Long-term Tutoring Yields Positive Results with the Tutor Corps Foundation
Meet Tutor Corps Foundation Scholar Maiceo
I’ve been working with Tutor Corps and Pacific Preparatory for the last 6 years and, throughout my time working with students, teachers, and our staff, I have been absolutely wowed by the impact that our student-centered approach to 1:1 instruction has on students’ lives. We serve a wide range of learners across our organizations, from students enrolled full time to students receiving school-sponsored after-school tutoring. Across all of these students, one thing remains the same: long-term mentorship and coaching helps create academic confidence and curiosity. This becomes especially clear when students work with us over the course of several years, giving us the opportunity to see their long-term growth. We’ve been so privileged to bring that same model to students in need via the Tutor Corps Foundation, which sponsors approximately 20 students each year.
Maiceo is one such student and we are so proud of the journey he’s taken with us. Maiceo came to the Tutor Corps Foundation in the spring 2020 as a 6th grader navigating the first wave of COVID-19 online learning. At the time, Maiceo was struggling with school. He wasn’t feeling motivated to complete his coursework and he was struggling with the recent loss of his father. While he was feeling unmotivated, he knew he wanted to reach his full potential. “I’m just trying to be the best for my mom,” he wrote in his initial application. While he wasn’t sure what he wanted to be when he grew up, he knew he wanted to be the best he could be in order to get a good job and support his family.
We are proud to sponsor many students like Maieceo by providing free online tutoring.
While we typically sponsor tutoring for the duration of the academic year, we allocated extra funds in the summer of 2020 so that scholarship students could get started sooner and begin addressing COVID-related learning loss. That summer, Maiceo began working with one of our amazing tutors Clare. Clare, who holds a BA in Math from Mount Holyoke and an MA in Contemporary Dance, bonded with Maieceo almost immediately. She became a fierce advocate for him and made sure he had access to every opportunity. That winter, Tutor Corps rolled out a digital study skills program, created to help students who were struggling with organization during virtual learning. Clare reached out to see if the foundation could sponsor additional hours on top of Maiceo’s scholarship so that he could take advantage of this resource. We were pleased to grant this opportunity to Maiceo, who completed the program over winter break. At the end of spring 2021, Maiceo’s scholarship was set to conclude. His mother wrote to us to let us know how impactful it had been: “Clare has helped him regain confidence,” she wrote. “It’s quite lovely having her for him and I’m forever grateful to Tutor Corps for the opportunity. I appreciate you all so much. This has helped him not slip through the cracks because of his trauma he’s endured.” She let us know that he was “so surprised” at how well he did on a math test; it almost seemed like he was “doing math at a high school level.”
Maiceo’s performance and confidence in math soared.
At that time, we invited Maiceo to reapply for a scholarship the following year so that he could keep up his positive trajectory. Based on feedback from Clare and Maiceo’s mom, we also learned he’d been struggling in his Spanish class. To ensure that he was back up to speed the following fall, we provided an additional 10 hour scholarship for the summer so that he and Clare could work on Spanish skills ahead of the school year. Since summer 2021, Maiceo has continued to thrive with us. Clare worked with him throughout the next academic year. “They’re definitely a team,” his mom had told us. “It’s like she’s part of the family now.” Sadly, Clare had to transition off of the Tutor Corps team that summer, but we made sure Maiceo had a strong plan in place to continue his positive trajectory. Remembering how much Maiceo had benefited from additional summer services, we paired Maiceo with a new tutor Shana to work on a summer writing course, a course offered to our Tutor Corps students to help middle schoolers prepare for high school-level analytical writing. We shipped hands-on resources directly to his home and he and Shana chose a book to read and analyze together, working on developing his skills in argumentative writing.
This fall, he’s begun working with one of our tutors Brett, a phenomenal instructor who has been working with Tutor Corps since 2017. Brett has helped dozens upon dozens of students get into their high schools and colleges of choice. Recently, Maiceo switched schools and Brett has been supporting him with that transition, making sure he is able to expertly navigate school before ramping up in sophomore year next year. I recently spoke with Brett who said that he is sure that Maiceo “will go far in high school and beyond.” Maiceo’s math skills have continued to improve; Brett notes that he is incredibly impressed by “comprehension and confidence” in math. He also recently received an A on a presentation he did in his new Ethnic Studies class.
In reflecting on Maiceo’s time with us, I looked back at his most recent application to renew his scholarship. When he first joined us in 2020, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, just that he wanted to get a good job and meet his potential. This year, though, he writes with such clarity and purpose. He wrote about all the ways he was working to improve himself in both school and sports so he could be his best self. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Maiceo via Zoom and he told me that he’s already taking colleague classes and his ultimate goal is to be an amazing football player and entrepreneur so that he can launch his own clothing brand one day. I asked him what he’d tell other students who are interested in applying for a scholarship and he said: “Sign up. It’ll be so good for you. Put in the work. Take your tests. These people will really help you.”
Maiceo is just one student out of a cohort of 17 students this year. I highlight him here because he is such a shining example of a dedicated student who has worked hard over the course of several years to be his best academic self. It has been our honor to support him on his journey. We can’t wait to see what high school has in store for Maiceo!
If interested in supporting students like Maiceo, donate to the Tutor Corps Foundation today. All donations go directly to supporting student learning.