Story Behind PupilPrep
By Depa Saha
I migrated from Bangladesh to the South Bronx almost seventeen years ago. I went to P.S. 106, my zoned elementary school, and it was a five-minute walk from my apartment. During the school day, there was this woman that would shout at the top of her lungs outside the school with a bullhorn downgrading the school; She soon came to be the ‘bull-horn lady.’ She would talk about the below-average test scores and school community, which made the students and parents doubt themselves and automatically assume they were ‘stupid’ or ‘could not be helped.’
I wanted to create a tutoring program in my old elementary school in 2019. It would focus on providing these disadvantaged students with free tutoring from high school and college students along with an opportunity to engage themselves in extracurriculars such as drama and creative writing. After pitching the idea in parent-teacher association meetings and to the administrators, they all agreed this program would greatly benefit their students. The parents and administration loved the idea. Nonetheless, the teachers automatically rejected this proposal due to the lack of funds.
With the pandemic, I saw my sister struggle with the new learning environment that limits academic resources and material. Thus, I thought about the tutoring program again. PupilPrep was officially created early last year as an organization made to help elementary and middle school students with financial and language barriers get the extra help they need. Public schools are underfunded and racial equity is the issue at the bottom of the list, which affects BIPOC students in these low-income and high-minority schools the hardest. PupilPrep works to bring meaningful change to these issues by providing free help to students by providing virtual lessons.
Our mentors are outgoing high schoolers and college students ready to help these students. But why high school and college students? Very often, students experience discomfort from asking teachers for additional assistance to not knowing whom to go for help. Our mentors were in their seats not too long ago, so they can put themselves in their stories and see how they might be viewing the information we are teaching. They have things they wish teachers implemented in the classroom such as different teaching styles. The goal is for our mentees to be comfortable enough to voice their concerns and tell their mentors when they don’t understand anything and need more guidance. More than 80% of our mentors speak a language other than English to accommodate students with language barriers.
PupilPrep has been making an impactful difference in our communities these past nine months and will continue to create lasting bonds to provide some extra help for our students to succeed as our mentors will be their support system. At first, PupilPrep was struggling to gain traction; we had around five mentees and ten mentors. As the word spread across social media and in schools, we reached around 400 mentors and over 600 mentees internationally in our three sessions. 65% of our mentees’ families identified themselves as low income. In donations, we have accumulated over $1,000 to give back to our mentees through material subscriptions along with filing to become a tax-exempt organization. As we get feedback from our sessions, we continue to smile and grow. One of our parents testified, “My child loves his mentor; he wants to have breakfast with her one day.” One of our mentors also testified, “We would always talk about our daily lives. We would talk for about an hour and we would never notice how fast time flew.” We find these stories so wholesome and pure, and we hope to hear more.
We strive to ensure inclusive, equitable education for all as everyone deserves to get a quality education no matter their background. In our future sessions, we hope to reach more disadvantaged communities and continue to make an impactful difference.
