By Allison Bell, Justice and Legal Thought
When students do not have access to resources, they cannot reach their full potential. Lakeland STARs fights for justice by giving students the resources to have a more equitable education.
My name is Allison Bell and I am a sophomore in Justice and Legal Thought, majoring in Government and Politics and Family Science. For my practicum I volunteered at Lakeland STARs which is a tutoring program that works with Paint Branch Elementary School students from 1st to 6th grade. Lakeland STARs works to combat educational inequity by pairing local elementary school students with University of Maryland students. Every week tutors and tutees worked on the child's homework. The tutee would also write in their journal. Through this individualized attention the tutee would be able to focus and improve on their specific needs. Each week there would be play time and activities to enhance their learning. Some sessions would include theraplay, which would allow students to improve their self-esteem and trust through play. In the one picture you can see all the tutors and tutees at the end of the year raffle. In the picture below you can see all the tutors and tutees dressed up for Halloween. That day we all went trick or treating around the Cambridge Community. In the final picture, the tutees and tutors are seen playing a game of duck-duck-goose after a tour of Capital One’s field.
Justice and equity are tightly intertwined as one cannot claim to live in a just society if education, one of the building blocks of a society, is unequitable.
I learned a lot about my own tutee, but I have learned a lot about how unequitable education is throughout the country. When students do not have access to resources, they cannot reach their full potential. Lakeland STARs fights for justice by giving students the resources to have a more equitable education. Justice and equity are tightly intertwined as one cannot claim to live in a just society if education, one of the building blocks of a society, is unequitable. I plan to continue volunteering with Lakeland STARs. I want to continue my work with education inequity by getting my master’s in public policy specializing in education.
Your poster stood out to me because I've had experiences tutoring students in the past and they were very rewarding, important experiences for me, so I may also want to participate in this program. I like how you explain that students didn't just receive academic assistance, they also had sessions to help their mental health and self-esteem. If a student does not believe in themselves, then it is hard for them to make significant progress in classes, which is important to consider. Also, it's great that you want to continue combatting educational inequity in a future career. What do you think school faculty should do to ensure all of their students are receiving an equal, quality education?
This project stood out to me because of the commentary on inequity in our education system. I learned that in your time, something as simple as helping students reflect on their current situation and happenings and giving them that individualized attention can be instrumental in creating equity in our education system. This is a very unique opportunity one has to work with students at such a close level while still in college, even without being directly in a teaching or education major. I'm very inspired by your time and work with Lakeland Stars. I'm curious, how do you think this pandemic, with students taking online classes has exacerbated these inequity concerns you've raised?
Hi Allison, thank you o much for sharing your experience. Your major and interest in education inequity originally caught my eye. I learned a lot about how education inequity and justice are intertwined and have a lot of influence and pull over one another. How do you think education inequity has been further affected by the virtual learning of CO-VID 19?
I Loved your poster. I found it great that you focused not only on the educational aspect of being a tutor but also on things like self esteem. Its important when working with a population to develop a lot of things with them that they may be lacking and I thought that was cool. Also i loved the way your poster looks.
This poster really stood out to me because it discusses justice in education. Everyone should have access to adequate education throughout the United States, but because this doesn’t happen and students don’t have proper access to resources this puts them at a disadvantage. Depending on where students go to school affects what resources they have access to, which is completely unfair. This limits so many students from reaching their full potential because they don’t have the means to do so. From this I learned that justice ties into equity, because education is such an important component of our society, yet it is the access everyone has to quality education varies. One thing I would like to know is, ‘How could…