National Honors Society and the Minority Scholars Program are collaborating together to tutor Montgomery Village Middle School students. Members are tutoring in any subject and will continue until May.

Minority Scholars Program sponsor Sandy Young originally wanted the NHS and MSP students to tutor students here at Watkins Mill, but had a hard time trying to get students to attend the tutoring sessions. Young and NHS sponsor Anita Rajeev decided to partner up with the principal and teachers at Montgomery Village Middle School, and start to tutor the students there.

“We picked [Montgomery Village] because it was closer,” Young said. Many of the high school students involved are able to walk or drive to the middle school. The students tutor on Wednesday and Thursday every week. They start after school and leave at about 4:30. Students can tutor any subject they feel strongest in.

NHS and MSP students sign up on a Google Docs spreadsheet. They can choose what days they want to tutor. Students who are bilingual can help the ESOL students at the middle school.  “We always try and send a student who is bilingual to tutor because we have a lot of students in the middle schools who are in ESOL 1 and 2 and they need someone who is bilingual to help them with their homework,” Young added.

Every time a student tutors, they will receive SSL hours. “This is a more gratifying way to get those SSL hours to know you’re really helping somebody,” Young added.

Senior Jennifer Porras is in both MSP and NHS, and was a student at Montgomery Village. Porras says tutoring is fun since she attended the school. So far, she has tutored a couple of times and has helped students in Math, English, and History. The students “get their homework done in 40 minutes rather than not doing it at all,” Porras said.

Junior Josephine Oshagbemi is also in both MSP and NHS and thinks tutoring at the middle school is a good choice. “You’re helping [the students] get to know you so when they come to Watkins Mill, they have somebody to support them and have a good support system,” Oshagbemi said. In the future, she would like to tutor at Neelsville since she used to attend the school.

Young would like for the students to tutor elementary school students, such as at Watkins Mill and Stedwick. The tutoring “is good for the community and good for their own learning,” Rajeev said.