account via SDRT’s website, filling out an application/form, and running a quick background check. All procedures that the organization follows is to ensure and protect the personal information and safety of the students that they work with/support. Additionally, UCSD requires that student organizations who work with minors take extra certification courses, before participating in the activity the organization wants to take part in. There will be two certification exams that potential student tutors need to complete, before starting the SDRT process of becoming a tutor.
Once the student has completed the certification exams successfully, they will need to send their certificate of completion to aers22sd@gmail.com, and wait for one of our board members to acknowledge the individual has completed the first step of the process.
Following the approval of the certifications, the student can now go to the SDRT website, and create an account. Once in the account, the student can follow/fill out the required and necessary forms.
NOTE: Students will not be able to become official SDRT tutors until January 2023, given that SDRT only provides 2 new tutor orientations per year (one in September, and one in January). Students will instead participate in AERS GBMs and socials to get to know other potential tutors/receive further training and advice on successful tutoring from our board members.
In January 2023, students may attend the new student orientation session, and start signing up for tutoring sessions either on Tuesday or Thursday nights. When in-person tutoring occurs, a sign-up sheet for rides will be created by the board members and sent out to AERS members.
NOTE: All student tutors MUST participate in at least 1 tutoring session per week in order to remain a tutor at SDRT and an active member of AERS. Additionally, the student must continue to tutor until the end of the 2022-23 academic year (early June 2023).
We understand that this section contains a lot of information that still may be confusing…we invite you to come join our first GBM in October, where our board members will explain all the details and answer your questions!
Is it past the first GBM date/do you have questions still? Contact us!
AERS at UC San Diego
Connect with us!
