Youth-led tutoring service offers free support, volunteer hours in Waterloo region

With the ongoing pandemic comes unique learning challenges and the loss of volunteer opportunities for students in the region.

But aWaterloo high school studenthas come up with a solution for both.

Paris Cai founded HomeworkHub, with the help of her team, back in January after she identified a need for a free tutoring service. The hub grants high school students volunteer hours in exchange for tutoring students Grades 1 through 6 who need extra help navigating virtual learning challenges.

"I was seeing my younger brother and his friends struggling a little bit with school, especially then it was fully online, they weren't paying too much attention, they were struggling a bit, falling behind," said Cai, who's a Grade 10 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute.

"I didn't have many [volunteer] hours. I was looking for a place to get hours and it was kind of difficult for me," added Cai, noting manyinstitutions where high school students volunteer to get the hours they need to graduate had closedtheir doors due to the pandemic.

"So, start your own I guess."

One-on-one tutoring help

HomeworkHub consists of 100 members, 50 tutors and 50 students, mainly from Waterloo region, but it has also reached people in Hong Kong and parts of the U.S.

It offers help with math, science, social studies, French and Mandarin

Dasha Turetska, a Grade 6 studentfrom Waterloo, signed up to learn math lessons.

"HomeworkHub is really good for me because it gives me a great opportunity to upgrade my math skills higher and it's always good to have a person that you can go through everything slowly and understand it," said Turetska.

She said the one-on-one component has been really helpful in a time of virtual classes.

"During my online school, we have a whole class of about 20 to 25 people and with homework you have individual lessons it's really nice that that it's separate and not for everyone altogether," she said.

Cai said she and her team planto expand HomeworkHub with international branches and paid summer camps.

She said anyone interested in tutoring or receiving help can get more information online here.