High Poverty Youth Class
This semester I chose to take an Peabody HOD class called High Poverty Youth. This class focused on the difficulties of living in poverty, and how society could address it. Since it is a Peabody course, there was also an emphasis on teaching these students and making sure that your classroom is accommodating to the needs of high poverty students and their families. 
It really was a fantastic, fascinating class. Professor Ford led lively discussions of poverty, and we watched a number of documentary clips and read a bunch of reports. I really felt like it was a practical class that applied to my major, and to what I will ultimately be doing next year.
The best part of the course, however, was a required mentorship. Every students had to mentor a high poverty student (or students) in some way, whether through tutoring, through exercise classes, or whatever. I worked through the Maplewood Mentorship, and went to Maplewood High School every Monday to tutor freshmen in math. Maplewood Mentorship is a partnership between Vanderbilt students and Maplewood High School, created by Vanderbilt and TFA alumnus Jake Ramsey, and is a fantastic extracurricular with which to get involved.
This was the most challenging, and most rewarding, part of the class. I got to hear about cultures other than my own, as a Mexican student and I discussed her family’s Thanksgiving traditions. I learned about the pros and cons of living with an extended family from a girl who had four generations under one roof. Most of all, I had the chance to observe what we learned about in class, and practice some of the interventions taught to us.
I hope that my semester tutoring made an impact on these students and helped them do better in their math class than otherwise. They certainly were the highlight of my Mondays, and I hope I can continue going to Maplewood next semester!