OVS student leaders have launched a Homework Hotline aimed at providing academic support to the rest of the student body.
The free tutoring program was first proposed at the start of the school year by the Student Leadership committee, which is made up of students from across the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
Supervised by Assistant Head of School and English teacher Crystal Davis, it is leadership’s responsibility to introduce new students to the school, volunteer for a range of events and generally provide a helping hand wherever possible.
The team kicked off the start of the school year with a three-day workshop, during which they were tasked with developing projects that would benefit the school community and that could be put into practice fairly quickly. There were several ideas circulating, but perhaps none were as well-received as the Homework Hotline.
The concept is simple: if students are struggling in a class or having difficulty with an assignment, they are able to reach out to a peer – whether over the phone or in person – and receive the help they need.
Junior Allyanna Westcott was among the students who took the initiative to lay the foundation for the Homework Hotline, speaking with teachers, collecting information and working out the nuts and bolts of the system.
Allyanna made sure every potential mentor was approved of by their teachers and had done well both in class and on the AP exam, if applicable. Thus, all those holding the position were ensured to have been successful students themselves.
The product of her efforts was a poster displaying available tutors and the means by which to contact them. It is now posted at several bulletin boards on campus and will soon be broadcasted through email, also.
“Once I finished… I was really happy with [the result],” Allyanna said. “It was just a chance to do something for others.”
Ms. Davis, having overseen all this, expressed her pride with the committee’s efforts.
“I’m very pleased with the outcome,” she said. “ When I think of the kind of project that I want student leadership to be involved in, this is exactly it. They are taking the gifts that they have as student leaders and making them widely accessible to the community.”
The student body is equally as excited for the service the Homework Hotline provides.
Senior Hannah Little reports that she has been struggling in AP Calculus and has taken advantage of the hotline.
“The hope is to go… find a student who has been through the class and can help me with some of the homework and some of the concepts,” Hannah said.
She also explained how it can be more beneficial to receive support from a fellow student than from a teacher, as they tend to have greater availability and share the same perspective. Moreover, student tutoring works towards fostering a safe and supportive academic environment.
Ella Schuette, senior and a mentor herself, speaks to this.
“The word ‘tutoring’ has a negative connotation… and we needed to come up with some way to get rid of that,” she said.
Emanuel Zagata-Jacobson, also a senior, agrees.
“There’s a stigma against tutoring… people think if you get tutoring you’re ‘dumb’,” he explained. “We want to create a community where people feel okay asking for help. Students helping students brings everyone together.”