As I was thinking back to my elementary and high school career I could not pick out any one teacher that turned me on or off to school. I have always been a self-motivated student and I did not really let anything stand in my way when it came to school. So I found it somewhat difficult to come up with an inspiring story to talk about for this assignment. Once again I was at square one and not exactly sure where to start. I then started to think about my career that I have had so far here at American University and the first thing that came to my mind was my fourteen "angels with horns."

Last June, I became an Americorp member with the program Heads Up. Since then a good portion of my life is devoted to these children at Birney Elementary School in Anacostia. It has been quite the learning experience. I actually believe that this past summer was my most educational summer. Not only in the sense that I spent 40+ hours a week teaching these kids skills that would enable them to not only succeed on the upcoming SAT-9 test, but also to succeed in life. But also in the sense that this summer was the time that I learned the most ever about myself. I learned who I was and what I hope to become.

I started out the summer on June 1 by moving into our apartment complex in the heart of Southeast D.C. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but being a middle-class white suburban female it was quite a culture shock to be moving into a lower-class black urban environment. However, because we were helping out the community the members of Barry Farms embraced our corp. This first day of program was a mess. While trying to stick to our intended lesson plans we also were trying to create a bond with our students that would enable us to have an impact on them. The summer was exhausting yet rewarding. We taught our students about ancient cultures that still existed in the present day. The teaching took place in a room that was 90 degrees with the air conditioner off and a small lake (due to the leaky air conditioner) on the days that the air conditioner was turned on. I learned the "ghetto vocab" as one of my students eloquently put it in the course of one summer.

Not all of it was fun and games of course. I also had to hear the heartbreaking stories that these kids had to tell about their parents or other family members. I will never forget the day that one of my students came in and told me that her brother had died, but it was no big deal because her sister died the same way last year (gunshot wound), and she didn't expect to make it past the age of eighteen. It made me realize how sheltered I was from the world and how much I had to learn about myself.

Even though these children were from the "so-called ghetto" they had heart. They wanted to be there to learn and to better themselves. Not necessarily to get out of Barry Farms, because to some this was all they knew, but just to make themselves better people. The feeling I got when one of my little "angels" would ask me a question that you knew took a lot of guts to ask a white tutor, such as "Why do all white people hate black people" was a feeling of disgust yet hope. Disgust; because this is how they were being brought up to view the world. Hope; because being a white tutor I could help them break down that prejudice and realize that that is not true.

I learned so much from my students in the past year. It is quite possible that I have learned just as much as knowledge as they have learned from me. I am coming away from this experience with a broader view of how some people live. I have a better understanding now as to why races view each other as they do. I know now that I should never give up on any of my students because I know that they do want to learn and to make themselves better. I also know that just because I am not from where they live, I can listen to them and gain a better understanding of their lives and the reasons for their actions. I have also seen first hand that it is possible to change yourself for the better and sometimes all it takes for that change to take place is an encouraging smile from someone that gave you the time of day, rather than just brushed you off to the side.

According to me, this was the ultimate learning experience. It allowed me to step out of my "comfort zone" and give to a community that needed help. Now I have a better understanding of what Joseph Joubert meant when he said, "To teach is to learn twice."