Hear Rita speak, on KITV’s Learning Local, about the non-profit worldwide free peer tutoring program, ConnectMe. Again, this is an absolutely free program that connects peer tutors worldwide with students around the world who are looking for a tutor in any subject. Amazing.
HONOLULU (Island News) – What started as a way to help classmates during the pandemic has grown.
A group of students turned a time of isolation into an opportunity to connect offering free online tutoring to kids that has grown into a worldwide community.
“Students were out of school, and we were at home,” explains Connect Me founder Mehmet Tascioglu. “We realized what better to do than take some of our time that we had as high achieving high school students and give back to the community so we started ConnectMe tutoring.”
The non-profit connects students kindergarten through 8th grade who need extra academic support with high school aged volunteer tutors online.
“Six years now, and we’ve charged $0 total for all 65,000 of our tutoring sessions. It is completely run for free,” adds Tascioglu.
It’s a student-run non-profit with more than 1,000 volunteer tutors across the world.
30 are from right here in Hawaii including University Lab sophomore Riva Quitan.
“I saw this opportunity pop up and it was called Connect Me,” explains Quitan. “I looked into it. It was an online nonprofit organization run by students, and so I was like, Oh, this is super cool and I decided to apply as a tutor.”
Tutors are matched with students to meet once a week for an hour.
Quitan sees the need, saying “I know living on Hawaii, it can be hard with transportation and scheduling of getting to tutor centers or private tutors, so this is a great chance. It’s completely virtual, completely free.”
Students can apply to get tutoring or become a volunteer tutor at Connectmego.org.
