Belkis: Melrose Park tutor

Certified Tutor

I was born in the Dominican Republic and emmigrated to United States at the age of 13. When I came to this country with my family, I experienced the struggle of adapting to a new culture where everything seemed very different from my roots. I entered East High School in Paterson, NJ as a sophomore in the bilingual program. However, by the time I was a senior, I decided to remove myself from the ESL classes in order to be exposed more to the English language in a regular classroom. In fact, I successfully passed both state tests (English and Math) and graduated as the salutatorian of my class in 2009.

Subsequently, I entered Kean University to study psychology. My first years in college were very demanding since English is not my first language; I had to work hard to adapt to the system. However, everything started to turn better after three years later when I realized that I wanted to become a teacher after obtaining my substitute teacher credentials. As a matter of fact, I changed my major to Bilingual Elementary Education K-8. I want to be able to help educate other kids who come to this country for a better life just like my family did ten years ago. I am very excited to finish my degree this year and obtain my both teacher certifications (Bilingual and Spanish).

As of now, I work for ASPIRA Inc. of NJ as an academic advisor. Im proudly in charge of the Mentoring Youth for Success Program, which is designated to advocate for the future of our students. I have the opportunity to work with high school students from both Newark and Paterson who are at risk of dropping out school or not continue with their professional studies. I have been in charge of matching my students with mentors in agreement with their parents to help them with their needs. I help students in areas such as: homework assistance, general tutoring, and any other types of advising. I also strive to educate my students on how to pursue their dreams and become better citizens. My goal is that every single one of my student identify their passion while in high school so that I can help them find the right college or University for them to attend.