Study Friends Club Finds a Home at the High School
11/05/2024 11:33AM ● By Madison Mohn
Photo courtesy of Lyla Baker.
Last year, high school sophomore (and former Ski Town Media intern!) Lyla Baker began volunteering with Integrated Community’s Study Friends program, which provides tutoring for bilingual children. She tutored a fifth grader and loved seeing him grow his academic skills through their time together. His teachers reached out to Lyla sharing how much his reading, speaking and confidence had improved, and she was deeply impacted by how much of a difference she made in the child’s life, just through helping him with schoolwork. Lyla was committed to making an even greater difference in the lives of bilingual kids, inspiring her to start her own Study Friends Club at the high school.
The club is not your average tutoring group. It partners with Integrated Community, which helps to identify elementary and middle school students who need tutoring support. Tutoring is free for the identified students, and the program as a whole promotes inclusion in the high school and emphasizes healthy peer-on-peer tutoring dynamics which can be more beneficial and less intimidating than traditional student/teacher tutoring sessions. “We’ve noticed that little kids are much more comfortable with other high schoolers,” Lyla says. “They look up to us, but we’re not distant stranger adults to them.”
The first meeting of the Study Friends Club took place in mid-September. Every member of the club registered with Integrated Community to aid in matching the high school students with emerging bilingual students in need of tutoring. In the first month, there has been interest from elementary and middle school teachers to partner with the club themselves in order to recommend more emerging bilingual students who would be a good fit for Study Friends Club.
While the club is growing and gaining traction within the high school, it wasn’t an easy road to start. “High schoolers are not a big fan of commitment,” Lyla says. “But that also narrows it down to people who are actually willing to put in the time and effort into these tutoring sessions.” Currently there are 12 high schoolers in the club, and Lyla hopes to continue to get out more information to increase the club’s membership.
“It’s a great opportunity to make a difference in the community,” Lyla says. “Over the next couple of years, I would love to see the program expand to kids who aren’t just emerging bilingual, but kids who just have needs in general, kids with disabilities, or kids who could just benefit from tutoring.”
Last year, high school sophomore (and former Ski Town Media intern!) Lyla Baker began volunteering with Integrated Community’s Study Friends program, which provides tutoring for bilingual children. She tutored a fifth grader and loved seeing him grow his academic skills through their time together. His teachers reached out to Lyla sharing how much his reading, speaking and confidence had improved, and she was deeply impacted by how much of a difference she made in the child’s life, just through helping him with schoolwork. Lyla was committed to making an even greater difference in the lives of bilingual kids, inspiring her to start her own Study Friends Club at the high school.
The club is not your average tutoring group. It partners with Integrated Community, which helps to identify elementary and middle school students who need tutoring support. Tutoring is free for the identified students, and the program as a whole promotes inclusion in the high school and emphasizes healthy peer-on-peer tutoring dynamics which can be more beneficial and less intimidating than traditional student/teacher tutoring sessions. “We’ve noticed that little kids are much more comfortable with other high schoolers,” Lyla says. “They look up to us, but we’re not distant stranger adults to them.”
The first meeting of the Study Friends Club took place in mid-September. Every member of the club registered with Integrated Community to aid in matching the high school students with emerging bilingual students in need of tutoring. In the first month, there has been interest from elementary and middle school teachers to partner with the club themselves in order to recommend more emerging bilingual students who would be a good fit for Study Friends Club.
While the club is growing and gaining traction within the high school, it wasn’t an easy road to start. “High schoolers are not a big fan of commitment,” Lyla says. “But that also narrows it down to people who are actually willing to put in the time and effort into these tutoring sessions.” Currently there are 12 high schoolers in the club, and Lyla hopes to continue to get out more information to increase the club’s membership.
“It’s a great opportunity to make a difference in the community,” Lyla says. “Over the next couple of years, I would love to see the program expand to kids who aren’t just emerging bilingual, but kids who just have needs in general, kids with disabilities, or kids who could just benefit from tutoring.”