Like all of their high school student peers, Michael Cline and Anand Mathi are learning from home these days.
Unlike most of them, these guys are also teaching from home.
Whether it’s math, history, science, or any other subject, Michael and Anand are offering free academic support on a website they created, FreeQuarantineTutoring.Squarespace.com. It’s designed to help anyone, but especially students who are feeling anxiety over distance learning and students who can’t go to after-school, on-campus tutoring sessions anymore.
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“We were discussing how there’s a lot of anxiety in the community right now and a lot of our friends who are students at Cooper City High School were voicing their concerns with online school, so we thought it would be helpful to make a website that they could go to to ask any academic or technological questions and then hopefully that could reduce some of the stress,” Michael said.
“There’s a lot of anxiety and we want to just help people reduce their stress,” added Anand.
The boys are juniors and among the top students at Cooper City High. They’ve recruited friends to volunteer, keeping the website active every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., so even when students can’t reach their teachers, they have an alternative.
“We know that students can just look up answers on Google, but what we want to do is help explain it to them and communicate with them,” Michael said.
So they’ve got 11 tutors monitoring the website at any given time, and they feel like they’re not just helping their colleagues, they’re also relieving the burden on teachers as well.
“I’m sure that a lot of teachers are stressed themselves with the transition, so if we’re able to answer any questions that the students may have, it’s gonna be a lot easier on the teachers and the students,” Anand said. “We’ve also reached out to some school faculty members, and they’ve been very supportive and they spread the word on to their students.”
At this point, they’re getting a handful of questions every day, but they’re ready to expand their virtual boundary beyond their own school community. So kids, if you’ve got questions, you might find the answers on their website.
“I mean, I feel really good, I know Michael feels really good about it, it’s nice to help other people out,” Anand said.
