Nursing students tutor teens

Every Tuesday, Nursing student Jennifer Miller takes a 20-minute trek to the West Philadelphia Community Center to be a teacher. The Nursing School junior spends 45 minutes each week preparing teen mothers for the General Equivalency Degree exam, which gives students the equivalent of a high school degree. As Nursing Student Forum Community Chairperson, Miller coordinates the one year-old program, which was initiated by Ellen Marie Whelan, a clinical instructor in the Nursing School. The teen moms in the program are between 18 and 22 years old, and will begin taking their tests in early March. "Most are from the Mantua Hall area, but some come from South Philadelphia," Miller said. And because the program is one of few of its kind, one participant from Olney came to participate, Miller said. During the program, the six nursing students who participate tutor the students mainly in essay writing. "On the GED they give a topic, and the students have to write about it," Miller said. Miller said they also tutor math, specifically geometry and metric conversions. The teen moms seem to like the Nursing students, Miller said. And due to the popularity of the program, Miller is negotiating for the Nursing students to tutor another day a week. "They know they have an added support person that they can't usually get from a teacher," Miller said. And Miller said 20 other Nursing students want to participate in the tutoring program, but do not have time in their schedules. Nursing School Media Relations Coordinator Constance Gillespie said the program is very good, adding that "the students have been doing this for some time." Additional programs, which are not run by the Nursing School, make up a seven-and-a-half hour day for the mothers. In addition to the tutoring services provided by the Nursing students, Miller said, "the moms also go to a parenting class, and learn other things, from good nutrition to how to handle their anger."

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