EDUCATION
Valerie Zager with Hadassah
volunteer Susan Bernstein.
at Erlich sits at
a small table in
an Avery Ele-
mentary School
hallway and
watches as Toni
Arias, 6, begins
coloring a picture of a turkey.
As Toni colors the turkey's
feathers with a purple
crayon, Mrs. Erlich com-
pliments her on the choice of
colors and how well she
stays within the lines. Toni
looks up and smiles. They
begin talking about Toni's
Thanksgiving plans. When
the coloring project is com-
pleted, Mrs. Erlich helps
Toni with her next assign-
ment before returning her to
the first-grade classroom.
One hour later, Mrs.
Erlich is at another small
table at Avery, this time in
the English as a second
language room, reading a
short story to Slava Lescein-
sky. Slava, 8, listens careful-
ly to the story. Now it is his
turn to read. A Soviet immi-
grant who knew little Eng-
lish before last year, he
stumbles over only a few
words.
Mrs. Erlich isn't a teacher.
She is one of more than 30
Hadassah volunteers who
spend a few hours every
week tutoring Soviet immi-
grants and other children
who need extra help.
Hadassah kicked off its
Tutor-A-Student Project in
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
Hadassah's
tutoring program
helps Avery
Elementary
School
students make
the grade.
mid-October in an effort to
help Soviet Jews, said
Deborah Canvasser, com-
munity outreach coordinator
for Hadassah Greater
Detroit Chapter.
"We didn't want to be the
generation that did nothing
for the Soviets," Mrs. Can-
vasser said. A think tank es-
tablished last spring to push
for more community
outreach programs thought
Hadassah volunteers could
do something to help ease
the transition into American
life and came up with the
Tutor-A-Student Project.
Avery was chosen because
last year the Berkley
elementary school welcomed
63 students who recently
emigrated from the Soviet
Union.
Two orientation meetings
in September at Avery gave
potential tutors the skills
they needed to teach
reading, math and other sub-
jects to students who have
fallen behind in their
studies.
"To our joy and amaze-
ment we had 70 participants
in two workshops," said
Pearlena Bodzin, chairman
of the project. Some were
former teachers, like Harry
Krohner, the only male who
volunteered, but most were
not.
"When we first started we
thought we would be thrilled
if six people wanted to par-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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