March 2026 "Legacy and the RWC Continued: Stephanie Duarte" by Paula Rawlings

     Reedley College’s Reading and Writing Center (RWC) is relatively young (22 years of service), but many of its tutors left lasting legacies. One such tutor is Stephanie Duarte. Duarte teaches English C1000 here on Reedley College’s campus and shares some wisdom for current and aspiring tutors of all subjects.

      Reflecting on that time, she recalls some struggles. Some students would book her for “a couple of hours,” which felt draining some days. Not because she didn’t love the work, but because she put a lot of effort into helping students. When a student didn’t do well on an assignment, or worse, during the entire class, it was hard not to take it personally. After sitting beside someone, walking them through an essay paragraph by paragraph and sentence by sentence, it was hard not to feel defeated. “But,” she says, “you have to remind yourself that you both did your best.”

     But if tutoring drained her at times, it also formed her. She was recommended to tutor by Mr. LaSalle and found it a blessing because, while taking English 1A (now called C1000), she developed an itch to teach. Soon after that realization, she was invited to become a tutor at the RWC. She’s thankful for the people and her faith, which helped place her there. Tutoring became, in her words, a priceless experience. It prepared her to become an instructor. It gave her lasting friendships, and it led her to become an instructor.

      During COVID, she started the center’s blog—a place for tutors to showcase their writing. It was a fun project, but also something more: a way to leave something behind. Like the vision board collages all the English tutors make, each one leaves a little legacy of themselves, but the blog is hers.

Working in the RWC also helped Duarte to “meet students right where they are,” she says. Be kind. Be patient. Some students feel insecure just asking for help, so make it comfortable. Be attentive, encouraging, keep it real, and please, do not say, “This is easy… It’s simple… It’s not that hard… It doesn’t take that long…” What feels effortless to one person can feel impossible to another. Duarte advises tutors to pace themselves. Don’t overwhelm students. Go step-by-step. Remember the golden rule. Be warm and respectful.

     Tutoring reshaped how she thinks about authority. She doesn’t want to be seen as an authority figure so much as a facilitator and mentor. “Tutoring,” she explains, “is an approachable way of getting feedback, so I try to be as approachable as possible.” It’s feedback without fear. She once heard a quote (she can’t remember where) that students may forget what they learned in a class, but they will never forget how that teacher made them feel. She took that to heart.

     Sitting beside students rather than grading them changed her, as well. She explains that when you’re beside someone, you see more than their mistakes. You see their effort. “They need encouragement too, not just feedback,” she says. Let them know they’re doing well. Thank them for their work. Thank them for their commitment to attend tutoring. Recognition matters, and positive interactions matter.

      To new tutors, she says that the RWC is a place of camaraderie between fellow tutors and those being tutored. There is a sense of belonging through individualized attention, sitting down and talking one-on-one, and checking in with each other. She wanted to create this same sense of camaraderie in her classroom. In her face-to-face classes, students build a class playlist so everyone shares their music tastes. When she first started teaching, they introduced her to Bad Bunny and Deftones. Last year, she discovered many of her students love the Fallout franchise and cryptids, as she does. Some even got her into watching the World Cup. Tutors and students find common ground; she does the same. Everyone leaves a glimmer, whether they’re students, tutors, or teachers.