About PALMA

What is PALMA?
PALMA (Proyecto Avance, Latino Mentoring Association) is a twice-weekly tutoring group that helps Latino students in the Ann Arbor area with their schoolwork, and helps adults with basic English as a Secong Language instruction. Our primary goal is to help foster academic excellence by encouraging the students to learn and monitoring their progress. We also hope working in a university environment will promote the importance of a post-secondary education.

Who are we
PALMA draws its tutors mainly from University students who can communicate in Spanish (we accept various skill levels) and works with Latino children of all ages as well as adults.

When and where does PALMA meet?
Beginning Thursday, January 11th PALMA will be meeting from 6 to 7:30 on Tuesday and Thursday at the Ann Arbor District Library (located at 343 S 5th Ave). Google Maps

Interested in working with PALMA?
Although PALMA primarily recruits at the beginning of each term, PALMA is always looking for new tutors who will be dedicated to our goal of promoting academic success and are comfortable communicating in Spanish.

Most of our tutors have permanent positions, meaning they work with the same student twice a week for the whole semester. If you are unable to make a commitment to work twice a week, we also frequently need substitute tutors who work with any student whose tutor is unable to attend a particular day. Permanent tutors with PALMA are expected to attend twice-weekly tutoring sessions, to communicate with the parents of their student about their child's or adult's progress as well as evaluate their own work. During each tutoring session, tutors of children work with students on their homework, typically in English, or use academic materials to create new learning activities, depending on their students' needs.

Tutors who work with adults have less structure during the tutoring period since adults generally do not come with work to finish like K-12 students. PALMA encourages the tutor to communicate with their student in order to come to a consensus on what learning goals will be set for the semester. Many times it is helpful to set learning goals for the tutor as well as the student, for example: what can you learn from your student? Maintain these goals and work with your student to come up with new and creative ways to learn. PALMA provides general resources to aid their students in acquiring a basic understanding of English. See the PALMA website and click on “Educational links” for more information.

We are currently working in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library. The Ann Arbor District Library provides invaluable resources to the participants of PALMA, including library card registration, librarian assistance, and quiet places for individual and group study. PALMA’s success is the product the commitment and passion of the tutors, students, parents, and library employees. We hope to continue developing as an organization and as a component of the greater education and social justice community.