Tutor Gives the Gift of Reading

BY LAURA MONDUL
SPECIAL TO THE BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

MEADOWVIEW, Va. – As Doris Quintana strolls the halls of Meadowview Elementary School, she is hailed by almost every child she passes, each offering a beaming smile and eager hello. That’s because Quintana, or “Miss Q” as she is referred to by the kids, is not just a tutor, she’s a friend.

“I love her,” said Isabel Jackson, a 6-year-old student at Meadowview. Jackson hugs Quintana and grins like a child with a favorite grandmother.

Quintana has been volunteering as a reading tutor at Meadowview for two years, and already is an institution. When she first approached Meadowview’s principal, Beth Litz, about helping students with reading, Quintana was welcomed with open arms.

“I told her to come on into my office and I would fix her up a schedule that day,” Litz recalled.

Now, Quintana visits the school three days a week to work with up to 40 students a year who are having trouble reading. Each session is 20 minutes, and is spent helping with lessons and class reading assignments. The teachers at the school now make a list of students who need extra help.

“The teachers here and Dr. Litz are just outstanding,” Quintana said. “They know each one of these kids, and they know when one of them is struggling, and they put them on my list.”

Quintana goes from class to class throughout the day, pulling out each child on the list for an individual session. Because Meadowview has so many students – at nearly 700 children, it is the largest elementary school in Washington County – Quintana’s sessions take place at a desk in the corner of a storage area. Though a little cramped, it’s an area the children love to be called out of class to visit.

“I’ll walk into a classroom and all of the children will raise their hands and ask to be the one to go for a lesson,” Quintana said, laughing. “Sometimes the teachers will let students go who don’t really need the help, just because they’ve been asking to go all year.”

In most lessons, Quintana has the children read to her, usually from a book they are studying for class. If a student has trouble pronouncing a word or reading a sentence, she helps them break it down so they can understand it, sometimes even using hand gestures to help illustrate the idea. She notes that some students can read well, but don’t comprehend what they have read. Of those students, she will ask questions about the book so they learn to recall information.

“She teaches me a lot about reading,” said Jose Hernandez, an 8-year-old who reads with Quintana. “I look forward to it, and I have fun reading books.”

A retired secretary of the Virginia State Police, Quintana began volunteering at Meadowview after she struggled with some health issues. She decided she needed to get out and get involved with something, though the tutoring is scarcely her only activity.

Born and raised in Meadowview, Quintana is active in many other aspects of the community. She is a member of the Meadowview Civic Club and has been integral to many of its projects, including a new health clinic and a community center. Not surprisingly, she also is involved in the Highlands Literacy Program, and she thoroughly enjoys the opportunity to promote reading and distribute books at community functions. Additionally, Quintana is active in the United Methodist Church in Meadowview, where she has taught Sunday School, sings in the choir, and assists with the Children’s Choir. She also is furthering her own education by taking classes at Highlands Community College in Abingdon, Va.

“I would love to have a Miss Q in every classroom,” Litz said. “I wish more people would volunteer like she does. She is a gift from above.”

With such dedication to her community, it’s easy to see how “Miss Q” fits right into the close-knit elementary school where Quintana said “every child feels comfortable coming into the office and is always greeted with a smile.”

Quintana enjoys getting to know each student she works with, especially their different personalities and learning patterns, but her biggest reward is knowing that she is making a difference. Every weekend, Quintana looks forward to Sunday night, because she knows Monday is coming and she’ll be back at school.

“It’s just very meaningful to me,” she said. “I feel like I am doing something important. When I walk in here each day, I am smiling, and I’m smiling each day when I walk out.”