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Both a Tutor and Former Refugee
Senka, at the recent #NoBanNoWall protest at the SD airport
My name is Senka Hadzimuratovic, and I've been an SDRT volunteer since November 2016. This initiative has very quickly become incredibly near and dear to my heart, as I myself was a Muslim refugee from war-torn Bosnia. I consider myself one of the luckiest people on Earth. My family escaped Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, in 1992, mere days before the 1425-day-long Siege of Sarajevo. I was six years old, and my most vivid memory before leaving was playing with my Barbies in my grandmother's bathroom -- the only windowless room in her apartment, safe from sniper fire. I learned later that a grenade dro pped into my bedroom three days after we departed. We immigrated to Germany via trains, buses and a few more maneuvers involving friends of friends of friends in various countries along the way. We spent five years in Germany, crossing our fingers every three months that our temporary visa would be renewed for the time being. My engineer parents worked odd jobs while my brother and I went to school, trying to immerse ourselves into German culture. Meanwhile, my parents had begun the process of applying to come to the US -- and after many months of invasive vetting (!), we were approved. We felt so lucky.
In May 1997, we arrived in the small town of Cookeville, Tennessee, to begin our new lives. With the help of our sponsors and a supportive community, including English tutors, my family once again began the process of starting over. This time, thankfully, there was a feeling of permanence -- greencards instead of visa extensions, and a path to citizenship. Although my parents have not been able to continue their professions, my brother and I have been fortunate. We went on to finish public high school, attended prestigious universities (Princeton, Northwestern, Vanderbilt), and built careers as a lawyer and a public relations executive. We could not have done it without the support of kind people, such as those volunteering with SDRT, especially at the on-set of our time in the US.
When I tutor, I often have to keep from crying -- I see so much of my former self in these wonderful children. Although my childhood was peppered with scary moments, ultimately I can look back on it and primarily feel joy. And I want our refugee kids to look back on their childhoods and feel the same way I do about mine today.
Senka, and her fiancee, Selasi, whose parents migrated here from Ghana
We appreciate Senka sharing so vulnerably with us. We would love to hear why you show up to tutoring each week. What motivates you? What have you seen in our kids that has touched your life? How has your life changed since tutoring our kids? It can be a paragraph--or a page! Please consider sharing it with us! Jot it down and send it to melissa@sdrefugeetutoring.com.
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Tutoring Tips for the Old & New
How do we engage our little people for such a long period of time, and so late in the evening? You have seen it: restless kids resisting any activity that looks 'too academic,' constantly needing to get up to do something, unable to stay on one task for more than a few minutes. We are talking here about kids in preschool, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. Most of these kids have never been to school and have very short attention spans. (You'll know when you get one!) We now have an expansive collection of preschool activities that include building, color sorting, stacking, board books and other simple, engaging activities. Please feel free to use these items with these kids in particular, switching them out every ten minutes. You can talk about colors and shapes while you count and build their vocabulary. This is great for where they are at. You can also read simple, patterned books to them! They love to hear the same book over and over again! (Think: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? and Cat in the Hat )
What if they are in second grade through fifth grade? How do I engage them? We have some of these issues with our older students, particularly if they are new to the country and/or have never had formal education in their own language. They sense that they are behind and are starting to feel frustrated. They can't do some of their grade level homework. We recommend that you a) read to them so they can enjoy stories and build their vocabularies b) gather many 'Learning to Read' activities from our shelves and do each one for about 10 minutes, so they stay engaged. c) do as much of their homework as is at their level and then write a note on it for their teacher, acknowledging what they DID do at tutoring that night, even though their homework might be incomplete. Lastly, if your child still struggles to focus and stay on task, ask a lead teacher for a few incentive prizes if you think it will help your child to stay motivated through the session. Then, hide those and pull one out every 15 minutes as a small reward for being 'on task.'
Just What We Needed!
We were very low on the fun pencils and erasers we give out each session. Our granola bar bin had only one granola bar box left in it. We didn't have enough dry erase markers for all of our students. On the first Tuesday this month, we showed up to this beautiful display board with boxes exploding with exactly what we needed. All the way from a girls youth group in Oceanside! Thank you Kimberly, for organizing this! She had asked me in September what we needed--and these supplies came to us just in the nick of time! I filled up each of our empty containers with a full heart. So much good stuff: Clif bars, Kids Z-bars, KIND bars, tons of erasers and pencils, all sorts of dry erase markers, and so much more! We were teary reading the girls' welcoming messages.
Did you know our kids eat over 100 granola bars a week? Thanks to all the tutors who grab us boxes of Kids Clif Z-bars when they are out. If you were wondering, we could use more over these next few weeks. They also have them at Costco! Thanks in advance!
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 We are able to accept financial donations to help with our program! If you'd like to support us with your checkbook (or debit/credit card!), please go here and do so now! You can read about other ways to give here.
Tuesdays & Thursdays
5-6:30pm
Ibarra Elementary
4877 Orange Ave.
San Diego, CA 92115
Register and then RSVP NOW !
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