When sophomore Ella-Brooke Morgan was told that she was not old enough to volunteer for online tutoring, she took matters into her own hands. She started her own tutoring program. ViP Tutoring, standing for virtual and in-person tutoring, has been successful with aiding students in many of their scholarly hardships. Many students have struggled with motivation during online school and have fallen behind with assignments, so this is where ViP tutoring comes in.
“We recruit high-performing local high schoolers that are wanting to work with students and have received a teacher recommendation. Then I train them and provide them with a Welcome Kit that includes resources and a t-shirt to tutor in,” Morgan said.
Morgan revealed that the idea for the group started through her enjoyment of learning and helping others.
“I did some peer tutoring in middle school and have always loved reading and learning in general, really. When freshman year came, and I was looking for a rewarding way to volunteer, I found a nonprofit that I could assist and began going a few times a week to work with elementary schoolers there. I became connected to the students that looked for me to come in each time, and when I suddenly became cut off from them, it was hard on me,” Morgan said.
So, she decided she would start her own tutoring program to help kids who might be struggling with online school, but she had some setbacks.
“I reached out to the program to assist them in person or even remotely, but I was required to be 18 and hit roadblocks at all of my attempts. I just decided that I would start my own program so that I could help in some way,” Morgan said.
The inspiring group of volunteers work to make a difference in the lives of kids around Clemmons and want to give back to their community.
“As a team of high schoolers that are gaining experience and knowledge about the education system through partnerships willing to train them, we can do many things together as a team to better our community,” Morgan said.
The group even has fun activities and community service planned.
“We are getting out and having some socially distanced fun together soon with some goat yoga and participating in the Clemmons Quaran-clean through the assistance of the WFHS Key Club. We are also putting together some Community Conversations that will hopefully enlighten the families and educators of local teens in how to better communicate with the teens in their lives!” Morgan said with hope for the future.
With all of the negatives going on in the world right now, ViP Tutoring is such a positive group of young individuals willing to do anything to make the world a better place, one student at a time. See their website with more information at https://www.viptutoring.org