Growing up in Israel when I was younger, and later, attending Jewish Day Schools, I am rarely exposed to anything but my sheltered white, upper-middle class, Jewish world. My parents purposely chose to live in Cambridge when we moved to the Boston area, as opposed to Newton, Brookline, or Sharon, where most of the Jews live. They wanted to give me and my younger brothers the chance to interact with other types of people. They wanted us to have a more diverse view of the world. However, I never hang out with the neighbors. I have my own social life. Very often, I take the “T” into Newton, or the commuter rail to Sharon, to visit my friends. I am an expert at public transportation…

Three months ago, I traveled to uncharted grounds, even for me, the public transportation expert. I never had any reason to be in inner-city Boston. That Monday morning, as I stepped off the “T” at the Roxbury Crossing stop on the orange line, I was a little nervous. I had watched the number of business suits, Banana Republic skirts, pea-coats, and Tiffany jewelry slowly decrease as I got closer to my stop.

I had a few prejudiced misconceptions as I stepped out into the street. I was surprised to find myself about to cross a well paved road, lined with more tall, green trees that I have in my neighborhood, facing a huge, new brick building that was surrounded by lush, green grass. It was a gorgeous day. Everything looked like it was shining. I had expected to step out into a rundown neighborhood and I was quite pleasantly surprised at what I saw. I walked up the hill to the school that I would be working at for my internship, taking in my surroundings.

During the third trimester of senior year at the New Jewish High School, we have the option to go to Israel. I was unable to go on this trip for financial reasons. Those of us who didn’t go to Israel, participated in an internship program, which turned out to be one of the most important experiences of my life. I worked at the Nathan Hale Elementary School in Roxbury, where I helped out in a second grade classroom.

I entered the school, checked in at the office, and walked down the corridor to Ms. Burnett’s classroom. When I walked in the door, 21 bright pairs of eyes turned towards me wondering who I was. After the teacher introduced me, there was a chorus of 21 voices wishing me a “Good morning, Ms. Haberman-Browns!” in unison. Tiferet, my first name is hard enough for most people to pronounce, but my last name—forget it. Even so, it’s the school’s rule that all students address the adults by their last name. I was quite impressed that these second graders pronounced such a long, complicated name in just one try.

So, there I was. I would be helping out in this classroom for the next 7 weeks. As I looked around at all these children, I realized that they were all black. The teacher was black. I had never felt so white in my life!

I became very close with the students. I read and corrected the stories that they wrote during literacy block. Each story revealed something about the child and what was important to him/her. One student wrote about how Christmas was her favorite holiday because it was special time that she got to spend with her family. Another wrote about his vacation with his father; they went to Six Flags together. There was also a story about a student’s favorite aunt who was like a sister to her. Each story was a window into these children’s lives. I came to see that family was very important to them.

I ended up teaching all the math classes. I wrote up the work sheets for them, prepared the lessons, gave them homework, corrected their work, and gave them tests. When students had trouble, I pulled them out of class and worked with them one-on-one, a type of learning that they rarely got the chance to experience because of the large class size.

With each child it was a challenge for me to figure out what concept they were having trouble with and how I could explain it to them so they would be able to grasp it. Sometimes I also had to convince them that the concept was worth learning in the first place. I thought of it like a puzzle—each student’s way of learning was another piece I could add to the big picture.

At the end of my 7 weeks at the Nathan Hale School, all the students made cards for me. It was really touching to see that I had made such an impact on every one of them. Many of the children thanked me for specific things that they had learned with my help. They were really proud of the things they had mastered. Working with them gave me a totally new perspective on life. It taught me that I have a lot to give to this world. The point is not only to take whatever you can, as quick as possible. By sharing what you can, you gain a lot in return.

Tiferet Haberman-Browns just graduated from the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston. She is going to be volunteering at Yemin Orde, near Haifa, for one year, before going to the University of Toronto, in Canada.