7th April 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A student in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania began a service offering GED (General Education Diploma) tuition, originally to get her Girl Scout Gold Award. Julie Kohn was considering what to do for her project when she discovered that a friend had dropped out of high school, and so Julie resolved to help her friend get the GED.
Now at Bucknell University, Julie has continued the tutoring service in the Susquehanna Valley. The scheme finds adults in low income housing neighbourhoods, and pairs them with university students and professors. Lessons are offered for free by the state of Pennsylvania, but Julie says that those large classes don’t provide the same quality of teaching that her tutors ca provide in a one-to-one situation.
The service has received a lot of support, with a few companies donating free text books so that each student can study at home. The tutors say that there have been some challenges, such as asking students to turn off the television when studying, and simply getting them used to academic work again. But the students are generally very dedicated, which has helped to make Julie’s scheme a success.