 I'm Donna Piekarski-Cezanne. I have been tutoring students here at the Western Edition Library for the past six, seven years and I've been tutoring here in San Francisco for about 10 years now and I enjoy it tremendously. Can you describe your ties, you kind of mentioned it already, but describe your ties to the Western Edition community and how you ended up here? I moved out here in 2004. I was a paralegal manager in New York and after many years of working in an office cubicle I wanted to do something a lot more meaningful. I wanted to take my writing skills and my language skills and use them in a better way and I enjoy helping students from all around the world here in the Western Edition. What brought you to San Francisco? I had vacationed here for many years on and off and I would come out here and then I was working in New York unfortunately on September 11th and like a lot of people we said to ourselves what are we doing with our lives? We want to do something more meaningful and so when I came out here after working in a more traditional job for a couple of years I realized that gradually I developed my own business and started tutoring and I do a lot of that now. Three quarters of my day is really tutoring students either on Skype or here in the library. What got you into tutoring? I enjoy it. I had studied foreign languages myself. I speak Russian fairly fluently. I've also studied Japanese and Arabic and so I know what it's like that frustration of learning a different alphabet, of learning a different language and structure and so I understand what kids are going through when they have to learn English or they're in a dual language household and they're speaking another language that has different requirements so I hone in on those language issues. I don't just teach grammar from book. I teach it from experience and I help them to achieve more success faster either in grade school or high school. So you said you tutor predominantly in the western edition or is it all around the city? I tutor in person in the western edition. I then tutor through a national website on the web students and adults as well but primarily foreign students on Skype. The students that you serve at the western edition branch library are they from the neighborhood? Are they from the community? They're from the neighborhood, yes. And are they from immigrant families? Are they first generation? They're either first generation here in the United States or they're in fact from immigrant families and my goal is not just to tutor. It is to fill in the gaps so that they can pass the standardized tests so they have that same level of knowledge and that they can succeed and they are totally capable of succeeding. My students have gotten into St. Ignatius, Lowell, Convent. It doesn't matter where they're from. It doesn't matter their economic status. They can do it. If they're motivated they can do it and my job is to fill in the gaps and make sure that they can make it. So would you say that this neighborhood is pretty diverse? Yes, it's a lot of fun too. It's also a great place to party. There's always summer festivals. It seems to be always a reason for a festival in the western edition whether it's the cherry blossom festival, the jazz festival. We don't run out of festivals over here so it's a lot of fun, yes. And I was going to ask what, you know, what's your favorite part about the western edition? It seems like that's one of them. The festivals and the music and the and the party. There's just always a band going and a festival in the summer. It is a lot of fun. The diversity of restaurants, the diversity of cultures. It's a great place to be. And is that why you chose the western edition as kind of your home base as opposed to the other neighborhoods and the city? It's convenient to downtown but it has more of a home feel, a little more suburban feel if you will. And I enjoy the diversity of the neighborhood. Do you have a fond memory of the western edition or even in your tutoring or just being in the neighborhood? I enjoy the I enjoy the jazz festival every year because you just walk up and down Fillmore and the music is free and it's wonderful. So that's one of the nice things about San Francisco every year. Do you miss New York at all? I don't miss all of it. I miss certain people and I value tremendously the experience that it has given me, both financial experience and writing experience. I wrote almost every day for very tough people. So and it also gave me management experience and an education that I value tremendously but now I want to use it in a different way. But why students? Why did you decide, you know, you were working with these, you know, tough adults? Right, I was working with tough adults, yes. How did you transition? I, well, first of all, when I first came out here, I worked part-time for a couple of private after-school programs in the sunset area. And that got me up to speed with it. I also worked for a tutoring company that specialized in SAT. So it brought my knowledge up to present standards because the SAT has gotten much harder over the years. So I spent two years working for other companies learning what is currently on the SAT, what is currently the educational requirements, certainly the math requirements in grade school have increased. So I boned up, if you will, by working for other companies and then I went on my own. And as a tutor, as an educator, do you feel like the education that these kids are getting? Do you think that it's good quality? Do you think there's a lot of gap? What are your thoughts on it? My impression is that it's uneven. There's some really great teachers out there that are using a lot of different resources and the web and so many things. And then there's, you know, teachers that are struggling, if you will. Part of the problem too is class size. When the class gets over 21, 25 students and you're talking 30 students, it's really hard for any teacher, no matter who they are, to teach. And there's only so many hours in a day, if you will. So the public school education is a base. It's not an end all. You know, there's more that students need if they really want to do well in college. They need more practice writing. They need more practice writing an essay in a timed environment. They need to read a lot more. So I look at it that the public school education is a starting point, not an ending point. And I think that although there's an understanding that the students come from different countries and different backgrounds, but the teachers need to be more attuned to it, they need to just explain things more, use the internet more, make sure that the students know how to research things, how to evaluate literature, for instance, how to make history come alive and not just be a date on a book, that kind of thing. What is your approach to tutoring? I use the web a lot and I make sure that my students, if I'm not around, that at eight o'clock at night, if there's a history issue or a literature issue, they know how to research online in 10 minutes by going, let's say, to history.com or biography.com. Most presidential speeches are on the web today and you can actually hear the former president speaking, for instance. It makes history come alive for the students. And I teach them how to think analytically what were the problems faced by that person in that time period or what is the underlying main idea of a book, for instance, and how to think about those things. So I want to give them the tools to analyze, not just memorize. And do you see big differences in these students that you teach? The biggest compliment for me is they say to me, Donna, the stuff you're giving me is far more interesting than what I have in school. And when I see their language ability and their essay ability get better over a six-month period, it makes me very happy. And of course, if they make it into the school that they want to get into, then that's even better. So it sounds like you really enjoy your job. I do. I do enjoy it a lot. So it brings me to my last question. What are your hopes and dreams both for yourself personally and for the Western Edition community or just the city as a whole? I want this place to be a diverse community where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, no matter where they're from, no matter their economic status, no matter what their issue, they can make it. If they're willing to put in the time studying, they can make it. And I want to see them do that. Do you think there are enough resources out there available to them? There are never enough resources, but the Internet, thank goodness, is a wonderful resource. And so much today is available for free, which helps. It helps a lot. And then it is, you need the guidance to put it all together, if you will. And what are your personal goals? I'd like to be tutoring for another probably five or 10 years, and just leave a legacy of successful people that have made it. And that's the greatest thing that you've given to the next generation. And you're obviously already making quite an impact. Yes, it's been fun. Thank you. Thank you.