National Honors students enjoy giving back with Homework Help
National Honor Society students enjoy an opportunity to give back and help younger students through Elkhart Public Library’s Homework Help program.
Homework Help is available at all EPL locations and uses high school National Honors Society students as tutors to help younger students with their homework.
Noah Sears, a senior at Elkhart Central, said he’s been doing the tutoring since January at the Osolo Branch and that he uses it as an opportunity to slow down from his many other activities.
“I think it’s nice to come here and slow down and help them out,” he says.
“Seeing how education has changed from when I did it and how it is now is interesting.”
Sears scrambles to Osolo Branch on Thursdays from track practice, where he competes in the pole vault and he also has an internship at Burlington Graphic Systems in Elkhart.
By participating in Homework Help, he and the other students involved can get their required 25 tutoring hours of the total 75 volunteer hours required to graduate with the NHS designation.
“It’s a good experience to go back and not just do it for yourself but also to help someone else,” he says.
Homework Help is available 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the following days and locations
Monday – Downtown and Cleveland
Tuesday – Dunlap
Wednesday – Pierre Moran
Thursday – Osolo
The volunteer tutors also build relationships with the students that come in, says Alana Breckenridge-Peete, another Osolo volunteer.
“There’s one kid who comes in here and he’s very funny,” she says. “I’ve done a lot of volunteering with Key Club and other (organizations) but this is different because it’s kids that kind of look up to you.”
Both Breckenridge-Peete and Sears say that most commonly they are asked to help out with math.
“It’s a lot of math and English that students seem to struggle with,” says Sears. “I feel like math is one of my strengths so I feel like I know what I’m talking about when I help them.”
“I’ve been refreshed on how to do written multiplication and stuff like that,” added Breckenridge-Peete.
Sears added that he sees differences in the curriculum from when he went through elementary and middle schools but he’s usually able to grasp it pretty quickly.
“One time, I had never done the lattice method but after a couple minutes I was able to figure out how it worked,” he says.
The two volunteers say that they enjoy their time at the library and are happy to give back their time and knowledge.
“I feel like I’m helping another kid in my community that goes to a school like I did and help them get a better education,” says Breckenridge-Peete.