New Tutoring Center seeks to reduce stigma and offer help to all

During a tutorial in January, a green Post-It on the door said “No more students.” For the first time, the glass room in the library that is home of the school’s new tutorial center had reached its capacity.

It was crowded with activity. Sitting on the low tan couches, club officers drew out future goals and plans. In the corner, a group of two worked on a poster, sketching out ideas furiously. Another student stood by the room’s whiteboards, scribbling math concepts between fits of explanation.

This is the Tutoring Center, whose mission is to provide free tutoring services to all students. However, it has become a hotspot to much more activity as students become aware of its services.

“Students use the center because prices can be expensive for private tutors,” junior tutor Marissa Leong said. “Also, they are tutored by reliable students who have taken the class [that is being explained] before and know what to expect.”

In addition to providing peer tutors, the center provides community tutors, adult volunteers who come when scheduled and occasionally drop in randomly. The center even houses a list of recommended local tutors that individuals can contact.

Within the center, high chairs line the countertops by the wall, and sleek grey desks have dividers between work spaces. The room follows a modern design with a color scheme of grey and orange. Laptops and newly sharpened pencils sit on each table, while textbooks of all kinds stand on a bookshelf.

“The goal is to have an atmosphere more conducive to productivity than a bedroom,” said engineering and physics teacher Matthew Welander, who acts as supervisor of the center.

Each week, Welander estimated that more than 200 students enter the center, most of whom come for its atmosphere rather than for its tutors. Yet, for those who do want help, 45 peer volunteers are readily available.

One of these peer tutors is junior Mohini Dutta, who has visited the center twice a week since she signed up in late September.

“I look forward to helping people with their problems because I also think it helps me,” Dutta said. “Tutoring rehashes my basic concepts, and I get to learn more.”

Despite the possibility that peers cannot properly help a tutee, all tutors are qualified for the subjects they tutor in, and questions that the tutor cannot answer are cleared up by head aide Sunita Bol.

“We have never gotten bad feedback, which is why I think the students are so appreciative of tutors’ time,” Bol said.

According to Bol, the time spent between the tutor and tutee is valuable, as they are also building a friendly relationship by helping one another.

“This kind of collaboration promotes a nice, healthy environment within the school,” Bol said.

Tutors not only help students in the school, but can also sign up through the Tutoring Center to help outside of the school.

Senior Meghana Kaza is one such tutor. She helps a second grader whom she describes as “an energetic, kind, often restless boy who drives me up the wall, but strives to do well in school.”

However, she fears her tailored schooling won’t last for long. Kaza believes that past a certain age, her tutee will be considered stupid for having a tutor, even though she is just there to supplement his learning.

Welander wishes to break this obstacle between the students and the help they need.

“While the school counselors publicize our services to those who are struggling, a lot of students who are doing fine in their classes appreciate the extra help when they need it.”

Another issue that affects the center is the perceived stigma associated with admitting the need for help in a class.

Dutta hopes that the center will grow and more students will become OK with asking for help.

“Visiting the Tutoring Center does not define who people are,” Dutta said. “These are just people who are seeking help within the school instead of venturing outside to other third parties.”

Welander is optimistic for the future of the center.

“My biggest hope is that students feel more comfortable getting help from other people — that there is not a stigma that asking for help means you are stupid, which is a problem campuswide,” Welander said. “We are here to help.”