Like many CHS students, I’ve served as a tutor for a few different organizations. I tutor for the National Honor Society (NHS) tutoring program during SRT and outside of school as well as work twice a week at an official tutoring business.

As a tutor, there’s no feeling more common to me than sitting in SRT, prepared to utilize this period of time to help other students, when time ticks by and nobody shows up for help. But while my “free” time remains empty, it’s amazing to me how many students choose to pay me for my time after school instead, despite the fact that I’m more than willing to offer this same help for service hours.

When I was an SRT math tutor, I had students come in for help maybe once every two weeks; similarly, during NHS tutoring, there are often occasions where no student comes in for help during the entire period of SRT. I understand demand for tutors is higher for certain subject areas or specific classes; however, these courses I’m tutoring are all classes I’ve taken before, and I know people struggle with them and are willing to spend thousands of dollars a year on tutoring outside of school, often without having tried utilizing any school resources.

Don’t get me wrong; tutoring is extremely beneficial for many students, and it’s definitely worth it for some families to invest in hiring professional, specialized tutors to work with their children. But many of these paid tutors are actually high school students like me who are offering the same resources during school hours for no pay at all.

It is undeniable that adult professional tutors have more experience than high school tutors, but even then, CHS offers many skilled, subject-specific tutors during SRT who specialize in different fields and are free resources for students to utilize if they so choose. CHS’s math, social studies and world language departments each have their own tutoring programs during SRT into which the involved teachers and students invest a significant amount of time, but all of these are extremely underutilized. Department teachers hand-select the tutors in these programs, making them extremely qualified to tutor in their specific subject areas. The aforementioned NHS tutoring program similarly consists of individuals who meet academic and disciplinary qualifications to participate in NHS.

Therefore, I encourage any of you struggling with a class to reach out to one of these programs first before seeking help outside of school. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; we, the tutors in these programs, have a desire to give back to the community. The results will far surpass any doubts you may have.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Angela Li at [email protected]