Ironwood senior tutors autistic youth
by Raymond Suarez on May. 16, 2008, under Education, Local
Xu
Qian “Jason” Xu hopes to have his own private engineering company one day.
And with a grade point average of 4.8 – the highest of all applicants for the 2008 Tucson Citizen Student Achievement award – who’s to doubt him?
The 17-year-old Flinn Scholar from Ironwood Ridge High ranks first in his class of 495 students. He plans to go to the University of Arizona and major in optical science engineering and mathematics and minor in piano and composition.
In 2007 Xu was one of six ambassadors chosen to represent Arizona for the America Israel Friendship League Scholarships Exchange Program.
“I didn’t like the political aspect because it’s not the way I think,” he said. “But in the visit and the cultural aspect we found common ground.”
Xu, born in China, lived in Ireland and Canada before coming to Tucson eight years ago.
He has been president of the school Academic Decathlon team the last two years and this year also was co-president of the Computer Science Club.
He has tutored a mildly autistic eighth grader every weekend for the last two years. The boy “has made me more confident of the potential inherent to everyone,” Xu said in an essay.
“It has made me a better teacher in solidifying my belief that no matter how frustrating and difficult it can be to teach something new, when that concept “clicks” in the student’s mind, it stays and becomes deeply embedded in his mind.
“The feeling is so rewarding and unmistakable that I no longer have reservations about his ability to learn any concept; I simply do my best to help him understand.”
