April 4, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY
A Calvin College junior biology student has created a new tutoring program
that helps local high school students prepare for the ACT test.
Nathan Tonlaar, a native of Tamale, Ghana, launched a program in February
which pairs Calvin students from such departments as English, biology,
chemistry, physics and math with juniors and seniors at Ottawa Hills High
School.
The student pairs meet twice a week to prepare for the ACT test, which the
high school students will take on April 8.
Tonlaar says his tutoring idea came to him as he stood in a hallway at Calvin
looking at an ACT poster.
"It had pictures of minority kids on it," he remembers, "but it came to my
mind that perhaps there were people out there who didn't have the opportunity
to take the test and to prepare for college."
Soon after he learned from a friend that Ottawa Hills High School had no
formal program to train students to take the ACT. Jeff Bouman, director of
Calvin's service-learning center, and Tonlaar's boss, was enthusiastic about
the tutoring idea, and he and Tonlaar got in touch with the Ottawa Hills
principal.
Initially 18 Ottawa Hills students signed up for tutoring. Once the program
got rolling, more people signed on. Currently there are 27 students involved.
The Calvin students who participate in the tutoring program receive
cross-cultural engagement (CCE) credits for their work (the CCE credit is part
of Calvin's core requirement).
Bouman says that Tonlaar has a long track record of balancing service-learning
and research opportunities with his academic load.
He has coordinated the federal work study community service program, studied
infant mortality rates in Kent County, performed adult stem cell research with
Calvin biology professor David De Heer and even found time to participate in
Rangeela (Calvin's annual international student variety show) and Airband (a
student lip-synching concert).
"Nathan has modeled the kind of well-rounded, kingdom-citizen we are trying to
help nurture at Calvin," Bouman says.
Tonlaar says he is just happy that the program actually came together.
"It feels good to actually have it succeed and know that you're making a
difference," he says.
Contact Nathan at nyt2@calvin.edu or yennaat2001@yahoo.com
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/tonlaar.htm
-end-
Received on Tue Apr 4 11:24:52 2006
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