Scripps Ranch High School Peer Tutor Club Secretary Melinda Luo (left) helps Ellice Wang at one of the club’s free after-school tutoring sessions. (photo by Melina Dimitropoulou)
Students help students
The student-run Scripps Ranch High School Peer Tutor Club gives young scholars valuable experience while helping others get over rough patches and raise their grades.
Formed in 2008, the Scripps Ranch High School Peer Tutor Club is designed to help students who need help with schoolwork and bringing up their grades in general. The club meets and offers free tutoring at the Scripps Ranch High School Library after school every Monday through Thursday from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.
Club Publicity Chairman Melina Dimitropoulou said the peer perspective of the club’s tutors offers a special resource for Scripps Ranch High students.
“Usually, the people who tutor the kids have also taken the classes the kids are taking, and it’s completely free,” Dimitropoulou said.
Club Vice President Josh Hwang agreed that the peer aspect gives these tutors special insight.
“We’ve been through the classes so, I guess, for an outside tutor, they wouldn’t know the teacher as well so they wouldn’t have that firsthand knowledge of how to deal with the class and maneuver through the class,” Hwang said. “We have that experience and it helps (students) be able to tackle certain problems or figure out how to plan their time.”
Hwang said there is a core group of regularly active tutors, with a total of around 30 available so the club has reinforcements to call on when needed. He said the first six weeks of the semester can be quiet in terms of tutoring, but picks up as the term goes on.
“Once people start getting their grades or their parents are seeing the progress reports coming in, we start getting more,” he said. “I think the most is right before finals, during the week of finals and the week before finals.”
One memorable busy period saw a club member bravely facing a tutoring crush.
“Maybe two years ago, one of the physics tutors was tutoring five people at once,” Hwang said. “Usually, we do one on one. I think it was the day before a huge physics final. Lots and lots of people were coming in.”
Walk-in tutoring is available, but Hwang said those needing help with specific topics or challenges should first contact club faculty advisor and English teacher Marilyn Ortega.
“If they want any special type of tutoring, like if they need a certain subject that might be a little more obscure or not as popular, they would have to contact Miss Ortega first and then she would probably let one of the tutors know,” Hwang said.
In addition to the students seeking help, club tutors also gain from the experience, according to Dimitropoulou. This involves earning volunteer hours that many students seek.
“It’s really nice to make new friends; this is how I met Josh,” she said. “So, you get to meet people and get to put it on your college application.”
For more information, including how to receive tutoring or be a tutor, email mortega@sandi.net.