"When I first received an informational page about the opportunity to tutor at Alton Darby at the beginning of the year, I was excited. I had served as an assistant to a kindergarten class in my school district for three years during high school and had been missing the work with the kids. Then, I looked further down the page and noticed the little print that read '8 AM Saturdays.' 8 AM on a Saturday?! I was pretty skeptical. But something insisted that I should sign up to attend a session. After all, I could always change my mind about coming again.

"Well, that turned out to be not entirely true. At the end of the first session I attended, the kids and parents had already made the decision for me. 'Bye, see you next week,' the troop of five-year-olds hollered, as they gathered up stacks of worksheets, colored papers, and donuts. Parents thanked us profusely and inquired if we would be returning again the next week.

"On the way back to campus, the other tutors and I exchanged stories about our busy mornings. Everyone had to agree that it was awesome to work with the kids, a feeling that would only increase as the quarter went on, and we began to get an idea of just how far the kids were progressing. It was also wonderful to be greeted by name by the kids each week, each of them excited and asking for worksheets. In fact, one of my regular students told me this weekend that he had turned down joining a baseball team so that he could keep attending the Saturday morning sessions. With these kinds of rave reviews, 8 AM doesn't seem that early to us!"

-Marissa Lin, sophomore at The Ohio State University. Speech given on April 28, 2003, to the Hilliard Board of Education.

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