A colorful sign hung from the otherwise empty walls of David Starr Jordan High School.
“The road to college starts here,” it read.
Bruce Morris, a 10th-grade student, sat alone in the classroom with book in hand. The previous class had hurried outside after the bell rang for break. He came to class early to read.
“I like writing, and I like reading,” Morris said with a smile.
He caught the eye of Keli Arslancan, a fifth-year history and art student at UCLA. She had taught the previous class and was preparing to leave. Arslancan asked him a question written on the board for the previous class: “Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?”
Morris replied without hesitation: He hopes to become a journalist.
Arslancan meets with students like Morris throughout the week. She is the site coordinator for UCLA’s Mentors for Academic and Peer Support program, also known as MAPS, which assists instructors and mentors individual students at Jordan High School in south Los Angeles.
As a UCLA group, MAPS has established a high level of trust with administrators at Jordan High, said Marya Bangee, the project director. The principal assigns volunteers from the program to 10th-grade classrooms where they can work directly with the teacher for the entire academic year.
After training and shadowing for two weeks, volunteers provide tutoring in math and English. Volunteers depart from Ackerman turnaround several times a week to visit the high school, which is half an hour away. Sometimes the volunteers leave as early as 8 a.m.
The volunteers teach students in the early-morning 10th-grade math class about exterior angles and basic geometry. In between ringing cell phones and the teacher’s repetitive reminders to stay quiet, MAPS tutors engaged students with questions and practice problems.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Unified School District, 1 percent of Jordan High School students were at the proficient or advanced performance level in math for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Morris said he sees the tutoring making a difference.
“(Tutoring) is a really good helping hand,” Morris said. “I know our test scores are low, but with extra tutoring, we are learning,”
During their time with the program, each volunteer attempts to cultivate a long-lasting support system for willing students, said Maryam Amirebrahimi, a second-year student at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
Founded by the Muslim Student Association and open to all volunteer enthusiasts, MAPS began 10 years ago as a project to tutor and mentor students from underperforming high schools, Bangee said.
“(MAPS volunteers) stress humility. We don’t like the savior mentality. We are there to empower the students, not to save them,” Bangee said.
Situated in an area with high rates of poverty and crime, Jordan High School serves a traditionally low-performing student demographic, Bangee said.
“The students’ number one priority is survival, not education,” Bangee said.
Bangee added that MAPS is a valuable experience for UCLA student volunteers who have never been exposed to the inner city.
Nabila Farabi, a fourth-year biology student, said she feels it is her responsibility both as a UCLA student and a resident of Los Angeles to become involved in the community.
“We go to such a good school while our neighbors in (Los Angeles) are struggling,” Farabi said. “It is our responsibility to help.”
Bangee said the group hopes to bring Jordan High School seniors to visit UCLA this month to encourage them to pursue higher education.