2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

It is well-known that first-generation and low-income students are less likely to succeed and persist in college than their more affluent peers. To help address this, a non-profit was founded to provide support to these students. The organization houses the Tutor Training Fellowship Program where Tutor Fellows receive three-fold support in the form of tutor training, work experience, and scholarship. The work experience comes in the form of free tutoring to low-income middle and high school students. Additional support is provided through free mental health counseling and professional development workshops. Through this program, students also find a community of similar students who support each other through graduation and beyond.
The training received focuses on pedagogy and is specifically tailored for mentors and tutors that will be working with under-resourced youth. The magic of this program is the fact that the tutors and the tutees they work with can see themselves in each other. This allows tutors to build a rapport much faster than would normally be possible.
To date, over the past decade, 200 tutors have joined the program and earned over $700,000 in scholarships and delivered over 20,000 hours of free STEM tutoring. Over the past three years, a record number of community college students have joined the program. Over 90% of the students in the program graduate and over 70% have gone on to obtain a strong job commensurate with their degree – well above their counterparts.
This paper will present the details of the program, funding sources, specific training material, how tutors are found, how tutoring partners are found, and more.