Peer Tutoring Club Gains Popularity

In 2020, California districts reportedly had roughly ⅓ of their students fail at least one class. Morro Bay High School has found a solution for that problem, called the Peer Tutoring Club, a club for students struggling in their classes to get help from their peers. Orion Rea is the original founder of the club. Founded at the end of last school year, 2022-23, it has become more popular throughout this year so far. Karen Lun and Orion are the co-presidents of peer tutoring and asked a few other people to help out and tutor.

A fellow sophomore, Maggie Appel, is one of the tutors for the club. I asked her how being a tutor in the peer tutoring club has helped both her and the students. In response, “It’s been a great opportunity to be even more a part of our school and help our school with a need that definitely was evident last year when Orion had this idea. It’s been really rewarding for me and the other tutors to see the club grow and I think a lot of students are definitely benefiting.” The club has helped many students around MBHS during meetings, and has recently expanded to two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, during lunch in Mr. Turner’s room. “We just recently expanded to 2 days a week, and have seen more students come as the year has progressed…around 1-20 students have come every week” says Maggie Appel.

Peer tutoring offers help for all classes including math, English, science, history, etc., and they hope to further that and help with electives as well. But you may ask, why should I go to peer tutoring when I could ask a professional?  “With peers they tend to be able to explain the concepts in a way that is easier to understand than a professional would, because they are at the same level and are learning the same things.” says a current peer tutoring club attendee. “They can understand what did and didn't work for them and use that information to help others.” Professional tutors are also typically quite expensive to pay for, so having the opportunity to be tutored by your peers for free is great! The Peer Tutoring club is still growing and expanding but so far has helped a lot of students with work for difficult classes. “I’m really happy with how it’s been going!” Maggie Apell.