Hi – I’m Amanda. I live in the Bronx and I’m a volunteer with Alexandria’s Homework Helpers tutoring program.
I’ve never written an email like this, but today I’m sharing my experience as a tutor and asking for your help.
After New York City public schools shut down, I saw that Alexandria and her staff had launched a Homework Helpers tutoring program to connect volunteers with students from the community who could use help with their homework. I’d never seen anything like it from a member of Congress.
I knew that students and families in the Bronx had to switch to virtual learning overnight while juggling work, childcare, and technology. I wanted to help so in September 2020, I joined a tutoring orientation meeting with Team AOC.
After my orientation, I was matched with two 4th graders who I now tutor virtually once a week in whatever subjects they’re struggling with in school.
Every week, I go through lessons slowly with the students. I make sure they stop me whenever they have questions, and I try to always teach them something new so that they’re ahead of their class.
Lately we’ve been discussing long division, common spelling mistakes, and how to pay attention to details when reading books. It’s been especially rewarding to see that as we’ve gotten to know each other, the students feel more and more comfortable expressing their difficulties to me.
At the end of every tutoring session, I ask the students what they learned so that they can remember the material. I have them repeat everything back to me so they’re used to learning new vocabulary.
I know this direct support is making a difference – and I also know that it’s a lot of work to sort through volunteers, vet them, and get them connected to students.
I’ve seen the value of this program and with your help, we can grow it even bigger. If you can afford it, will you contribute to help Team AOC leverage and train more volunteers to get them tutoring right away?
I’m really proud to be a Homework Helper tutor and I want to help expand the program to be as big as it can be. But in order to do that, it will take a massive amount of staff and volunteers and enough resources.
When so many families are struggling, it’s important to give our time and resources to helping people, and I’m glad that Alexandra is doing just that.
With thanks,
Amanda Turcios
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