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P15

December 2013

And there is this: “I know what it’s like to have a

hard day,” DeeSember says with a shrug after a

tutoring session in which Cyrus seems distracted

and frustrated.

Tutor learned the hard way

DeeSember never entered a classroom until she

was 7. She was helping to raise her younger brother

for their mother, who was divorced from their

father and then had five more children, leaving

them mostly in DeeSember’s care. Several times,

her father,

Robert

, had asked her and her brother

to come live with him, but she felt guilty about

leaving her stepsiblings. DeeSember finally agreed

to go. It was the last time she saw her mother.

Her father’s friend,

Sarah Anaya

, got DeeSember

into school. “She was like my mother, and she

treated me like her daughter,” DeeSember said.

“She hugged me at night and told me everything was

going to be OK. We would spend hours studying,

learning our colors, the alphabet, doing addition

and subtraction, worksheets, reading aloud.”

DeeSember read “The Cat in the Hat,” “The

Rainbow Fish” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

She passed a test to get into second grade and

soaked up learning, even after being bounced to

two new schools in third grade and yet another in

fifth grade. She had her own room and her own

bed for the first time, and life was good.

Seventh grade brought another new school and

an upheaval when her father and Sarah split up.

The children stayed with their father, but there

were many disappointments and struggles for

DeeSember. “I was losing too much at one time. I

didn’t care anymore, and I just wanted someone to

be there with me,” she said.

That someonewas Sarah, who became the children’s

legal guardian when DeeSember was a junior.

The teen again blossomed, taking college prep

courses, editing the yearbook and working on the

student newspaper as a senior. And her potential

was noticed by

Arlin Guadian

, a GCU alumna

who worked in high school outreach. Guadian,

now the Learning Lounge’s program coordinator,

persuaded DeeSember to visit campus before she

graduated from North High last May.

“I loved it there – we got to stay in the dorms and

they had food for us, and the student workers

were really cool,” she said. “I got to meet people at

GCU and experience what it’s like on a university

campus. I knew this was where I wanted to be.”

In August, DeeSember started classes at GCU, and

she landed her first job ever as one of 30 Learning

Lounge tutors, working four afternoons a week.

“I love it,” says the 19-year-old business major,

whose brown eyes are as shiny as her black curls.

“I love my friends here. We are not just friends, we

are family.”

She sees herself as a role model of success for high

school students who don’t see that in themselves.

“I’m not afraid to say I’m a proud college student

who did it, and to let them know that, no matter

what you’re going through in life, you can still be

successful,” DeeSember said.

Gently encouraging Cyrus, her most regular student,

she says, “You’ve got this. It’s OK. I’ll help you.”

Student tries to keep focus

Cyrus, 15, is the eldest of four children who live

with their parents in a home in west Phoenix.

Before that, his family moved from one cramped

apartment to the next. But Cyrus is among the

fortunate at Alhambra High – his primary language

is English, and he has had relative stability in life.

He’s bright and funny, saying he likes school and his

teachers. Although his early first-semester grades

indicate success in Reading Fundamentals, Cyrus

is struggling in Algebra I, Health Education I and

Ecology, and he is failing English I. “When I get lost in

what the teachers are saying, I zone it out,” he said.

He heard about the Learning Lounge and came

in a week after it opened. His first tutor was

Emily Benzing

, who remembers him as shy and

unwilling – or unable – to make eye contact, until

she started talking about weight training and

football. And then they did his math homework,

solving for algebraic equations, negative and

positive slopes, ratios, probability, order of

operations and the like.

The next day, Cyrus’ teacher at Alhambra asked if

anyone in the class knew how to do a problem.

“My teacher was shocked – it was the first time I

had raised my hand in class,” he said. “I went from a

student who didn’t do anything to volunteering to

get up to do a problem. I did a problem, and I did it

correct on the first try. It felt kind of good.”

He’s young enough that Alhambra and the Learning

Lounge have time to help him stay on track for

graduation and apply to college.

“This is the first time I’m actually working hard

to get my grades up. Before, I used to never try

to do homework, and I was failing all my classes,

and I always had lunch detention. But now I’m

struggling to work hard,” Cyrus said. “Hey, I don’t

want to retake this next year. I don’t want to be a

fifth-year senior.”

A tutoring session with Cyrus can be 40 minutes

of sporadic productivity. When he’s on task, he

works quickly, asks pointed questions and grasps

his mistakes. “My teacher said I could be in the

top of my class when I graduate,” he says. “I’ve

been told I’m a quick learner.”

At other times, teenage braggadocio wins out.

“Oh, you missed it!” he tells DeeSember, relaying the

gory details of his bike accident and displaying a

bruised hand and scuffed chin.

“There was a fight at the flagpole today between

two girls!” he announces between fractions. “I’m

sorry to hear that,” DeeSember replies calmly,

steering him back to matrices.

Cyrus can’t play football next fall unless his

grades are better, but that matters less than his

long-term game plan: Get good enough grades

to enroll in automotive classes at Metro Tech

High, graduate from high school, enlist in the

Marines, attend college on the GI Bill, open a

mechanics shop, be happy.

At Cyrus’ age, DeeSember didn’t have that detailed

vision. She’s glad he does.

“I’m already imagining how successful he will be. I

can already see how committed he is to going to

school,” she said.

It’s paying off for Cyrus, too, whose next report

card is a motivator.

“A friend came by to see if I wanted to play (a game

of touch) football today, but I told him no, I gotta

go study at the Lounge,” he said.

“And my mom told me I was (being) responsible.”

ALHAMBRA

HIGH SCHOOL

Address:

3839 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix

Year opened:

1961

Principal:

Claudio Coria

Enrollment:

2,884

Attendance rate:

94.2 percent

Four-year graduation rate:

79 percent

Annual dropout rate:

3.3 percent

School composition by percentage:

Hispanic, 77.6; African-American, 7.2;

Asian, 6.9; Anglo, 6.0; Native American, 1.6

Teacher education:

64 percent have

master’s degree or above

Teacher experience:

10-plus years,

61 percent; four to nine years, 31 percent

Source: Phoenix Union High School District