For years students have had the opportunity to work as teachers for a month over the summer through the AVID Bridge program, which gives them a chance to learn what teaching is all about.

The AVID Bridge program is catered to tutoring incoming high school students who want help in strengthening their academic skill set so that a two-year college or university will be an accessible in the future.

“The reason that I wanted to do this in the first place was because I was considering being a teacher,” graduate Adriana Sanchez, ‘09, said. “I wanted to see how teaching students felt but I especially wanted to help these kids out since I was once in their position and I knew how it felt to go into high school.”

Many student teachers who went into the program had little idea what to anticipate and how much the program would impact them as well as the students they taught.

“I honestly went in not knowing what to expect … and it turned out to be more enriching that I ever imagined,” senior Kelly McMeekin said. “I got to meet new kinds of people I wouldn’t normally have had the opportunity to meet. I really grew to appreciate teachers and what they do.”

Students had to learn teaching strategies, make lesson plans and cope with difficulties that arose.

“I learned that not everything goes your way,” Adriana said. “But I found that the best way to learn something was to just make it fun.”

Teaching kids fundamental skills in math and English proved to be more than a simple task.

“I really began to understand how demanding the job was and how overwhelming it could be,” Kelly said. “But you really start to care about all the kids a lot and often times when they don’t do well on a test, it bothers you more than it bothers the student.”

Both Adriana and Kelly hope that they have made a difference in the lives of their students.

“In terms of communicating the difficulty of high school, I hope we provided a good wake up call,” Kelly said. “Perhaps that will put them on the road to success through high school and life.”