That Took a Lot of Guts
Posted on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 by
By Education Specialist Nate Duriga
Last fall, we started the Scholar’s Program at the Tillicum Youth & Family Center. Our mission is to provide tutoring and mentoring to a small group of youth who are at-risk to not graduate high school, but full of potential. One goal is for students to know how to advocate for themselves at school.
Recently, a student had an art fee he could not pay ($10), which meant the student had an "F" in the course as long as the fee went unpaid. I encouraged him to go talk to his counselor at the school about the issue, but he was obviously intimidated by the idea. One day I was at the school during lunch hour, and asked him about the fee. He had not gotten up the courage to ask about it, but he agreed to walk with me to his counselor's office - well, actually, he walked about 2 feet behind me, because he was so nervous! Once there, I introduced the situation and he gave the information needed. Since the student receives free/reduced lunch, the response from the counselor was a simple, "We'll take care of it."
The conversation took a minute and a half. When we walked out, I said, "That was easy enough, wasn't it?"
"Are you kidding?!" he replied. "That took a lot of guts!"
What had appeared to me to be a simple step was a new and even scary experience for this young man.
I made sure he knew I was proud of him for doing it. Coaching students through experiences like this sets a pattern for them to do more things that "take guts" in the future.
Nate Duriga is the Education Specialist at the Tillicum Youth & Family Center, which means if it involves helping youth succeed at school, Nate is involved!