The opportunities of a combined middle and high school are immense, most prominently because of the plethora of moments in which upper school students can step in and help their younger counterparts. At Seabury, this benefit is embodied in many ways, certainly through our writing and math labs, where students can seek help with essays and math assignments from older students well-versed in the subjects.
Faculty member James LaRocca, Math Lab’s faculty sponsor, shares his view of the program’s goals, saying, “One is it provides a resource for students to get help in math from other students. It’s just a chance to get extra [help] outside of class … when they’re struggling on things. [It also helps] with finishing homework, studying for tests [and] good math study skills, and two, it provides older students another opportunity for community service and just a chance to experience teaching another person [and] help[ing] them understand things that they themselves might have struggled with.”
Senior Neela Rangarajan, one of Math Lab’s tutors, echoes this sentiment with her own personal goals of working with the program: “My goal for working with the math lab is probably just letting everyone know that if they struggle with math, it’s really not an embarrassing thing … and [I want them] to be able to reach out and get the help they need,” she says.
Junior Owen Koederitz, a Writing Lab tutor, expresses similar feelings, saying, “My goal is, well, of course to help with grammar and stuff, but also demonstrate that it’s okay to ask for help with writing because it is something difficult … Also, [I want to] just provide student-on-student support, which I think the writing lab does really well. It’s like, sometimes it’s nice when a teacher helps, but also sometimes it’s nice when another student helps, because they’ve gone through the class.”
Dean of Faculty Michael Pulsinelli, Writing Lab’s faculty sponsor, also articulates the value of students stepping up to help each other, saying, “I think that students are just so used to listening to teachers, and [it] might just get to the point where that becomes so common that it gets tiresome. Not to say that anybody is not listening, but I think sometimes when a peer tells you that something needs fixing, or a peer tells you that something could be stronger, it might carry more weight.”
Certainly, the labs have been hard at work fulfilling this mission, and students who have utilized these resources suggest that they have been successful. Eighth grader Ayden Wahla explains how the writing lab has assisted him, saying, “It was really helpful, mostly for grammatical errors … I think it’s a good experience … I think having a new take on things with other opinions is really helpful, especially when it happens to be another student.”
Eighth grader Zoe Huebner expressed a similar view, saying, “[The writing lab] helped out a lot … [on] the grammar parts of [my] essay, which a lot of people have trouble [with]. So I feel like it’s really useful for people to be able to just go in and check it for you [and] make sure that everything’s good … It’s great how we can have people … go in and check for us and get another set of eyes on the writing.”
With this in mind, Koederitz urges more students to utilize the writing lab, saying, “I would say if you’re thinking about using the writing lab, but you’re worried about doing it or having your writing criticized, I would say that you have to … get accustomed to it, because it will make you a better writer in the end … I think if you’re ever even considering it, even if you think you’re a good writer and you want to have another pair of eyes on your essay, it can totally help, because there’s things that other people can catch in your writing that you can’t catch.”
Wahla also reflects on how the labs embody Seabury’s communal culture: “I think it really shows how, in Seabury culture, the students help the other students and how we’re all in one community,” he says.
Rangarajan similarly articulates the labs’ building of togetherness, saying, “I think Seabury is all about community, and I think by having students teach other students, you’re kind of embracing that community culture and kind of showing that everyone goes through [challenges], so just by relying on each other, we build each other up.”
