We believe the 826 Valencia’s contribution can be analyzed from three aspects: for the students, for the teachers, and for the community.
In her interview, Ms. Brianna Rapp, an Irvine SAT Writing tutor, communicated how one-on-one tutoring helps students develop their own voice. “At its core, writing is communication,” (citation) and in order to develop that skill on paper, students need to be able to do so in person. Human relationships are very helpful for students to understand how their writing impacts other people. The 826 Valencia Writing Center acknowledges the utmost importance of this connection between the student and the mentor. In this environment, students can develop their own style of communication. While in a classroom, teachers can only communicate broad reaching concepts like spelling or grammar. In comparison, 826 Valencia provides for an intimate environment to dive deeper into more personal concepts such as phrasing or structure.
Also 826 Valencia reiterates the importance of writing to its students on a deeper level. John Wang from Taiwan said that because writing education is less focused on in Asia, he found a hard time in the United States when trying to send formal emails, write a cover letter, or simply piling up his resumes. “You are likely to forget 80% of those maths formulas when you are 80, but writing skills support you for life.” 826 Valencia encourages the students to publish their own work portraying their creative zeal in mediums like newspaper, book, or film. This teaching model further encourages students to get familiarized with different forms of writing so that they can perform better as they encounter similar processes in their career.
John further addressed on 826 Valencia’s classic one-on-one tutoring. As an Asian student who has never had a class with less than 30 students, John felt that individual teaching immediately neutralizes the gap between the teacher and the student because the lessons can be customized and the weaknesses of the students can be tackled most effectively. Moreover, the frequent interactions during the individual teaching session foster students’ confidence and interest in class. “It feels good to know that someone prepares all these materials just for me,” says John.
➢ For the teachers
826 Valencia has volunteer teachers from across the country. This diverse background encourages better communication between teachers because through conversations they can exchange good teaching methods and understand what it feels like teaching in other areas.
Also, teachers can also test whether they are a better fit for a small-classroom teaching. After all, not every teacher is born to be a college professor lecturing 200 students. 826 Valencia helps the teachers discover their merits so that they can choose better career paths for themselves and excel in the profession.
Moreover, 826 Valencia’s Teacher of the Month award posted on its website is a great motivation for teachers as they delve deeper into their teaching. This process creates a positive cycle that eventually benefits the students.
➢ For the community
826 Valencia does more than just provide tutoring services to students. As an institution, it is helping to anchor unstable property prices simply by existing and expanding into new neighborhoods. Its presence aids to stabilize uncertain and rising housing by serving as a stable indicator of well-being in the community. This stands as testimony to the fact that the institution is bringing not just positive educational benefit, but helping with affordable housing in neighborhoods that need it because realtors and buyers recognize the consistent, positive influence it represents in the community.
826 Valencia reaches out to San Francisco’s under-resourced Tenderloin community with its unique brand of impactful tutoring, writing, and publishing services. Because 826 Valencia’s teaching is focused on writing, it is easier to expand to a bigger scope in neighborhoods that are densely populated but lacks programs that train essential writing skills.
826 offers programs open to the public, not just students. This in turn encourages literary growth, engages the community, and generates publicity and funding for future community events. A great example of this is the 10th anniversary Write-A-Thon that was organized by 826 Valencia. It was the third event of its kind, featuring prizes, writing prompts, and a community writing experience like never before. This approach brings excitement and community within the domain its business model, as a form of community outreach as well as student development.
