The Literacy Center, located in room 1161, is offering Rent-a-Tutors for classes that may need extra help. While the Lit Center typically offers in-person tutors through its many teachers and students during all periods, including before and after school, Rent-a-Tutors are tutors or teachers who visit classrooms upon request by a teacher. Although this is not the first year Rent-a-Tutors have played a role in the Lit Center, they are still creating a positive impact in all the classrooms they visit.

Lit Center coordinator Marina Dikanovic explains the process behind the facilitation of Rent-a-Tutors and believes that the Rent-a-Tutor system helps to keep all tutors involved.

“Typically the teachers would email me to request students for certain periods, then we would submit it into the calendar and then we would pair them up with peer tutors that we would send to those teachers who requested tutors based on tutor availability. Teachers most of the time are very, very happy with certain tutors and will request those tutors to return and so far I’d say it’s been going great. I think Rent-a-Tutors are beneficial to us because regardless of whether it’s a slow period or busy period, tutors have an opportunity to get involved and tutor and help other students,” Dikanovic said.

First-year Lit Center tutor and Lit Center Leadership Circle member Khloe Buelvas, senior, believes that being part of Rent-a-Tutor not only helps other students in the school but also helps her connect with her tutees on a deeper level.

“While tutoring one-on-one in the Lit Center is great, I found myself more comfortable immersing myself in the students’ environment and helping them learn there. I strongly believe that Rent-a-Tutor is super important to the Lit Center. Through this, I am able to be a resource to students, especially the ones who are afraid to ask for help or come to the Lit Center themselves. Through Rent-a-Tutor we are able to bring the Lit Center to them. Overall, I think it is such a great experience and every tutor should try it at least once,” Buelvas said.

Senior Vaughn Holleran shares her joy in being able to volunteer for Rent-a-Tutor and feel the reward of being a tutor.

“I help out with Rent-a-Tutor basically every day during second period, and I feel like that is the busiest Rent-a-Tutor period, as tutors are going to ELL or math or English basically daily that period. My experience has been so awesome. I personally work with the intro to ELL students, and so working with them this past school year I have been able to see and hear the process they have made, which is really rewarding as a tutor even if it’s in the little things. I think Rent-a-Tutors are a really big part of the Lit Center, even though they are not visibly present in the Lit Center, they are still impacting students’ learning in a beneficial way,” Holleran said.

Science teacher Michael Boll is one of the teachers who volunteered for Rent-a-Tutor. He believes that the experience is very similar to that of the Lit Center, but may also be more comforting to the students receiving help.

“I was a part of Rent-a-Tutor for an algebra extension class where I worked with two students and just helped them, answered their questions and checked their work. It was very similar to what happens in the Lit Center, but also different and nice because they were all already in their classroom, I just went to them this time. I think it helped one specific student a lot because they had a couple of questions and I felt like they opened up more because I’m not their teacher so they didn’t have to worry about potentially feeling embarrassed or afraid to ask a question,” Boll said.