Blaine High School student helps start tutoring program

A Blaine High School (BHS) scholastic club is now offering district-wide tutoring to support fellow students with online school. 

BHS senior Joshua Kim first came up with the idea in April, shortly after the school district shut down in-person learning. He was looking for a project to support the community while preparing to become the president of the school’s local National Honor Society (NHS), a nationwide club that focuses on scholarship, leadership, service and character.

“This whole [online] format is really hard for a lot of people so I was trying to think of how we could reach out and help,” he said.

Kim said he brought up the idea with NHS sponsor Jeff Worthy in the spring, but waited until the new school year to start the program, when there was more understanding of how classes would be structured.

Seeing how online classes were affecting his classmates, Kim leaned into his four years of volunteer experience with another high school club, Students with a Purpose, to start the program.

“The major issue is trying to get yourself motivated. Basically, it feels like all the good parts of school, like seeing your friends, are squeezed out and you’re stuck with the hard part,” he said. “It’s a struggle to wake up and log in every day, and focus to get through that on a repetitive basis.”

The tutoring sessions started November 2 but  the program didn’t have students attend until mid-November when the school district publicized it, Worthy said. The tutoring sessions run 3-4 p.m. Monday and Thursday during Worthy’s office hours and have about eight to 11 students seeking help per session, he said.

Students are guaranteed at least 20 minutes with honor society volunteers but often can utilize the full hour, Worthy said. Worthy said he greets students when they enter his virtual classroom and then he sends them to separate online rooms with the volunteers to get help in subjects like math, English and science. If no students are waiting to be paired with a volunteer, Worthy said he will visit each tutoring session to see if the tutor needs help.

“It’s clearly a need,” Worthy said. “There’s a lot of kids struggling more than they normally would, and that’s what we’re trying to alleviate.”

Students can attend the sessions without signing up beforehand but Worthy said that could change if demand for the program increases.

So far, the program has mostly seen third and sixth graders seeking help in math, Kim said.

“I can’t understand what it would be like to be a third grader going through this completely alien experience, and it must be so hard for teachers to adapt to this format,” Kim said. “Whatever I can do and whatever I can get other people to do is always a good feeling.”

Worthy said he hopes to see the program continue when school returns to normal but the program will need to be restructured to fit the schedules of the honor society students, many of whom are active in other extracurriculars like sports. 

“I think one of the biggest challenges that kids are facing is holding them accountable when teachers aren’t directly with them,” Worthy said. “The system is so different; a lot of students are having difficulty adapting. Anything we can do to familiarize them, any support we can give to helping make that easier is our purpose.”

District students and families can attend a 3-4 p.m. tutoring session on Mondays and Thursdays by visiting Worthy’s office hours on Google Meet, titled “jworthyoffice.”