Tutor Experience at Metro Achievement Program

Abstract

Midtown Educational Foundation (MEF)  is a non-profit with the mission to guide low-income urban youth in Chicago along pathways of success. MEF has two centers; Midtown for Boys and Metro for Girls. The focus of this study is on Metro specifically. 

Volunteers play a key role in the organization’s mission. MEF  enlists hundreds of volunteers to provide individual attention to students across 7-grade levels. The educational impact of Metro plays out on two levels. On one level, marginalized students benefit from one-on-one attention from college students and professionals who volunteer their time as tutors and mentors. On another level, these volunteers are exposed, many for the first time,  to the trials of underserved youth, especially the disparity in educational resources and systems, a chasm that has increased during the Covid pandemic. 

There is an opportunity to build on this symbiotic educational relationship between volunteer and student such that volunteers are inspired to draw from their experience working with students at Metro to seek ways to promote social impact in their professional sphere of influence. Since volunteer onboarding, training and engagement are activities through which the desired educational goals will be learned and shared, it is essential to understand how volunteers currently experience these activities.