Six students received prizes in a national competition among participants in the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership program, a nationally-recognized cross-age tutoring program. The VYP tutors wrote about how the program helped them do better in school and how they had helped their tutees to do better.
High School First Place
Mariah Rodríguez
11th Grade, Odessa High School, Ector County ISD, Texas
“Every time I walk into their classroom and see their excitement coming to me, for me to read, work on their sight words or help them understand, brings me so much joy,” said Mariah Rodríguez. “It shows me I’m doing my best, and they actually want to learn with me.”
High School Second Place
Carly Oliver
10th Grade, Odessa High School, Ector County ISD, Texas
Carly Oliver wrote: “Before VYP, I would never talk to anyone I didn’t know, and I was always scared to speak my mind. Answering simple questions during class was challenging. But now, I know that my opinions are important, and I won’t get anywhere if I keep my questions to myself. I am more brave now and have more confidence. Being in VYP has shown me that my presence matters, and I do have a meaning in a student’s life one way or another. This class has shown me how much meaning I can have in the world, and it makes me extremely proud.”
High School Third Place
Alina Lozano
10th Grade, Odessa High School, Ector County ISD, Texas
“What people don’t understand – and I wish everyone could see it from my point of view – is that the little kids you get assigned aren’t just little kids, they become a family,” Alina Lozano said in her essay. “You form a special bond with the littles throughout the year of working with them. Getting into the program has made me realize that I want to continue working with kids in the future. I am so glad and thankful that I was introduced to the program, because it has shown me a different perspective of how teachers actually deal with us.”
Middle School First Place
Michelle Ramos
8th Grade, Abraham Kazan Middle School, South San Antonio ISD, Texas
“When I started encouraging my tutees, I saw their confidence level rise,” wrote Michelle Ramos. “As an example… I was grading their papers when I realized that all my tutees got 100s… They all looked at me in disbelief. They couldn’t believe that they had accomplished such a thing… Their faces lit up, and they were as happy as they could be… It made me happy because when I think back at my younger self, I didn’t have anyone who congratulated me for my accomplishments. No one was happy for me. And now I realize that me being their tutor and congratulating them will help them feel better about themselves and will help them be even more confident.”IDRA Essay Highlights 2023 Poster letter size Merged
Middle School Second Place
Daynah Ramos
8th Grade, Alan B. Shepard Middle School, South San Antonio ISD, Texas
In her essay, Daynah Ramos said: “The IDRA Valued Youth Partnership is an amazing program… I have learned things from my students too, because when I was in elementary, I was not the best kid. But I have learned from that. They [my tutees] have really made me a better person. They have made me more kind, respectful and patient. I now keep my grades up only to A’s and B’s to set a better example for them.”
Middle School Third Place
Brianna Garza
8th Grade, Alan B. Shepard Middle School, South San Antonio ISD, Texas
“I’ve always wanted to be able to help kids with things that I used to struggle with as a kid,” said Brianna Garza. The whole experience of being a tutor makes me feel great. But the thing that sticks out to me the most is the way the kids [tutees] light up when they see me, and how they thank me for helping them throughout the day. The thing that gets me up in the morning is the kids. Every morning I get up because I know I have to tutor them, and they depend on me to help them with their work… I think that’s what makes the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership amazing.”
Honorable mentions were awarded to Brianna Rodríguez 12th grade, Odessa High School, Texas, and Hailey Al-kayali, 8th Grade Kazan Middle School, San Antonio.
“The thing that gets me up in the morning is the kids. Every morning I get up because I know I have to tutor them, and they depend on me to help them with their work… I think that’s what makes the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership amazing.”
– eighth grader Brianna Garza
Valued Youth Partnership Helps Students Build their Socio-Emotional Skills
The IDRA Valued Youth Partnership has provided leadership experiences for students all over the country. It increases students’ connectedness, academic achievement, self-efficacy and self-esteem by placing students in leadership positions. 
VYP’s key philosophy of valuing youth’s gifts and developing social skills can provide leadership experiences for students who most need engagement.
The program has demonstrated tremendous success in helping students focus on their education and increasing the school’s holding power by concentrating on students with the highest need of support. For almost four decades, VYP has kept 35,000 students in school and positively impacted the lives of 750,000 children, families and educators!
Learn More about the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership
The IDRA Valued Youth Partnership is a research-based, internationally-recognized dropout prevention and student leadership program that has kept 98% of its tutors in school.
Website: See how the program operates, its research base and how to bring it to your school.
Factsheet: See how VYP transforms student socio-emotional learning and relationships with school. The IDRA Valued Youth Partnership directly addresses socio-emotional factors that are essential to reconnecting and re-engaging with students.
Winning Essays: Read full text of the six winning essays.
[©2023, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the October 2023 edition of the IDRA Newsletter by the Intercultural Development Research Association. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]
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