ORLANDO, Fla. – When it comes to helping students with schoolwork as all schools are online-only due to the coronavirus, it can be a challenge for parents at home. That’s why a teen came up with the Learn With Us website, a network of high school students taking time out to virtually tutor younger students for free.
"We want to give parents an opportunity to get some free time away," Ahad Ansari, one the tutors said. "We're not trying to make any profit on this, we're just trying to help the most amount of people."
The teens help out with subjects ranging from any sort of math to English or reading comprehension.
The idea to create the network of teens giving back to their communities came from Ahad's classmate--seventeen-year-old, Mimi Sawhney. She was inspired after she witnessed the struggles her teacher was going through while giving her online class from home.
"She had to talk to her child during our zoom meeting and I was like wow, someone needs to help these people who are working from home and trying to juggle their students and their work at the same time," Sawhney said.
It’s a good deed Ahad’s mother is proud of. She says she hopes more younger students will be motivated to the same.
"I always feel that children need direction and what better way than for another older child to give direction to younger children," Shirene Ansari said. "Unfortunately this is a situation and a time where many people are going through lots of struggles and what a great way to give back."
And parents who signed up their kids for these online tutoring sessions are also noticing the significant difference it has made in their students.
"They're actually more engaged with the other students than they would be they are with us, me and my wife," Shaahzad Dhanani said. "The two tutors were Marius and Serena, and they were both extremely professional; did amazing with the way they actually taught my children."
As for Mimi, seeing her student's reactions has been the most rewarding experience.
"Talking to the students and seeing them enjoy what I'm doing. I teach art history and geography class to a group of children and they all really love it," she said. "There's always something that you can do to help, whether it be just helping your family friend and their student or going out and doing something else meaningful in the world there's always something you can do."
The Learn With Us network is accepting more volunteers. To sign up or see how you can help the organization, click here.