College of Human Ecology senior Angela Soto may be only 22, but she's already been a literacy teacher, a day-care center assistant, a nursery school assistant, a first-grade teacher's aide, a tutor/mentor for children and preteens in two after-school programs, and a teacher and director for a Saturday morning educational program for children at Ithaca's Southside Community Center.
|
|
| Angela Soto '01 works with children in the Southside Community Center's Thakaneng Collective, which she directs. Frank DiMeo/University Photography |
If all goes well, Soto, a human development major, will be working with children full time this coming fall, as a teacher in a New York City school, with a teaching fellowship that will allow her to start earning her master's degree in teaching at the same time.
"I love working with children because that is where everything begins, and the human development major has been perfect in allowing me to pursue this interest," said Soto, who is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in Queens, N.Y. "Ultimately, my goal is to start my own educational community center, funded by grants, to teach literacy and African-Latino culture, not only to children but to adults as well."
While attending the small private Calhoun School in Manhattan, Soto twice visited Cornell, where her older brother was a student. She fell in love with the campus's greenery and with the university's human-development major.
Following in her brother's footsteps, Soto has spent her four years on campus living in Ujamaa, a residential program house devoted to the history and culture of people of African descent. And she's been a resident adviser at Ujamaa for two years.
As a work-study student her freshman year, she taught in the Esperanza After School Program at Ithaca's Beverly J. Martin Elementary School three days a week, spending her time with third graders, many of whom were Latinos or African Americans. That summer she was a literacy teacher in a 4-H youth development program with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Far Rockaway, N.Y., and in Brooklyn. During her sophomore year, she worked at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center after-school program with 11- and 12-year-olds.
During her first year at Cornell, Soto also started teaching at the Southside Community Center's Thakaneng Collective, a four-hour Saturday morning program led by volunteers, which teaches children about the African Diaspora throughout history as well as about reading, writing, math and the arts. And for the past two years, she's been the co-director and then director of the program, which has anywhere from seven to 20 students and seven to 30 volunteers.
"Building up that program, basically from scratch, has probably been my greatest challenge while at Cornell," said Soto, "My predecessors didn't leave much information behind, and I had to prepare budgets, plan fund-raising projects and recruit volunteers and children to the program."
As a junior, Soto was awarded a Cornell Tradition fellowship, which committed her to performing 75 hours of community service a year and working 250 hours, which she has more than fulfilled through her work with the Thakaneng Collective and as a resident adviser at Ujamaa.
And to get even more experience with children, Soto took placement courses at Cornell, through which she worked in the Cornell Early Childhood Center's nursery program six hours a week for one semester and in a first grade classroom at Ithaca's Belle Sherman Elementary School for 14 hours a week this semester.
"Most of all, I like seeing children smile and get excited when they learn something new or when they finally achieve something they thought they could not do," said Soto.
The soon-to-be graduate plans on heading back home after Commencement to start interviewing for a variety of fall teaching fellowships, sponsored by private organizations and the New York City school system
| Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page |