Helping families with at-home learning

Families everywhere are struggling with how to educate their children during this pandemic. The problem is even more complicated for immigrant families. Parents who are not native English speakers often find it particularly difficult to navigate U.S. school systems or help children with their homework. With the move of so much instruction online, things have not gotten easier.

After a month or so of home quarantine, a team of Boston-area high school students decided they could do some good for area children while keeping themselves intellectually challenged by offering free tutoring services. In April, David Min, Nathan Bornstein, Dan Bi and Dylan Higgins launched Boston COVID Tutoring (BCT). Since then, BCT has expanded to 72 volunteers tutoring 67 elementary and middle school students in subjects including math, science, English, history, social studies and various world languages.

The Immigrant Learning Center’s students are adult immigrants and refugees who desperately want to learn English to improve their and their family’s lives in this country. We have heard first-hand from many of our students the difficulty of trying to ensure their children’s education during this crisis without abandoning their own studies. When Boston COVID Tutoring approached us for mentoring, we were well aware of the need for these services and pleased to be able to help these enterprising young adults create something that will have lasting impact. Through this partnership, The Immigrant Learning Center offers organizational guidance and oversight of the volunteer program to BCT and in return directs immigrant families to this valuable new resource. Everyone wins.