This year, a new club called Scholars Pathway seeks to provide students more opportunities for academic success.
The new club consists of student tutors who give presentations and tutoring to other students in what Soorya Haravu, junior co-founder of Scholars Pathway, calls a “formal network of students” that takes into account the student experience.
“The thing is, oftentimes teachers don’t often understand how to teach from a student’s perspective, [while a] student [who] has already taken the class is more quick to answer questions the students might have because they’ve been in that scenario,” Haravu said. “Oftentimes […] it is more beneficial to be taught by a student, and a lot of times, when you ask your friends [they] are able to explain it better than [the] teacher would, because they also have the same problem.”
Students can scan QR codes that will be posted in every classroom in order to set up a meeting with a tutor in multiple subjects.
“We [cover] a wide variety of classes, basically anything you can think of in school: from science to English to math and all those courses,” Aarav Patel, co-founder and junior, said. “But we also like to have tutors that have exceptional skills in public speaking, organization, and time management because we understand that students, their academic success and their life successes as well, comes from these skills that aren’t exactly taught in school.”
These skills, according to Haravu, include how to study properly, how to take tests properly, how to get past a class, how to coordinate with your teacher, and more. One way the club teaches these concepts is through presentations to students during FAME classes, or guest speakers such as Toastmasters, a nonprofit organization that “builds confidence and teaches public speaking skills” according to their website.
“Throughout school we have students [who] are really active with grades, but they don’t focus on life skills that are essential for success past college and past high school,” Patel said. “So we really want to build that up as well and accommodate students, not only in the early years of high school, but also juniors and seniors as well, because we think it’s really essential to do that as well.”
Besides tutoring, presentations and guest speakers, the Scholars Pathway club will also be introducing AP info sessions, which are videos that provide preliminary information on AP courses for students. Something that the administration is “enthusiastic” about according to Haravu.
“The problem in the school [is that] students take AP classes that they’re not ready for, or students don’t know what maybe class entails. They don’t know the difficulty [and] there’s a lot of stuff they don’t know,” Haravu said. “So what the administration has instructed us to do is that great, short video for every single AP class, a short and enticing video that can basically detail from a student’s perspective what exactly this AP class entails. For example, you’re going to have a former AP alumni speak [in a] video about basically what the AP class entails, how exactly it’s like, [and which] students should take it. So I feel it’s very important.”
While he still believes that Scholars Pathway is a great resource, Haravu also notes that students should still approach their teacher.
“Most cases, you should reach out to your teachers, but there are often cases where you need to supplement that, and there are often times where you need a student [because they’ve] been through that same stuff,” Haravu said. “I mean, I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to your teacher. I’m saying this as a resource could be beneficial to a lot of students.”
Scholars Pathway will also, in the future, implement an awards system, similar to other clubs. However, it isn’t the main focus of the club.
[The awards system] rewards tutors that went above and beyond. We wanted to reward people who want really wanted to make their school a better place, a better place for students. So we found out the reward system would be. It’s what a lot of clubs do. We thought it would be a good idea. Once we get especially second semester, we’ll definitely start it,” Haravu said. It’s not supposed to motivate people to do more. It’s really supposed to reward people who truly want to make their school a better place. It’s a good bonus. It’s not but it’s not our focus. That’s what I’m trying to say. Okay,
To Patel, Scholars Pathway can also help provide something that may be missing in a lot of students’ lives: a mentor in the form of a peer.
“Throughout my, like high school career and even in middle school, I never really had, like an older brother or older sister or older sibling, or just like some mentor that I could go to that kind of has experienced High School and experienced just like how it is firsthand, because, you know, teachers are there, but it’s a lot more helpful if you have someone who’s gone through what you have. And so I realized that I’m not like the only one. There are also other people like me who don’t have, like, a mentor in the form of a peer. So we realize that peers are really essential. They’re like the right hand to many students and a lot of other students, or a lot of students, they sometimes don’t realize their true potential, because they might not have like, or they might not be aware of the opportunities, or they might not be or like, even if they’re trying to help another student, they just can’t express their abilities in some way, you know, because if someone is, you know, not really good at math, but they’re really good at. English or something niche, like computer. Science or like coding, they can help out someone.”