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By: Christine Ascher (Student/Writer/Tutor)
What initially made you interested in finding one-on-one tutoring for your child?
We started with Claremont Tutors during Lizzie’s freshman year in 2016. She was going into higher level English and Math, and felt like she might need more support than what she would receive in school. She had been talking to her cousins and they told her that when they started high school they needed some extra help, and that having some additional support would make her experience easier. She had a goal of 3.5 for her GPA every year because she already had an idea of where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do, so I decided to look into tutoring.
How did you find out about Claremont Tutors? Was there anything that made them stand out to you?
I belong to a Claremont Facebook page and there was a whole thread about tutors with multiple people commenting on it. There were about two or three places that people had used, so I went online and looked at reviews. Then I called Alicia and spoke to her. Her personality was great and she was really interested in getting the right tutor for Lizzie.
Did you notice Lizzie’s attitude or approach towards school change at all after she started working with tutors?
I think tutoring helped give her more confidence in pursuing new challenges. After her freshman year when she got an A in English, she was told she could go into AP English. I think her experience working with tutors gave her the confidence to say that, even though she wasn’t sure about doing AP English, she would try it. Then, when she did take the class, or took on other challenges like that, it was a huge accomplishment. It made her realize that she could do more than she thought she could.
Do you think that working with our tutors has helped her grow in areas beyond just her grades or performance in school?
Definitely! It’s helped her gain the confidence to stand up for what she wants in life and has strengthened her ability to make decisions. I don’t think she would have otherwise had the self-assurance to make some of the decisions that she’s made so far after high school graduation. She’s become much more outgoing.
Do you think that being able to work with college students in particular was beneficial?
Totally; I think because her tutors are closer in age it’s almost like she’s working with a peer. When you work with someone a lot older, you might feel like they’re telling you what to do rather than working with you. I remember being that age and having older tutors because that’s all there was; there weren’t a lot of college-age tutors. Lizzie’s on the younger side of our family so she’s used to interacting with adults—I call her an old soul in a young body—but the young adults who she’s worked with are really more like some of her peers.
Are there any moments or accomplishments of Lizzie’s that stand out to you since she started working with Claremont Tutors?
I think during this final semester, with what everyone had to go through because of Covid, she wouldn’t have done as well if she hadn’t still been able to do tutoring online. Using the whiteboard, and even just having the occasional FaceTime call so she could show her work, was really helpful. Lizzie got straight A’s this semester, so that was great.
I also think that the great thing about working with Claremont Tutors was that even if your regular tutor was on vacation or wasn’t available, they would still try to find somebody who could work with you on those emergency occasions. They have a lot of tutors available and a large range of subjects that they can tutor. I would call Alicia in a panic when our regular tutors weren’t available, and she would always reassure me that they would find somebody. In the end, it always worked out.
The tutoring has also been helpful just because she always had someone there who could provide backup if she needed more help than usual. Having the flexibility if she needed an extra hour to go over a certain topic one week, or if she didn’t need to meet one week because there was no new material, was great. Especially with some of the challenges that she’s faced in the last year, it was really valuable for her to have the extra support.
Lizzie has been asking me if she can keep Claremont Tutors when she goes to college, and I told her “of course!”. She’s going to Citrus and doing an A.S. in Biology through the Honors Program, and then she’s going to transfer to UC-Davis, so we’re very excited for her!