{"id":1776,"date":"2023-06-21T18:37:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T18:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:55:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T13:55:20","slug":"a-study-in-outreach-umsop-offers-tutoring-hands-on-learning-to-youths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/2023\/06\/21\/a-study-in-outreach-umsop-offers-tutoring-hands-on-learning-to-youths\/","title":{"rendered":"A Study in Outreach: UMSOP Offers Tutoring, Hands-On Learning To Youths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By:<\/strong> Emily Chappell, senior media and public relations specialist<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Catalyst Magazine<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Over a decade ago, Sandra Satterfield-Myles brought her daughter to the University of Maryland, Baltimore\u2019s (UMB) campus for the\u00a0A Bridge to Academic Excellence (ABAE)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0tutoring program after a neighbor\u2019s family participated and told her about it.<\/p>\n

For Satterfield-Myles, it was a chance for her child to get extra practice. She was doing well in school, but, Satterfield-Myles said, as an educator herself, she wanted her child to have extra work to help lock the knowledge in.<\/p>\n

All these years later, Satterfield-Myles is back, this time with another daughter, 15-year-old Mayan Myles.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not failing \u2014 she has a 4.1 [GPA]. But the thing is, she needs to understand that in order to retain the information,\u201d she needs to continue to go over what she\u2019s learning, Satterfield-Myles said. \u201cSo I felt like if [she is assigned] no homework, let\u2019s come here, let\u2019s get some different things and she\u2019ll be able to continue to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than two decades, the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) has offered ABAE, which was created and run by Margaret Hayes, MS, the school\u2019s now-retired director of student services, to provide free tutoring and mentoring for middle and high school students who needed help learning various subjects. In recent years, JuliAna Brammer, MBA, director of PharmD admissions at UMSOP, has taken over as academic advisor for ABAE.<\/p>\n

Today, ABAE offers tutoring in multiple subjects, including algebra I and II, calculus, geometry, trigonometry, physics, chemistry, biology, English\/writing, SAT math, and SAT verbal. The program is coordinated by pharmacy students, but tutoring is done by students from all of UMB\u2019s programs and takes place most Saturdays from late September to early May in Pharmacy Hall.<\/p>\n

Vanessa Mae S. Vailoces, a University of Maryland School of Dentistry student, has volunteered as a tutor since fall 2022. Vailoces used tutors and received extra help when she was a child, something she credits for why she\u2019s found success in school.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why she knew she wanted to give back through ABAE.<\/p>\n

\"Clarissa<\/a>

Clarissa Santori from the School of Pharmacy assists Jaylin Johnson with his Algebra 2 work. Photo by Matthew D\u2019Agostino<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe biggest reason that I\u2019ve been able to do well in school is because my mom took the initiative to take me to tutoring whenever she saw me struggling. And that was something I really took for granted, because I didn\u2019t realize [that] not every kid has that. So when I saw that they were offering volunteer tutoring here, I thought it was just a really good thing for me to do to give back to the community, because I know what it meant to me,\u201d Vailoces added.<\/p>\n

Having an Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

Satterfield-Myles\u2019 family isn\u2019t the only one that\u2019s been involved in ABAE for generations.<\/p>\n

Grant Mellerson, a senior in high school, has been coming to the tutoring program since the eighth grade. And before him?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have three sisters,\u201d Mellerson said, \u201cand they all went through this program as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He saw the impact ABAE had on his siblings, and after all these years in it, confirms it\u2019s helped him, too.<\/p>\n

This spring, Mellerson has focused on calculus, an area in which he has been struggling. But he also uses his time in the tutoring program to work on additional classwork as needed. On a Saturday in March, he spent the morning focused on an English assignment where he evaluated what women\u2019s rights looked like years ago compared to present day through the lens of two pieces of literature.<\/p>\n

\"Mayan<\/a>

Mayan Myles studies AP Government with Zachariah Lee from the School of Medicine. Photo by Matthew D\u2019Agostino<\/p><\/div>\n

But for him, these sessions are about more than just tutoring \u2014 they\u2019re a chance for Mellerson, who is hoping to study information technology after graduation, to be exposed to all that UMB, and UMSOP, offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting ready to go to college,\u201d he said. \u201cI get to ask some of [the tutors] their college experiences and get a perspective of what college is like.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Commitment to Community<\/strong><\/p>\n

For UMSOP, making those connections with youth throughout the city and surrounding counties isn\u2019t just a fringe benefit of programs like ABAE \u2014 they\u2019re part of a Universitywide commitment to community.<\/p>\n

These types of outreach efforts \u2014 from ABAE, to partnerships with nearby\u00a0Mother Mary Lange Catholic School (MMLCS)<\/a><\/strong>, to tours for K-12 students, like a\u00a0recent visit from homeschoolers around the state<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 help to expose the next generation to an aspect of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education they may not normally see so young, said Cherokee Layson-Wolf, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA, professor of practice, sciences, and health outcomes research and associate dean for student affairs at UMSOP.<\/p>\n

A big reason for this outreach is to get students and their families interested in pharmacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever we\u2019re thinking about STEM, unfortunately, [the] STEM definition doesn\u2019t include pharmacy even though it is a medical profession,\u201d Layson-Wolf said. \u201cAnd so we have to work harder to put ourselves out there with information and engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past winter, UMSOP gave local students a hands-on look at all pharmacy has to offer. Students in MMLCS\u2019s Girls in STEM club visited Pharmacy Hall to hear from several UMB women professionals about the education and training required to be a pharmacist, a physician assistant, and a simulationist.<\/p>\n

And after that, they visited UMSOP\u2019s simulation rooms, where they were each given a stethoscope to practice checking the pulse, respirations, and blood pressure of the mannequins, just like the health professions students do in their classes.<\/p>\n

\"Leon<\/a>

Leon Bryant studies algebra with School of Dentistry student Alyssa Yi. Photo by Matthew D\u2019Agostino<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe goal is to expose these young women to careers in STEM and to expose them to people who are currently working in these areas,\u201d said Cynthia Tilghman-Lee, DVM, the\u00a0after-school STEM program coordinator\u00a0at MMLCS.<\/p>\n

Each week, Girls in STEM brings in different speakers \u2014 including more than one from UMB \u2014 to talk to the kids in the club. And to continue to broaden that exposure, she said, they wanted to partner directly with UMSOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fact that these young girls can look out and say, \u2018Hey, I could be there. I can see myself in pharmacy school,\u2019 \u201d Tilghman-Lee said, later adding, \u201cIt was a really eye-opening field trip for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tilghman-Lee said she is grateful to be able to actively grow the partnership with UMB \u2014 UMSOP has opened the door for future activities with MMLCS, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s valuable for our students to know that someone cares about their future. I think it\u2019s valuable for them to have seen so many women in STEM so that we\u2019re modeling to them what their future could look like,\u201d Tilghman-Lee said. \u201cAnd also \u2014 representation matters. It matters that they see people who look like them and who are from where they live. And that\u2019s the city of Baltimore. So I\u2019m just grateful for all that the faculty was able to do and all that they were able to inspire in our young ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read about the University\u2019s\u00a0Academy of Lifelong Learning Literacy Tutoring Program.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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