Over the past few months three South Salem upperclassmen, Luke Clifton ’21, Esha Puri ’21 and Pranav Ramesh ’21, have founded and run a free online tutoring program for students throughout the state of Oregon.
Connect Oregon Students works by connecting high school upperclassmen to other students who may be struggling with their transition to online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea was created when the three founders noticed that they personally were struggling to adjust to the new learning platform and figured that other students are likely facing the same issues.
“We were having trouble with adapting to online school, it wasn’t anything the teachers were doing, it was just a huge change for us to manage. So, we thought that if we were experiencing a difficult time transitioning to online learning then other kids have to be experiencing the same thing,” Clifton told the Clypian.
Initially working as a service for Salem Keizer students, Connect Oregon Students saw a lot of its user base come from local elementary schools.
“We were able to get in touch with some principals of local elementary schools right away… like lamb elementary. The principal Ms. Cochrane sent it out to her students so we got a bunch of students from Lamb,” Puri said.
When a student joins Connect Oregon Students, whether it’s for tutoring or even just peer-support, they are contacted and then assigned to the volunteer that makes the best fit. This is based on a number of things including age, what the student’s specific needs are and what the tutor can offer. This is done in order to ensure that students are as successful as possible.
ConnectOregonStudents has a goal of supplying educational support to all students across Oregon during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connect Oregon Students website
When the program began it had just a handful of students from South Salem and West Salem High School working as volunteers. Due to its early success, Connect Oregon Students expanded to incorporate students from throughout the state. Since this state wide expansion the team boasts volunteers from all over Oregon, and serves Oregonian students in a variety of school districts.
At the end of August they began two new campaigns, Vigor for Vitality and TougherTogether. These two campaigns were designed to help “combat mental health struggles and unhealthy eating habits,” according to their website. These programs will work to provide peer support for students struggling with mental health.
With the spirit of connecting all Oregon students, we want to ensure that students of all backgrounds are able to have a healthy school life, despite not being able to access some of the essential resources relied upon during a traditional year.
Connect Oregon Students website
The founders believe that volunteer hours gained through a program like Connect Oregon Students are especially valuable in a world where traditional volunteer opportunities are scarce in the shadow of a global pandemic.
“We just ask that volunteers are Juniors and Seniors. One of the biggest incentives is that you get volunteer hours for this. You can put volunteer hours towards NHS, Key Club, just your general resume and it’s a good opportunity considering that a lot of in person volunteering has been cancelled,” Ramesh explained.
In order to apply for either tutoring, peer-support or a volunteer position simply visit the Connect Oregon Students web page and follow the appropriate tab. After providing some basic information you will be contacted by the team with more information.
As the trio graduate they have plans to pass on the program to students in subsequent classes in order to keep this resource alive.
“We definitely want to continue the program because we think it’s a good place for students to get help with not only their studies but also peer-support, so their mental well being,” Puri said. “We think it’s a good connection between older Juniors and Seniors and younger elementary students that we previously didn’t have. So we will run it through this year and then after that we will be looking for new people to host and run the program when we’re gone.”
