Community Service Grant Winner Updates: Stephanie Flamen

Stephanie Flamen, age 16, is a natural born leader. She exudes confidence and lights up when talking about the afterschool art program she started at St. Elizabeth Seton School to supplement the school's art curriculum. This winter, Stephanie received a $600 grant from the Tutor Corps Foundation to support the program and purchase art supplies.

Class attendance numbers have more than doubled since the program started this fall. There were 12 students in the first class and 15 in the next, then up to 20 and 25. Now the class has up to 40 students. Stephanie says she usually has anywhere from two to five friends from Castilleja High School, where she is currently a sophomore, come in and help run the class for 3rd and 4th graders at St. Elizabeth once every two weeks.

Summer Civic Engagement Classes for Middle School Students

The Center for Civic Engagement at Lick-Wilmerding High School is offering unique community service opportunities for middle school students this summer. The Tutor Corps Foundation has contributed grant money to Lick students involved in the Center for Civic Engagement.

The week-long programs for 6th through 8th graders combine community service with the hands-on learning at Lick's extensive shop facilities. Participating students will learn how to design and fabricate projects for public purposes, and document and their service projects via social media.

The classes will run from July 9th through July 20th. For more information, visit this link. The registration deadline is April 30th.

NEW Summer Options with Tutor Corps

It may only be March now, but summer is quickly approaching! Check out the new Summer Options with Tutor Corps to browse various academic packages available for students interested in taking advantage of those summer hours to hone skills like writing, language, reading and test prep.

Our Enrichment Programs and regular One-on-One or Dual Tutoring sessions can be scheduled at any time during the summer to accommodate for busy vacation and travel schedules. At the end of the summer, Tutor Corps hosts Skills Workshops at various Bay Area schools for students who want to get a running start before the Fall semester. Our workshops at the Menlo School in Atherton are aimed at middle school students and our workshops at Marin Academy High School in San Rafael cater to rising 9th and 10th graders.

When you're ready to sign-up, fill out and submit our online forms, or feel free to Contact Us for more details. Happy Planning!

Happy Valentine's Day, from Chapel!

Thanks to our TC student Emma Capps for helping everyone feel the holiday love! For more from Chapel, check out her Chronicles here.

Announcing TCF's Winter 2011 Grant Winners!

This past winter, the Tutor Corps Foundation received a record number of top-notch applicants for our Community Service Grants. It was a difficult decision, but we finally decided on the top three grant winners, who received a total of $1,600 (combined) to help them work toward their service goals. Please help us congratulate this season’s winners and their winning projects, which are described in detail below. For more information on how to apply for one of Tutor Corps’ Community Service Grants, please click here.

Project Title: Musicians Fixing the Cove
Grantee: Ben Werdeger
Associated School: Menlo School, Atherton

Fourteen year-old environmental activist Ben Werdeger started his project, called Musicians Fixing the Cove, to help stop the slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan aka “The Cove.” Werdeger hopes that, with the help of grants and other community efforts, he can garner support from more musicians to play live music in Taiji and bring attention to the killings.

“Thank you so much for the honor and trust you're giving me to end the dolphin slaughter. It's time to take a stand, and I'm more ready than ever to do so. Many people have spent their entire lives trying to stop this, but it still remains. This will not be an easy mission, but I will never give up hope. And that is a promise to the Tutor Corps Foundation,” Werdeger wrote in an email.

TC's Teacher of the Year Buys 3D Printer for Classroom

Tutor Corps' Teacher of the Year, Christine Mytko, used part of her $1,500 award to purchase a brand new 3D printer for her science classroom at Black Pine Circle. So cool! Check out the Kickstarter video here to see what the 3D printer can do!

Congratulations to our Tutor Corps Teacher of the Year Award winner: Christine Mytko!

Teacher of the Year, Ms. Christine Mytko

Christine Mytko teaches Upper School Science and technology at Black Pine Circle School in Berkeley. She holds a B.S. in the Teaching of Biology from the University of Illinois, and a M.S. in Advanced Education with a focus on Science and Technology from Northwestern University. Christine taught science in public high school and middle school for many years in Illinois, where she was affectionately known as the resident tech “geek.” 

Here in the Bay Area, she splits her time between Black Pine Circle School, various EdTech consulting projects, and teaches online courses through Northwestern’s Gifted Learning Links. Christine also sponsors both Black Pine Circle School’s Yearbook and Improv Comedy clubs. She has twice won the Exploratorium’s Iron Science Teacher competition- as seen on the Exploratorium Webcast titled “Triangles.”