Undergraduate / "Tutoring as an extracurricular activity"-UNIV OF ILLINOIS [4]

Essay 2: In an essay of 300 words or less, choose one extracurricular activity, work experience, or community service project from the list you provided on the application and explain why you initially chose it, why you continued with it, and how you benefited from it.

Tutoring started with a request and nurtured into an interest. Being one of the first to successfully complete my math assignment, my lecturer asked me to elucidate the procedure to the reminder of the class. Though I was initially sceptical, I had no option but to accept the task as a challenge. The pedestal I had occupied for a short duration had overwhelmed me with pride. After this experience, the opportunity to tutor 9th grade students was grasped with out further contemplation.

The methodology of interaction I adopted was to nurture a friendly atmosphere and understand their strengths and limitations. I observed that they lacked the understanding of basic concepts of math. My task started by moving back a few steps to reorient the building blocks of Maths.

Having attended Vedic maths classes at a young age, I had a lucid understanding of the concepts. The games I devised to channel the student's thoughts for easy understanding of the subject have born rich fruits. The students would actively participate and look forward for the next class. Some of their questions were thought provoking and provided a greater clarity of the subject in question. I constantly changed my teaching methodology to get the best out of each student and it did not take long for them to increase their scores by 40-45%. The sense of comfort for the student and accomplishment at my end were of immense satisfaction.

Through teaching I have become more organised and the experience has turned me into a better team player. The accolade I received for tutoring has greatly increased my self confidence and has served as encouragement for my future endeavours. Now, I welcome any challenge. I am fortunate in that I have been given the opportunity to optimize the usefulness of my personal virtues in helping others.