CareerBridge Interns Support Path2Math Program
By Eric Steckel | January 20, 2022
Enthusiasm and Compassion Fuels Summer Learning
You are empowering youth like Leticia to respond to the needs of the community by providing them opportunities to come alongside children struggling in math and reading.
When Randy Roth founded Children Rising in 2001, his vision was “to prepare today’s youth for a life of serving others and contributing positively to their communities.” This year, we watched that vision spring to life in a profound and touching way.
Last spring, as COVID continued to disrupt classrooms, Path2Math launched online tutoring with a limited number of tutors. It was a daunting challenge, but the need was great. Testing revealed an exceedingly high number of second-grade students experienced significant COVID-related learning loss. Many were at a kindergarten level in math. More than ever before, children needed continued tutoring throughout the summer to have any hope of catching up to grade level. At the same time, our CareerBridge students were eager to begin summer internships despite a scarcity of opportunities.
As the director of both programs, Margena Wade-Green saw a chance to harness youthful enthusiasm and provide online tutoring to eager children. She created a unique internship for CareerBridge students to support the fledgling Path2Math online program. The interns tutored second-graders in math, helped troubleshoot technical issues with the online platform, and hosted a Math Club game room where students watched fun math videos and singalongs, socialized, and worked on their assignments before and after tutoring sessions.
“Realizing that I can make a difference was really nice…If this helps even a few students then that’s good.”
Leticia, a senior who has been with CareerBridge since her freshman year, was grateful for the Path2Math internship. “It expanded my worldview…it gave me a sense of working and the many different opportunities out there.”
Children in our local schools are overcoming COVID-related learning loss thanks to the compassion and support of the community. Your gifts ensure they reach their God-given potential.
She took her responsibilities very seriously. “It was upsetting to hear that so many kids were falling behind in math during COVID because it is a difficult subject and there was a shortage of support programs.”
It opened her eyes to opportunities to give back. “It was my first time tutoring…and you could see they were really having fun singing and dancing and smiling. Realizing that I can make a difference was really nice. I experienced working and directly helping someone learn math. If this helps even a few students then that’s good.”
Sabine, a junior who has also been with CareerBridge since her freshman year, found the experience to be extremely meaningful. “As someone who enjoys working with kids and is passionate about education issues in the school system, I felt like I really made an impact when engaging with the children,” she said. “I always looked forward to the students I would get to see once a week and work on math with because those were very special connections to me.”
There is no higher calling than to serve others. By creating genuine connections with the children they tutored, CareerBridge interns fulfilled Randy’s vision. We look forward to seeing how they continue to find opportunities to uplift their community, one precious child at a time.
You can become a tutor today. Give an eager child the boost they need to reach their God-given potential.
YES, I CAN empower a child to build bridges to a better future!
I want to learn more about online reading or math clinics to see if tutoring is right for me!