English teacher Jonathan Weil will offer weekly afterschool tutoring to help seniors with their college essays, beginning within the next week.
Administrators and the Parents’ Association (PA) have been looking for college essay and interview advisers to help students in the college application process.
“A lot of students fall into a hole” when it comes to college essay writing, said college advisor Patricia Cleary, who proposed that the school provide guidance on writing college essays to Assistant Principal Guidance Eleanor Archie earlier last week.
Archie said she spoke with Assistant Principal Eric Grossman about possibly having English teachers help seniors as essay advisers.
On Tuesday, September 18, Weil agreed to help out after school.
“It is really important that the English department is supporting those seniors who are going through the college application process,” said Weil.
He said with this afterschool program, seniors will have “another set of eyes as they fine-tune these [college] essay.”
Weil also teaches Creative Nonficiton, a personal writing class.
Grossman said the English department offers general tutoring, which students can use to get help with their writing. Weil, as an essay adviser, serves a more specific purpose. “Instead of publicizing it as general tutoring, Archie would publicize it as college essay help,” said Grossman.
The tutoring will begin as soon as possible. Grossman said the one-hour sessions will take place on Wednesday, though the day is not certain.
Grossman said he will have to see how many students will take advantage of the tutoring and whether more than one teacher will be necessary.
“The first couple sessions are a chance to see who comes and what we need to do,” he said.
According to Grossman, the school’s AIS tutoring fund will be used to pay for the essay help. AIS is the after-school tutoring program in core classroom subjects.
In the past, as well as this year, senior English classes have assigned students to write some form of a college essay as a way to help them in the college application process.
Two years ago, an interview coach came to Stuyvesant to help students with their interviewing skills. Cleary wants to restart that type of workshop.
“Pat Cleary proposed an interviewing workshop and the PA wholeheartedly supports it,” said PA Co-President Paola de Kock. “It would reduce the anxiety of college applications,” she said. “It’s the sensible thing to do.”
Students tend to have trouble with the essay portion of the college application process for multiple reasons, according to Cleary. “Their parents aren’t native speakers, their peers are too busy and they don’t have the funds to get extra help with their essays,” she said.
According to Cleary, colleges say “kids are tense and uncomfortable” during interviews.
“You have to sell yourself to colleges. Seniors need a lot of support,” said Cleary.
“You want as many people as possible to help you,” said senior Anna Fomitchova, who liked the idea of free counsel.
“It would be a helpful resource,” said senior Ruth Chan. But Chan was hesitant. “It would depend on how available the advisers would be and how willing they are to help us on an individual basis,” she said.
Senior Tim Chang was less enthusiastic. “It makes it much more impersonal in that it takes away from the meaning of a personal essay,” said Chang.
“It would be reassuring to hear the feedback of someone with experience when feeling so much pressure and uncertainty,” said junior Maria Kuharenko.
Stuyvesant will continue to look for college interview advisers, perhaps looking to other schools as examples.
At Bronx High School of Science, alumni run a mentoring program in which they help current students with their college applications every Friday.
“It’s very successful,” said the Stuyvesant PA College Committee Co-Chair Florri Levy. She said she has been looking to start a similar program at Stuyvesant.
The tutoring is a “small thing in a larger effort to ensure that students get help with their college essay,” Grossman said.