Leah L. Jones/The Gazette
Northwestern High School tutor Brandon Hairston, 14, of Hyattsville helps Alberto Velasco, 6, of Hyattsville on Saturday through the LiteracyCares program.
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Northwestern High School freshman Christine Gilchrist said she doesn't mind waking up early on Saturday morning to tutor elementary school students.
"The smile on their face really helps you," she said.
The 15-year old Hyattsville resident is one member of LiteracyCares, a group of Northwestern students who run literacy tutoring sessions for Rosa L. Parks Elementary School students and their parents.
Saturday's session at Rosa Parks Elementary marked the end of this year's LiteracyCares partnership between the two schools. The program is run through Gaithersburg-based LeadershipCares.
Although the students in kindergarten through second grade improve their reading skills through the sessions, the high school students also learned how to be caring leaders, said LeadershipCares founder Ron Yudd.
"Showing these teenagers that they can use their gifts and talents to help another person, and I think the level of confidence or the change in confidence you see in the school year, is very exciting," Yudd said.
Northwestern senior Martin Ngwa, 17, of Hyattsville said he feels better about himself after the experience.
"It gives me the skills to become a leader in giving instructions to people and actually learning from how I can approach people of different ages," Martin said. "At the beginning I was a little bit shy and I didn't know how to do it, but with the help of other tutors and other coaches, I think I can do it better now than before."
Rosa Parks reading specialist Karen Matthews said teachers identified at-risk elementary students to participate in the program based on test scores.
Parents are required to stay with their children during the tutoring sessions and attend two parent-reading workshops.
"It's important that they follow up and do what we do at home also," Matthews said.
She said that students' test scores rose last year after they participated in the program, which only held four sessions. The program expanded this year to seven sessions and two parent workshops.
Rosa Parks principal Tracey Adesegun said the initiative helps foster healthy relationships between older and younger students.
"They're working with the younger children in a more positive way, so the younger ones can look up to them in a more positive manner," she said.
