Want to take an extracurricular virtual class or need online tutoring?
Just ask for a Hand.
At Youth Hand in Hand, students are the teachers — teaching fellow students. Founded by Mountain View High School junior Spencer Chang, the organization is a nonprofit designed to create educational opportunities through free virtual classes and academic tutoring.
All classes and tutoring sessions are free of charge.
When COVID-19 shut down schools in March, Chang found free time to teach his younger sister scratch coding. That turned into offering free services online for peers during the pandemic.
Fast forward months later, and Youth Hand in Hand has 20 teen instructors across Clark County high schools. They’ve taught 15 virtual classes and estimated they’ve reached 400 students through classes and tutoring.
“Now,” Chang said, “we’re working on keeping steady and maybe growing bigger in the future. ”
For Chang and his staff of student teachers, their goal is elementary: teach, learn and share experiences in a creative way. Classes offered include coding, competitive math, SAT/ACT prep, physical sciences, and even creative writing and music production.
Tutoring sessions feature an array of academic subjects, including English, physical sciences, web development, math and writing. They recently expanded tutoring to one-on-one sessions, and the most popular virtual class attended continues to be coding.
“I think the coding classes resonate really well with the kids,” said Mountain View student Noah Le, also a teacher and also the organization’s social media coordinator.
As a class teacher, Le, a Mountain View junior, said he’s enjoyed the flexibility of tailoring classes to how he wants them to be. It’s just as flexible for students, too, he added.
“All of them can take something out of the classes, but it’s what you want to put into it,” he said.
Not only have they seen students benefit, but it’s been a rewarding experience for the teen teachers, too. Frank Wu, another Mountain View junior, said he’s developed better leadership, speaking and communication skills, and believes peer-to-peer tutoring and teaching has its advantages.
“Having that student-to-student relationship is sometimes more helpful because it’s more personal and you get to connect with them better,” Wu said.
Chang and the staff already are thinking big picture in the months ahead, and have no plans to call it quits whenever the pandemic ends.
In fact, it might just be the beginning.
“It’d be nice to expand it and keep it going so we have a torch to pass on,” Chang said. “When we graduate, people can keep on doing these classes, and just use this program to help people that need it.”
