School of Philology Students Launch Tutor Outreach Volunteer Initiative

Tutor Outreach is a new volunteer initiative developed by School of Philology students under the HSE’s ICEF Outreach organization. The initiative aims to help people in children’s homes with their studies. All the volunteers work as tutors, preparing the children for exams, helping them with their homework, answering difficult questions and helping them catch up with the curriculum.

Children in care are well looked after from a material perspective, the children’s home is not looking for any donations. But what the children lack is that one-on-one time that a tutor brings, helping them do their homework and explaining schoolwork to them.

Teachers often simply do not have enough time for the extra lessons the children need, which means that these children can find it difficult to thrive academically. They struggle to get a decent grade, and go from class to class monotonously, without any opportunity to catch up, get to grips with a subject or even find it interesting. These are children that really want to learn, they want to understand their subjects and start to get good grades – they know how important knowledge is.

Around 100 people — students and graduates from HSE and other universities — are involved in the Tutor Outreach programme on a regular basis.

Anna Soboleva and Anna Bauer, who are both involved in the initiative, say that the project offers them an endless source of positivity. ‘The children’s joyfulness and desire to do things is inspirational. And interacting, and working together with the other volunteers is also enjoyable.’

You can get in touch with the organizers, and get involved in one of their children’s home trips via the VK group.

Text by Anna Soboleva and Anna Bauer

March 25, 2015