Staff Blog: Kim Sazon

Full Name: Kim Sazon
Year at UCLA: 2nd year
Major: Economics
SPACE Site: Marshall High School
Position in SPACE: 1st year Peer Tutor

When I first joined SPACE, I thought I was going into a normal tutoring program that helped high school students. I was totally wrong. I remember volunteering for the Spring 2010 SPACE Conference not knowing what to expect. At the conference I met many of the students and got to know one in particular. That day was a life changing experience because after we got to know each other she told me her story and I felt a connection with her immediately. Being a recent graduate of high school, I had gone through similar struggles and challenges like her. Now, she is a student at Mount St. Mary’s in the nursing program. I am truly proud of her because she informs me once in a while about her achievements and how she is in college.

She told that because of SPACE helped her grow as a person and as a student. She said she wouldn’t have succeeded in her first semester without SPACE. She tells me every so often that she uses the knowledge she learned from SPACE and is spreading the skills and information.

The sense of community she found in SPACE was something she was able to use for her college experience. She told me that when she entered college she was able to find a sense of community among the other girls because that was something she also found in SPACE.

Looking back I remember struggling trying to find why I put myself through balancing academics as a UCLA student and a member of SPACE, and it’s because when I go to site I see the faces of students who I find a sense of community with. I find a connection with the students I probably couldn’t find anywhere else. I wouldn’t be who I am today without SPACE in my college career. Now as a peer tutor at Marshall, I know that SPACE is not just a tutoring program, but a program that builds community.