High School Tutor Turned UPchieve Student: Meet Ayodele
It’s always a wonderful thing when your users can utilize the platform to its fullest extent. This was true for Ayodele (Ayo), a high school tutor turned UPchieve student on our platform!
While searching for volunteer opportunities, Ayo came across UPchieve and decided that it would be a great use of his time to give back to students and assist those who need that extra academic support. Little did he know he would need the platform too, as a high school senior eager to graduate and chase his dreams of going to college.
As a high school tutor, Ayo coached students in subjects ranging from Algebra 2 to SAT Reading and College Essays. A student shared, “He was very nice and patient with me when I didn't know how to do anything .” They wrote. “He really helped me find the answers I needed.”
I had the pleasure of chatting with Ayo about his transformative story. He shared great insights on how UPchieve is the future of education for many students, and how he attributes UPchieve to his mathematic successes in high school and beyond.
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT UPCHIEVE?
I was actually trying to look for volunteer hours, and I found UPchieve and saw that the tutoring style was very simple and easy. And from there, I eventually became a tutor on it and I really enjoyed it a lot. I really appreciated the feedback the students gave me, so much so that I eventually ended up using it myself! I took away a lot more from the service than I expected, which I'm very grateful for.
WHAT ABOUT UPCHIEVE STOOD OUT TO YOU?
There were very few services like UPchieve, so I had to do some digging, but mostly through just the inner ways of the internet. Specifically, I observed that the platform was very easy and flexible. I can set my own hours, and the most compelling thing is that since I was in the National Honor Society, I needed to produce volunteer hours. UPchieve made it very easy for me to produce those hours!
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE THAT YOU NEEDED ACADEMIC HELP?
There were certain things that I felt like I could get help with, specifically math, and I figured that I could probably reverse things. I thought maybe I should be the person needing the tutoring. And so one day, I just made another account for myself as a student! And instantly, I really liked all of the feedback that I was getting. I felt like I was understanding more at a constant speed.
Can you tell me about a memorable session you had? As a student, volunteer, or both?
As a volunteer, I remember helping a student that had an essay or something. I was able to help her and I would never forget that. She was like, “Oh, thank you so much, you got me out of a bind!” It made me feel so good because it's always nice knowing that you helped change something significant in someone's life. Even if it's just like, hey, now I can get an A in this class. It's always a good feeling to know that you can help someone.
What are the high school tutors like on UPchieve and how did they help you succeed?
The coaches seem to be unlike any other services that I generally see. They almost feel like professors or something! It feels like they're almost like one of us. Like, me, I can almost see myself in them. They’re not too serious or anything, so it’s almost like they're more representative of the average person, I feel. And they're very relatable! They communicate. They don't really communicate as blocky as some other people do, honestly. They just speak English.
Have you ever seen any improvement in your grades or your academic performance as a whole with the help of UPchieve tutors?
When I started getting tutoring help, I was in the IB program so I was preparing for a big test, the IB exams. So specifically with my math grade, I got a five out of seven, which is a very good score! I do attribute that to my tutoring because I used the platform a lot in the weeks leading up to my test. And then now I'm in college, there's a lot of algebra-based stuff and I've been getting better grades on my homework now!
DO YOU THINK THAT MORE STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT UPCHIEVE?
Most definitely. I remember I wrote about this in my college essay. I think that every school district should have a mandate that this be part of the tutoring system because I think it's a very easy and effective tutoring system to implement and have people use. I also think it will bring people's grades up very much, too, mostly because of ease and the fact that there's not really a bureaucracy. You don't have to pay anything, you can just sign up and you can get the help you need at any time of the day!
Sometimes you don't have your teachers there, your parents, or your friends. Sometimes it just takes, getting up at three in the morning and saying, hey, I need to get help with this problem so let me hit UPchieve real quick! So I think that ability is very cool.
tell me more about what you're doing now. Are you in college? what's going on with your life?
I currently go to Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, which is around an hour and a half from Houston. I'm currently a freshman and I’m a member of the Corps of Cadets at the university, one of the oldest traditions at the university. I'm a general engineering major, but next year I will hopefully be majoring in computer science, and that's what I hope to get a degree in once I graduate!
Final Thoughts
Looking for your own high school tutor? Looking for ways to get community service hours? Do both apply to you? Then sign up for UPchieve today!