Feb 20, 2018
What’s the scoop? Students who are struggling and excelling at the all-girls charter Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls in St. Louis, Missouri, are benefitting from the Hawthorn InvestiGirls program, led by a dedicated team of student-tutors from Washington University in St. Louis.
How do students benefit? The tutors work closely with Hawthorn teachers to identify student needs and “[customize] around the real needs of the students,” according to Julie Hercules, Hawthorn’s dean of student life and community affairs. The Washington University student-tutors recently partnered with another university organization, K-12 Connections, to provide students with an interactive STEM lesson around designing a mission to Mars.
The student-tutors benefit as well. One InvestiGirl tutor, senior Rachel Harris, says the tutoring program has inspired her to become a middle school teacher. Harris wants to teach middle school, she says, because “it’s a time when a lot of kids may have a strained relationship with their parents. Teachers are the ones who can step in and be the figures that students turn to.”
The bottom line… With International Women’s Day just around the corner, on March 8, InvestiGirls is a timely reminder that tutors are mentors and role models as well as educators, inspiring young girls to dream bigger and, in the words of one Hawthorn student, Michelle Kenton, “make learning fun.”
banner image from https://source.wustl.edu/2018/02/smart-tutoring-hawthorn-investigirls-takes-homework-help-next-level/
