Math mentorship helps aboriginal children
Veselin Jungic, 778.822.3340, vjungic@irmacs.sfu.ca
Melania Alvarez, 604.822.0404, melania@pims.math.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Contrasting a gloomy day in Vancouver’s inner city, the faces of more than a dozen aboriginal children shine brightly as they play a math board game with Melania Alvarez in a free math mentorship program.
Alvarez, a Simon Fraser University doctoral student in education and the B.C. education coordinator at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), created the program, which is sponsored by PIMS.
Last fall, Alvarez recruited Veselin Jungic, an SFU senior lecturer in math known for teaching aboriginals, to help launch the program at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre (VAFC).
The centre—a cultural, educational and recreational gathering place for aboriginal residents in the downtown eastside—is near Britannia Elementary and Secondary School, which most of the VAFC math program’s participants attend.
The PIMS/SFU math mentorship program invites all K-12 aboriginal children living near the VAFC to take advantage of the after-school offering.
Along with 14 other SFU faculty, student and staff volunteers, Alvarez and Jungic have helped more than 50 aboriginal students in grades 2-11 get an intellectual leg up on their often challenging lives.
“We strongly believe that by helping especially very young people to build their confidence in math that we will significantly contribute to their future intellectual development,” says Jungic.
Adds Sherry Small, VAFC program director, “Many of our youth have a negative view of conventional learning strategies in Western culture. However, this program is helping students build a healthy, positive relationship with education and SFU.”
The SFU volunteers work one-on-one with children for an hour and a half twice a week, using games, workbooks and conversation. This fall, they fundraised $1,100 to buy each child a workbook from the Singapore math series.
SFU students, faculty and staff in any discipline are welcome to volunteer.
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