Welcome to REACH - Groton High School

Team Leader: Charlie Hernandez (cdh83@cornell.edu)

Site Supervisor: Eric Hartz, Principal

Location: Groton, New York (a 25 minute drive from Cornell)

Description: REACH has been active at Groton High School since January of 2008. The relatively new nature of the program allows tutors to be creative in truly impacting the site's direction. The time commitment involved is from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. We allow approximately 30 minutes for travel each way and tutor at the site from 2-4pm. The Public Service Center allows us to use its van for transportation, a great convenience that makes for great bonding time with fellow tutors. We visit our site from Tuesday through Thursday.

The students we work with are from grades 9-12. However, a major focus is with freshmen students. From 2-2:45, we tutor in various study hall sessions. As tutors, we can plan fun and educational activities for the students. For instance, last spring we created an international music session where we played various songs from international artists and asked the students to get involved and express their opinions. We are hoping to plan more fun activities for the future and would welcome any suggestions. From 2:45-4pm, we tutor in the library. Students from all grades attend and we help in subjects including Math, English, and Spanish.

REACH at Groton High School is a collaboration with the Upward Bound program (contact Tamara Button) as well the Rural Schools Mathematics Tutoring Program of the
Cornell Math Department (contact Mary Ann Huntley). Our tutors work with Upward Bound students at Groton on Tuesday during After School and all students who are interested in tutoring on Wednesday and Thursday. The tutors from the Math Department work with us, tutoring students specifically in mathematics.

Tutoring at Groton High School is a great experience. The teachers we work with as well as the principal, Mr. Hartz, are all very enthusiastic. The students are also very friendly and the other tutors are loads of fun! Overall it is a rewarding experience and really gives insight into the issues facing rural schools and students today.