Mentoring with Tina

As mentioned in the article, the author is from a background in which her mother and father supported her strongly throughout her education and she never had a doubt in her mind that she would go to college.  This sounds very similar to the type of environment that I grew up in and the majority of students at my high school as well as at University of Richmond.  This article relates to the Boys and Girls Club because like the narrator, we do not know whether these students are engrained with the notion that you can't succeed if you don't go to college.  Although Tina did not have any desire to go to college or even try in high school, she still had powerful ideas.  Unfortunately, the teachers did not give her a chance to express her wisdom before they judged her.  This article exemplifies the old saying "you can't judge a book by its cover".  The teachers marked her down when they saw all the grammatical errors, but they did not understand the message that Tina was trying to convey about the courage in her father's death and his heroic actions.  Passengers on the bus held their belongings closer as she walked passed because they assumed she was mischievous based on her appearance.  Rather than getting to know Tina, the teachers and principal condemned her before getting to the root of the issue.  This story shows that although someone may act tough and as though he or she is not concerned with the future, it is possible that the behavior is a need for friendship.  At the Boys and Girls Club, although the students may seem uninterested with performing the work needed for a digital story, the fact of the matter is that they may just give off that appearance when in reality the new experience excites them.