Tutor Profiles
Viridiana Crisitina Cavero Espejo
Viridiana is 27, one of the fortunate ones. The second of four children born into a supportive family in the city of Oaxaca, advancing through education was the norm rather than the exception, even for a woman. With a diploma in Chemical Engineering, she now teaches in the Regional University of the Southeast.
But Viridiana has seen plenty of the less fortunate around her and made a commitment to devote her free time to helping them move ahead. When she was referred to the Center by a friend, she saw her opportunity. Even with her full-time job, she currently spends 18 hours a week tutoring ten Center students between 13 and 17 years old in Math and Chemistry.
“The truth is that the quality of our public education is poor,” Viridiana says. “At the same time, education remains the key to finding a satisfying life in our society. There are so many ambitious students who need extra help they can’t get! That I can give them.”
Anabel Gomez Garcia
A recent addition to the staff, Anabel was born, raised and schooled in the city of Oaxaca. A friend told her about the Center, and after a look-see for herself, applied for a tutoring position. While in secondary school, she had done some informal teaching at an after-school sports club, finding she enjoyed passing on her skills and knowledge to others.
At 20, she’s half way through the rigorous five-year curriculum that will lead to a university degree in Architecture.
Even in the short time Anabel’s been at the Center, she has seen how beneficial its program can be for students who need the kinds of additional support schools fail to provide. “I’m coaching eight students in Math, Physics and Chemistry, but I see the Center providing something maybe even more important than academic support,” she explains. “What students find here is something they won’t find anywhere else: people who take an interest in their personal lives and personal problems—people who care.”
Because the Center’s approach is something totally unfamiliar to them, many students start out timid, even wary, Anabel observes. “They don’t know what to make of learning in such a family-like atmosphere. It’s something they’ve never experienced before.” What gives her great pleasure in her tutoring is seeing these cautious beginners open up, learning to trust the staff - and then trust themselves.
Edith Lopez Nicolas
Edith is 23 and about to begin six months of community service in a rural village. She, herself, came from such a place up in the northern sierra, known as the Mixteca. With the help of a three-year scholarship from La Casa de la Mujer, a privately funded organization, she made it all the way into university. There, she considered majoring in Nursing, or Information Sciences, but in the end opted for Psychology, with a special interest in how children grow and learn.
For 14 months, Edith combined her studies with tutoring at the Learning Center’s in-city location. There is no question in her mind that the Center provides a unique and valuable service to students. “Some people always need more time to learn than others,” she says. “In school, everything goes by at the same pace and only goes by once. If you don’t get it, you end up left behind.” At the Center, she tutored mainly Math, but some Computer Literacy and even Spanish as well.
Edith is the third of her parents’ five children, and the only one to have ventured into higher education. Her parents’ problem with her leaving was not that education was a waste of time for women, but rather their concerns about her safety in the city. Once they felt reassured that she would be all right, they watched her advance with pride. Soon, after Edith finishes her community service, they will be able to take satisfaction in having a daughter with a career in Educational Psychology.
Liliana Cervantes Ramirez
One of the first tutors at the Leaning Center, Liliana, now 28, thinks of it as a second home. Her mother works there, too, as the Center’s housekeeper. Liliana was born and raised in the Oaxaca suburb of San Felipe. She needed private tutoring at the high-school level, and it was expensive. Fortunately, her parents were able to find the money for the extra help she needed, and she went on to the Technological Institute, graduating as a Civil Engineer. In addition to the tutoring she now provides others, she works improving the basic infrastructure of poor villages, bringing in drinkable water and waste systems.
“It was hard for my parents to pay for my private tutoring,” she says. “Here at the Center, help is free. Really free, with no strings attached. What is given is given from the heart.” In addition to the satisfaction she finds in contributing to others’ growth and advancement, Liliana revels in the Center’s family atmosphere, the comings and goings of different kinds of students with different needs, and the chance to get to know some foreigners as well.
“It’s about three years that the Center has been an important part of my life,” she says, “and I hope to go on working here for many more years to come.”
