Bright Future: Ferriday student excited to become official peer tutor

Published 12:02 am Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Ferriday Junior High School eighth-grade student Zatereyin Bowman helps out his fellow students by being a peer tutor. (Sam cause / The Natchez Democrat)

Ferriday Junior High School eighth-grade student Zatereyin Bowman helps out his fellow students by being a peer tutor. (Sam cause / The Natchez Democrat)

FERRIDAY — Tutoring is a big responsibility, but one a Ferriday middle-schooler is excited to take on this October.

Ferriday Junior High School student Zatereyin Bowman, 14, will become an official peer tutor next week.

Eighth-grade English teacher Chris Schilling said Bowman often comes and volunteers to help in class.

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“Basically, he volunteers every single time something comes up in class,” Schilling said. “He’s always willing to share an idea and learn from mistakes or from others.”

Bowman said English is his favorite subject, but he also does well in math. Eighth-grade math and algebra teacher Elsa Carter said Bowman recently scored the highest in his class on the district-wide test for mastery for algebra.

But math, Bowman said, is complicated.

“There’s different numbers, problems and solutions,” Bowman said.

Bowman didn’t initially seek to be a tutor. When he gets older, Bowman wants to be a CIA agent rather than a teacher.

“I like how they handle their problems and stop crimes and everything,” Bowman said.

Instead, Bowman said his tutoring work started with other students in his math and English classes.

“They just started asking me to come help them,” Bowman said.

Carter said she encouraged Bowman to become an official tutor because she thought he would do a good job.

“He is serious, and he can put them on task,” Carter said.

Bowman will have plenty of time to work with his favorite subject though, since he will also be tutoring students in grades six through eight in English as well as math.

Despite not wanting to be a teacher, Bowman said he’s looking forward to the tutoring for one reason.

“So I can accomplish helping other people and helping myself, improving my school for the better,” Bowman said.

Bowman is the son of Shakeda Bowman and Eddie Carter.