Repair the World

Repair Interview: Michelle Snyder at 826LA

In 2002, the best-selling author Dave Eggers co-founded 826 Valencia in San Francisco, an innovative tutoring, writing and publishing organization focused on helping students improve their writing skills and get excited about writing. (Fittingly, the writing center is outfitted with a kid-friendly pirate store, which helps draw students in and fund the center’s programs).

Today, 826 has expanded nationwide, with chapters in Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, New York City, and Seattle. With the help of volunteers, the 826 centers provide drop-in tutoring, field trips, writing workshops and more, all free of charge. They also focus on publishing original works by students, from essays to full-length books.

826 attracts a particularly dedicated and inspiring group of volunteers, including Michelle Snyder at 826LA. Michelle took the time to speak with Repair the World about her family’s legacy of service and social action, how 826 impacts both students and volunteers, and why it’s important to both write and live “straight from the heart.”

What was you background with service/volunteering before coming to 826?
I grew up in a community of teachers, artists and activists. When my mom, who is a retired Los Angeles educator, went on strike with the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), she took me out of school and I went too. While we were picketing, she told me about my family’s activism dating back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fires.

Probably the most formative experience I have ever had was when I was 17, during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. On the second day of rioting, I stayed home from school and watched the news, feeling depressed and concerned for my city and its residents. My father, who is a former journalist and teacher knew he could not let his daughter shrivel in fear and helplessness. For the past two years I had been working as a photojournalist and writer for a local youth newspaper. When a group of copy-cat arsonists set fire to our neighborhood mini-mall and some nearby apartment buildings, my father seized the moment and said, “Kid, get your camera. Let’s go.”

Once outside, I smelled the smoke immediately. My father and I were among the first responders that afternoon. By the time the fire department arrived, we had already taken turns directing traffic, hauled some furniture to safety and even found time to shoot a roll of film. When I talk about this experience, I usually get a mixed response. People think my dad was either crazy and irresponsible, or they think he was a hero who helped his young daughter see how powerful a united community truly is. Not a day goes by when I don’t call upon the transformative lessons from that day, which shaped me into the fierce and compassionate woman I am today.

And what about more recently?
As an adult, I have had more than five years of paid non-profit experience with jobs ranging from bilingual community health education and community outreach, grant research, community organizing, and nonprofit marketing. I specialize in advocating for Latino families living below the federal poverty level who have children ages 0-5. The common thread among most of the strategies I’ve worked with has been focusing on grassroots organizing and creating community leaders. Some of my proudest moments have been ones where I could stand back and see the community’s greatness.

What specifically drew you to 826?
To prepare for graduate school and to become an ESL teacher, I knew I had to get some field study experience. So for the last 8 months I have volunteered full-time at two literacy programs. One is Centro Latino for Literacy, a non-profit that provides language classes to Spanish speaking adults. The other program is 826LA. There, I have successfully taught creative and expository writing to schoolchildren. Last April I was honored as volunteer-of the month because my passion for language learning and teaching is genuine. I connect with the students and they share my enthusiasm.

What types of projects do you work on with them?
When I began volunteering at 826LA, I came as an after school tutor about twice a week. Soon, I learned about other programs such as the Storytelling & Bookmaking Field Trips, the various in-school support projects such as editing student essays and helping them publish books. One of my favorite projects was creating and delivering a weekend workshop about oral history and essays. It was a Mother’s Day workshop where children interviewed their moms about significant objects and mementos meant for safekeeping. Once the analytical task of writing was completed, the workshop concluded with an art project called a dream box. Participants placed the completed essays in the box alongside the special objects for preservation and reflection.

Can you share a story from your volunteering that particularly inspired you?
Each spring, 826LA partners with the counseling team from Mark Twain Middle School for the 8th grade students’ Recovery Project. Two dozen students who are failing too many classes to graduate in good standing enroll in an after school tutoring program and complete a required number of hours receiving academic assistance. I helped these students return to good academic standing in time for their graduation.

One student in particular made a huge impact on me. When I first met him he was quiet and cautious. Like many of the older boys, he never brought his backpack or books, and spent more time socializing than anything else. I knew that interfering would actually push him away, so I decided to become an observer first and a tutor second. On a good day, it usually took him two hours to finally begin his work. Some afternoons, he did nothing but tag his notebook and chit-chat. Sometimes he would begin his homework with me, usually during the last 30 minutes of tutoring. However, once it became challenging for him, he’d stop abruptly and without warning. It seemed like he didn’t want his friends to see him struggle. One day he had to write an essay about someone who inspired him. He chose to write about his grandmother. His first draft was only two sentences long, and was full of punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. But what struck me immediately was that it was straight from his heart.

I chose my words carefully, knowing I only had 15 minutes: “You really like your grandmother. I’d love to know more.”

He’d written that he liked her cooking, and I was surprised that he wanted to share even more. His third sentence was about the pupusas she made for him when his mom was briefly in the hospital. That paragraph was written last March, and the first time he let me actually help him write.

The second time, he collaborated with his buddies instead of me. They used my storytelling props and laughed a lot. This May, I saw him for the first time in a while. He was focused on writing an essay about slavery, while using an outline. I watched him type quickly, and he occasionally asked his friends for help. Even though we rewrote it three times, he never gave up.

Do you have a favorite story or book that you’ve worked with a student to create?
Yes, I was one of like a million volunteers and interns who helped edit and publish a book about food written by Dorsey High School students. It’s called, “From the Couch to the Kitchen.” It’s pretty awesome and the kids really seemed to like the whole process. It is amazing to think about how they have their whole lives ahead of them and got such a great start with this project.

Do you connect your service/volunteer work with your Jewish heritage or spirituality in any way?
I would definitely say that my Jewish heritage has influenced me greatly in terms of community service and volunteer work. My family is a member of Sholem Educational Institute, a Los Angeles-based secular Humanist organization. The emphasis is on Jewish identity and community involvement. From the age of 8 onward, I participated in everything from car washes to support the rain forest to anti-apartheid sit-ins at the Beverly Hills South African Consulate. Several Passovers ago, I even left the family Seder early in order to march in solidarity with the Los Angeles SEIU janitors who were asking for better wages and more respect. It was an example of how I interpreted that holiday’s message, ‘no one is free until everyone is free’.

As for today, I’m pretty comfortable saying that I am not a religious person. But that is not to say that I don’t have respect and sometimes a little awe for things in the universe I just can’t explain. I’m also heavy into nature, just a few flora and fauna shy of being a Wiccan pagan or something like that. And I think it’s fair to say that the arts are pretty much responsible for blowing my mind on a regular basis. There is really nothing else I can compare to my passion for creative endeavors, which is the closest thing to my view of a God. In terms of how these beliefs might provide a bridge between my Jewish heritage and spirituality, I’m a pretty simple person. Be good, be kind, do amazing things with your life.

Learn more about 826′s work in Los Angeles and nationally – and find out how you can get involved here.