Fletcher students launch online tutoring

Two Beaches students have launched a new online initiative to help their peers navigate the challenges of new online learning. S.O.A.R. – Student Online Academic Resource – was established by co-founders Alexandra Cordoba and Jackson Haynes to provide free tutoring for middle and high school age students. As high school students, they wanted to develop a tool to ease the struggles of transitioning to online school in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A team of volunteer tutors cover a multitude of different middle school and high school courses with a focus on Honors, AP, and AICE courses in English, Science, Math, History, Music, and Foreign Languages.
“We basically started it because we saw a need at our school for peer tutoring. We both do tutoring after school but usually attendance is always low and students don’t come out to those type of club-based things and they don’t talk to their teachers either. They are just too intimidated or too afraid,” said Haynes, a junior in the AICE program at Fletcher High who enjoys both Academics and the Performing Arts as a member of the band and chorus at Fletcher high, along with the National Honor Society, French Honor Society, and Mu Alpha Theta.
When schools closed indefinitely, the Honors students recognized an opportunity to step in and help their peers by offering free tutoring outside of traditional school hours to help them maintain their course load without falling behind. They created a website and developed an app for students to access and request a session. Each session lasts approximately one hour and students have the option to schedule a follow-up appointment if they need further help.
“With the Coronavirus and all the schools being closed, there was no other option for students to have access to peer tutoring and the only times that they can contact their teachers are during the teacher’s hours which might not be accessible for them. We wanted a whole 24-hours a day contact,” said Cordoba, a junior at FHS in the AICE program with a passion for helping people reach their true potential. She has tutored students in Spanish, Math, and Music.
While the students were familiar with virtual learning experience, it was a new experience to go from using it during a single class to eight classes every day. Cordoba said she’s been in contact with a number of her past and current educators who have already shared the resource with their students.
“We just developed last week, but we had so many friends coming to us so we set this up and sent it out to as many teachers as we could,” remarked Cordoba. “Tons of teachers have sent it out to their students and Mrs. Walker at [Fletcher] Middle School sent it out to all the parents, too. The principal sent it out to all the teachers as well so we already have a few students.”
Echoed Haynes, “We’ve had a great response from teachers and parents and even our parents are posting it on Facebook. We’re really waiting for a bunch of kids to start. We just need to get it out there a little more so we can help as many kids as possible.”
S.O.A.R. expands the traditional elements used in some classrooms to include phone and video conferencing. The teens enlisted a team of student volunteers representing a broad cross-section of over 30 subjects and preferred grade levels. Many also offer help with SAT and ACT prep.
Each volunteer has posted a photo of themselves and a brief description of their interests and strongest subjects. The goal is to make sure the volunteers are friendly and accessible to help the students feel at ease.
“All the tutors have been so helpful throughout the whole process. We’ve had one group chat and we got 20 tutors in either NHS and AP classes or enrolled in the AICE program and they’ve all been so supportive and willing to help that’s it’s so easy to find new students and share the work with them,” said Cordoba. “We really just thought it would be a good way to bring the school together during such hard times.”
“We’re all struggling. We’re all stuck inside. The most we can do is help each other make it a less stressful time period. Once we figure out how they learn, we can help other students. If they’re more of a visual learner than we can send them pictures and diagrams and links and if they’re an audio learner, we have links to podcast and things on the app and on the website. We use everything that we can to make sure all the students can learn.”
Students can schedule a session online at soar.peertutoring@gmail.com or following the link to the app at http://3501351.igen.app/.