It’s 3:22 pm on a Monday. You’ve just spent the day toiling away in class after class, watching that same dull, black-and-white classroom clock on the wall lazily tick away, minute after minute, hour after hour. 3:23. You, along with the rest of your ninth-period class uniformly stand up, grab your backpack, and rush for the door. The following hours will be spent napping, eating, studying, and then, after a hurried night’s sleep, it all starts over again.
But what if there was a different place, a place you could go after school to escape the quiet misery of those interminable Monday evenings? What if you could spend that time helping others, talking with friends, and all the meanwhile earning volunteer hours? Well, allow me to introduce you to what may soon become your weekly after-school Monday refuge: Niles North’s Tutoring Club.
At 4 p.m. on the first day of each week, the club meets in the West Cafeteria. It is organized by Mr. Joffe, and its goal is to help grade elementary students improve in their schooling. Kids from North’s feeder schools come and work with high school students on math, reading, or anything else that they may need help with.
Tutoring Club is a great way to relax after enduring arguably the worst day of the week. Ever since I was invited to try it out by a friend about a year and a half ago, I have been a consistent participant. Not only does the club allow me to help others, something that I am very passionate about, but it also provides me the opportunity to spend time with fellow friends who go.
“I’ve been in the club for about a year,” junior Quinn Tratt said. “It’s a really good opportunity to hang out with my friends while also doing some good for the little kids.”
And, on top of this, you receive volunteer hours for each time you attend. The club meets for an hour, so if you have after-school lifts at 3:30 or another club that ends early, you can always come afterward.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of giving several tours to new transfer students, and during each one, I always stress that in my opinion, the true beauty of North lies squarely in the massive amount of wonderful opportunities it offers, both in and out of the classroom. Tutoring Club is a prime example of this, and I encourage anyone who is interested to try it out at least once.
