CV tutors provide free virtual tutoring for kids

Imagine being a kid in elementary school, who hasn’t adapted to distance learning yet. The overwhelming workload and topics are too much to handle. Help is always needed, but parents and older siblings are busy with their work. Motivation to learn is lost and technology problems always occur. Thankfully, there’s a group of tutors determined to give kids support. 

“When I was tutoring my younger siblings, they needed so much help. I thought it would be a good idea to help other kids because I was sure that other kids didn’t have older siblings or parents that had time to help them,” said senior Rachel Lin.

In response to the global pandemic, many schools have converted to distance learning. Although it is effective for the most part, many students, especially younger kids, have had difficulty adjusting to this new learning environment. 

“For younger kids especially, distance learning isn’t that effective. If they could learn from people who could understand them more, they would enjoy what they were learning a little bit more,” said senior Gabrielle Lewis. 

Despite these hard times many students in Castro Valley are facing, five passionate CVHS seniors have created a program called CV Tutors, providing free tutoring over Zoom for many kids throughout spring, summer, and currently fall.  

Created by CVHS seniors Jolie Tran, Emily Xu, Ashley Fang, Lin and Lewis, CV tutors are now tutoring 125 kids. The team consists of 45 tutors, including many upperclassmen from CVHS. Over the past six months, this esteemed group has tutored students of multiple grades, from kindergarteners to eighth graders. 

CV Tutors provides tutoring for a variety of subjects, including history, math, English and science. They provide support for homework assignments and learning topics while making strong bonds with the students. The tutors connect with the student’s parents via text or email and use Zoom or other platforms to engage in learning-based activities. 

Of course, the tutor and student cannot meet in person and must communicate with each other through a screen. Connection issues and the students’ attitudes play a big role in the hardship of tutoring. But these students are determined to do their best to help the kids.

“Connection issues were difficult. Sometimes my wifi cut out and my student’s wifi cut out. We had to find different platforms like Facetime. One time my laptop completely shut down during a lesson, so we had to switch devices,” said Tran. 

Since the beginning of the new school year, CV Tutors continue to tutor kids. Does CV Tutors still need more assistance? In fact, they do! However, there is an application process. “We have a quick application process and a short interview, just to get to know the tutor,” said Fang. 

CV Tutors hopes to continue providing tutoring for the rest of the school year, with as much help as they can get.