by Jordan Lemke
Four students climb into a minivan—normally, the group is bigger, but it’s midterms week here at Point Loma Nazarene University, so only the very dedicated few were able to make it. Jillian Dunn, the director of the Reality Changers tutoring ministry at Point Loma, has been a part of this weekly Thursday evening excursion since her freshman year. It’s a big time commitment for all of the volunteers, so one is left to wonder, why do they keep coming back?
Country music, then classic rock plays through the van speakers during the 30 minute drive from the largely affluent, beachside community of Point Loma, to the downtown San Diego neighborhood of City Heights. San Diego is no stranger to diverse neighborhoods, and areas such as City Heights are widely considered
to be growing. Historically, however, it has had anything but a stellar reputation. Known for its high rates of poverty and crime, its image is finally beginning to shift.
Reality Changers, a San Diego based nonprofit, wanted to be a part of that seismic shift when they began their efforts in 2001. The founder, Christopher Yanov, began by tutoring four “at-risk” local high schoolers, helping them to strive for more in their lives by pursuing the dream of becoming first generation college graduates.
This past year, 100% of the high school students that graduated through the program went to a four-year university and completed at least their first semester.
Arantxa Sanchez, lead achievement coach at Reality Changers, joined the program in
eighth grade and continued until she began college at California State University San Marcos. After finishing the program, she began to volunteer, and then work, at Reality Changers. “As a student, I think that the biggest thing that we get out of it is exposure. Us coming from low-income neighborhoods, usually working parents, all of those “at-risk” things that they call us; we just get a safe zone, we get a family, commitment, people that can actually spend with us.”
Point Loma’s small group of students who volunteer every Thursday night tutoring is just one small cog in the much bigger reality of the program. Every weeknight from six to nine p.m., about 50 students a night, ranging from 8th-12th grade pour into the space for an evening of community dinner, inspirational discussions and small group
tutoring.
“Our program is all about positivity,” Sanchez says. That positivity is seen by every smile,
every volunteer, every homemade dinner that parents drop off for the students.
This particular Thursday night, the Point Loma students break into groups, going to the designated rooms that they have been a part of this entire year. They know the kids' names, the school subjects that they struggle in and what colleges they’re interested in
attending. Dunn admits that getting the more timid kids to open up about their lives can be challenging, but building those personal relationships is clearly critical to the program’s success.
Point Loma students volunteer at Reality Changers
Dunn says that she originally got involved in the program as a freshmen, but since then “it just stuck.” Now, as the director of the ministry at Point Loma, she’s seen positive changes in her life, as much as in the students’. “I’ve realized that I really appreciate
education more than even when I was [first] coming into college, and the opportunities that I have to have access to great education.”
A high school senior, wants to discuss her essay comparing Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, A Brave New World, to our current society. Afterward, she shares that she’s applied to many colleges, and has already received three acceptance letters so far.
These do not strike the average observer as “at-risk” students. Yes, they have their fair share of problems, but who doesn’t? However, the reality is that some of these students know more “people who have been shot or killed on the street, than people who are on the road to college,” as the Reality Changers’ website points out.
It’s not just about getting into college at Reality Changers though. The changes run much
deeper than that, Dunn points out. “I’ve seen with specific kids how they’ve gotten more and more confident—in their school skills, their social skills—they’re just more well-rounded people and they have that confidence that Reality Changers gives them.” she says.
Sanchez agrees, saying, “It’s a lot more about being a well-rounded person with good morals and from there, I honestly believe that academics come when you can situate your at home life. That’s definitely how it was for me growing up as kid, and that’s the reason I’m still here.”
Even today, she still feels the encouraging effects of being involved in Reality Changers—she is now thinking about going to graduate school—a dream that she only has because of friends at Reality Changers who are living examples.
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