Elevate Tutoring Inc

What we do, how we do it...

The Elevate Tutoring Tutor Training model produces multiple outcomes for two target populations: college students and middle/high school students. For the first group of students, Elevate Tutoring provides a year-long program wherein academically strong, financially in-need, Bay Area college students receive high-quality math and science tutor training and opportunities to gain tutoring experience in exchange for financial support in the form of a scholarship. Elevate Tutors utilize their new skills by providing free tutoring to middle and high school students, Elevate’s second targeted population. In both classroom and one-on-one settings, Elevate Tutors work with socioeconomically disadvantaged students to improve their math and science education. With two specific populations served, the pay-it-forward nature of the program allows for widespread impact.

Since its first class of Tutors in 2012-2013, Elevate Tutoring has enriched and encouraged local students with over 2000 hours of free math and science tutoring, improved the academic and professional lives of 23 college students with over 60 hours each of tutoring training and over $83,000 in scholarship support. Elevate Tutoring has had an impressive, but short, history and, like the students it aims to help, has demonstrated the potential to do so much more if we had the resources.

Our motivation, and our passion....

Dropout rates for financially underprivileged college students are significantly higher than for their counterparts. In fact, while 60 percent of low-income students enter a post-secondary program at some point, only 11 percent earn a degree. These students are often put into a position where they have to work many hours to support themselves, their education and, in some cases, their families. The primary goal of the Tutor Training Program is to relieve these students from the burden of making money while giving them an opportunity to focus on their academics, learn a valuable skill, and gain self-worth by bringing much needed tutoring to others who cannot afford it. 

Their struggles, and their passions...

Consider these four students who applied to our program. Due to a limited budget, only two were accepted to the program.

J. used to be in a gang. Knowing a good education was the path to a more fulfilling life, he was lucky enough to find help and made the near-impossible transition from the streets to the classroom and, eventually, college. As a first year, J. was working 30 hours/week at a minimum wage job and saving every penny to keep striving towards his goal: to become an agent at the DEA and help clean up the streets he was once a part of.

D. has worked for Round Table pizza since she was 14. When she graduated high school, her family left for Mexico and she made the heart-wrenching decision to stay in the US and follow her dream to get a college degree. D. always has a backup plan and for four years her backup plan has been to work full time and earn credits at community college at a community college. With the right support, she could be a full-time student focusing on her goal to work for a non-profit to help people.

P. is one of six children and her first year of college was comfortable as she was shielded from how badly her family was struggling financially. Soon she saw that her family was scraping to get by as they spent most of their money on medical bills to help the youngest sibling and her ailing mother. To support herself, P. took every job she could find and even sold her first communion necklace.

Ten years ago, E. found himself hiding in a closet as a scared 8 year old boy watching his father choking his mother. He prayed for his dad to stop and to leave him and his mom alone. His prayers were answered – but, he had to grow up that day more than any child should. Since that day, he has been an over-achieving child of a financially underprivileged single mother. E. was accepted to college with a scholarship to cover his tuition, but did not have the funds to cover his room and board.

Your involvement, and your passion....

If your passion for equality in education is as strong as ours and the students, then help us expand! Our classes of Elevate Tutors and the number of middle and high school students reached by those Tutors are not restricted by the number of high achievers in need of help, but by resources. We, as an organization, are prepared to take the next step. Will you be with us?