By Carol Tannenhauser

If you are 14 or older, you can volunteer to become a tutor and positively affect two lives — that of a newly arrived or struggling public school student, and your own.

Listen to the words of a former volunteer tutor at The Koopersmith Family Literacy + Math Program at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, which is currently accepting applications for fall tutors.

The Koopersmith Family Literacy + Math Program offers two options for volunteers to support children in grades K–5, with time commitments starting at either 50 or 90 minutes per week.

Learn + Play: English Language Fun for Elementary School Students
Make a difference in the lives of elementary school new arrivals to NYC and English Language Learners in grades K–5. Learn + Play Tutors create opportunities for children ages 5–10 to have fun and develop their conversational proficiency in English, social skills, confidence, and sense of belonging and community. Programs will take place in person at Upper West Side schools.

School Day + Lunchtime Tutoring
Volunteer to support academically struggling students on the Upper West Side during the school day. All School Day + Lunchtime tutoring schedules start at one 50-minute session per week. JCC School Day Tutors provide elementary school students with targeted, individualized, and consistent academic support in literacy and/or math starting at one class period per week between 8 am–2:30 pm at PS 75. Lunchtime Tutors support students as reading buddies during lunch and recess at PS 84 and PS 163.

All Fall 2023 tutoring sessions will take place onsite at public schools on the Upper West Side. Tutoring sessions begin October 10 and run through May 16.