High-Return Investments

By MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

In the spring of his senior year at Dickinson, Reco Sanders '11 was a competitive student-athlete, a Posse scholar, a student leader and an award-winning mock-trial competitor who earned All-American honors at a national tournament. His future as a successful lawyer seemed secure, and he took a year off before law school to give back to his community while preparing for his LSATs.

Then Sanders' career took an unexpected twist.

During a May 22 ceremony at the California state capitol, Sanders was named California’s AmeriCorps Member of the Year in honor of his exemplary work as an City Year Los Angeles AmeriCorps volunteer. As his two-year assignment comes to a close, it's clear that Sanders' work has transformed not only the lives of some of the Los Angeles area's at-risk students, but his own life as well.

Math meets madness

For the past two academic years, Sanders has tutored math and English at Gompers Middle School, where all students qualify for free or reduced lunch and only 30 percent are native-English speakers. Resources are limited, academic role models are scarce and even the brightest and best students face formidable obstacles to success.

“Last year I had students in sixth grade who couldn't multiply or divide, and some of them had been trying to learn this material for years,” says Sanders, who spends 12 hours at the school during a typical work day. “Because I work with a small set of students, I was able to build really strong relationships with each of them and build trust so I could help them bridge that gap.”

His creativity comes into play. Last spring Sanders developed a “March Madness” math competition to improve student math scores in advance of state standardized testing. Approximately 60 students competed by completing one math problem per day, and the top performers were dubbed “all-stars” and invited to a pizza party. Week by week, each of their test scores showed improvement.

"It's amazing to see those light-bulb moments," Sanders says.

Inspired to inspire

Asked the key to his success in the classroom, Sanders says that he draws from his own student experiences.

A star student at his Pasadena high school, Sanders was knocked for a loop when he entered Dickinson as a Posse scholar and found himself adrift in his first-year classes. “I didn’t have the academic foundation most of my classmates had, and I didn’t know what it looked like to succeed,” recalls Sanders, who went on to deliver the Class of 2011's Baccalaureate speech. “I tell my students that the thing that got me through wasn’t giftedness or intelligence. It was grit and determination, and the people who helped me along the way.”

Chief among those mentors was Professor of Political Science Doug Edlin,  who coached Sanders' award-winning mock-trial team.  Sanders credits Edlin with his successes at the mock-trial podium and beyond. “He was genuinely invested in my success, and he turned all of my successes and failures into learning experiences,” says Sanders. “It meant a lot to me to have that presence and support.”

Today, Sanders plans to follow  that example. In June he will begin work as an AmeriCorps program director with plans to apply for teacher's certification when that position ends. He envisions a career working in middle or elementary school, since he believes that early intervention is key.

“I feel like I'm just getting to the tip of the iceberg of what it must be like to invest in these students and see them make those kinds of gains,” says Sanders. “And there's nothing quite like investing in another person and then seeing that investment played out in their success.”

Published June 12, 2013