Tennis and Tutoring is an afterschool program dedicated to nurturing students hearts, muscles, and minds. Our program is provided completely free to our participants and has been doing work in Salt Lake City since 2008. We currently have commitments at three school sites this coming year and are hoping to add a fourth very soon. Each site will require the support of a minimum of 5 volunteer tutors who will be grouped with a small group of 2-3 students to help in the classroom. Tutors who can assist on the court will support our tennis pro working with groups on court, 12 students at a time.
Here are the sites we are currently recruiting volunteers for:
1. Liberty Park Tennis Center in Salt Lake City. Twenty-four sudents are bussed to and from nearby Lincoln Elementary School. The students are grades 1 through 6. The program runs afterschool 2 days per week from 3:00pm to 5pm. Tutors work with our Classroom Instructor to deliver an art enrichment and leadership development curriculum. Lincoln Elem. is a Title 1 school and a very low-income area.
2. Hillside Elementary School, West Valley City. We will work at Hillside Elementary from 4-6 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays starting the week of September 12. This school is not Title I but has many students who do qualify for free or reduced lunch and who will benefit greatly from having a safe, encouraging, healthy place to spend their afterschool hours. Volunteers at this site who attend Granger, Cyprus, Kearns, or Hunter High schools may be able to apply for a small scholarship at the end of their service at this location.
3. West Valley Elementary School, West Valley City. This program site will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-6pm beginning the week of September 12. Like Hillside Elementary, this school is not Title I but has many students who do qualify for free or reduced lunch and who will be great candidates for the program. Similarly to Hillside, volunteers at this site who attend Granger, Cyprus, Kearns, or Hunter High schools may be able to apply for a small scholarship at the end of their service at this location.
Classroom volunteer tutors work with our Classroom Instructor to implement our creative, fun, and educational curriculum. In the classroom, we work with the principals at each site to ensure that our academic support ties directly to the student's needs, so each site may have different focuses during the "tutoring" part of their afterschool time. On the court (or in the school gym or playground), we use the USTA's 10 and Under Tennis methodology to help even the youngest beginners get started in the game.
I really appreciated getting to spend one-on-one time with the students. I got to know my kids really well and I honestly feel like I made a difference with them. At the end of the year ceremony, all the kids told each tutor how much they appreciated the opportunity we had given them, that made it all worth it for all of us. - Hannah Al-Mugbel, Salt Lake City, Utah
