Unfortunately, in the chaos that ensued during my final Spring semester of my undergraduate career at the University of Pittsburgh, I was unable to reflect upon what I consider to be the most important experience of my time at The University of Pittsburgh. Throughout my time as a student, I spent a considerable amount of time tutoring students from inner-city Pittsburgh. After becoming a teaching fellow through Summerbridge Pittsburgh for a summer, I realized the importance of a strong tutor for students who may attend schools that are not meeting his or her needs. After working at Margaret Milliones for a semester as well as tutoring students through the Summerbridge Pittsburgh program, I found that I wanted to end my undergraduate career with a new experience that would open my eyes to more of the challenges that many students face in the Pittsburgh area. Whilst searching for new opportunities, I came upon a group that called themselves "Keep It Real." As I accessed their website and read further, I immedietely realized that this was the opportunity that I had been looking for. 

Keep it Real is a student-run organization that was established at the University in 2004. Since then, this program has focused on tutoring at-risk Somali-Bantu Refugee families located in Northview Heights as well as the Lawrencville area. I found this experience to be particularly unique because allowed us to provide in-home tutoring to our families. Thus, not only were we there to facilitate homework and answer questions, but we were physically and spiritually present in the home to appreciate and understand their culture they are trying so hard to preserve. 

I must admit that, at the beginning of this journey, I was under the impression that it would be like any other tutoring experience. You walk into the house, you meet the student, you do your best to help the student in the subject they are pursuing and then the session ends. However, this experience was much different. I remember entering the house for the first time and feeling completely overwhelmed while filled with a sense of serenity that I had not experienced in quite a long time. Once you stepped through the door, you felt as if you were stepping into a completely new world. The walls were hung with colorful tapestries and other cultural artifacts. In fact, you really couldn't see the walls at all. The house always smelled liked spiced tea or fish or fried dough that one of the siblings was carefully making in the kitchen. It was peace. It was culture. It was the study abroad trip I had never experienced. 

I will never forget the excitement on the faces of the children when I stepped inside with another tutor. They greeted you with love and joy that I believe is often times absent in the world we live in today. There was immedietely this sense of "They don't live for themselves but for each other." No one was seflish. The older siblings knew that it was their job to make the dinner and to keep the little ones out of trouble. When there was a problem, they were expected to use their problem solving skils and figure it out for themselves. 

The day I arrived, I spent a large portion of my time getting to know the family and their seven children. Many of the students I tutored had long names, but they were beautiful. A couple of the girls were fascinated with how soft my hair felt and they attempted to create a masterpiece with the hair-band that I had available. 

On subsequent days, I spent more time helping the students to focus on their studies. Two of the students had just recently come over and thus needed a lot of help on their English. It was interesting because I had learned in class how quickly the students picked up the English language, but I was still in awe when I actually saw this process taking place. By the third week of tutoring, both students were eagerly mastering their studies and speaking in almost complete sentences. Academic language was still difficult for them, but they were doing better. I vividly recall working with one of the kindergarteners on some of the flashcards her teacher had given her. There was a star, triangle, rectangle, square and circle. Even though she had a difficult time mastering the star and the circle, she continued to try her hardest with a smile on her face.

Besides having a successful tutoring session, I loved the days in which the weather was nice enough to take the kids outside so that they could get some fresh air. There was a local park that was part of the housing development neighborhood, and they loved to swing on the swings and play on the slides with one another. It is still refreshing to remember these images of children playing because it reminded me that all we truly need to be happy are life's simplicities. These children came from absolutely nothing and yet acted like they had everything. I was always humbled by the way they carried themselves, stood up for each other and protected their family and their culture. Keep It Real will forever be one of the most important experiences that I have in this lifetime. I do home to continue to do work with the refugee families in the near future.