Recently, I joined English as a Second Language (ESL) Club, a student-volunteer organization where St. Olaf students tutor kids in Faribault, Minn. through Waano, an afterschool program. 

I carpooled with some other volunteers to Waano. Upon arrival, we entered a room with several tables of young kids, mostly elementary-grade, doing work on computers. 

I started by helping a young boy learn how to craft sentences. He was given a list of words and had to drag them to the correct order. I asked him questions to guide him to the correct answer. This kid seemed to already have a fair understanding of how it worked, so the problems went by smoothly.

Soon, the other boy at the table I was at asked for assistance as well. He had been working on identifying synonyms of words. I tried to aid him while continuing to work with the other boy. 

Eventually, after about forty minutes, the first boy stopped needing guidance, so I could fully focus on working with the other boy. I spent a good amount of time with him working through problems that involved spelling words based on sound and answering questions about short stories. This went on for a while until he also felt confident enough on his own to continue his work.

At this point — almost an hour and a half in — most of the kids did not need guidance, so the other tutors and I did not have much to do, only getting to help one last young girl with a couple math problems, but pretty soon it was time for us to leave. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. I liked how much energy and personality the kids had, and it was fun getting to work with them. I definitely plan on staying in this club.