Southwestern College senior and Leadership Southwestern member Andrew Topham, Peabody, will begin the SC-WHS Connect Math Tutoring Program, as part of his senior service project. This project will aid high school students who are struggling with math and science by providing tutors.

           
“When coming up with a project idea, I decided I wanted to help influence younger students to be more open and receptive to the subjects of math and science,” said Topham. 
             
Topham decided this program was needed by noticing numerous requests for math and science help in the Jinx Tale, a daily email sent to Southwestern faculty, staff, and students.  He began the project by collaborating with Diane McKinney, counselor at Winfield High School, on how it would operate. In addition, Topham said he received input from fellow students and from Ed Loeb, assistant professor of mathematics at Southwestern.
             
“I decided on enlisting volunteers to be tutors and have set up a pipeline with the high school to pair students with tutors,” Topham says.
               
The program will consist of pairing tutors with students. Southwestern students will fill out an information form, including which subjects they are comfortable tutoring. This information will be forwarded to McKinney at the high school. She in return will have a list of students and will match the students based on the information gathered from SC students. The parent’s of the students needing help will be responsible for setting up a time and place where the tutoring can take place. As of now, the tutoring will be at the high school library, during the high school student’s homeroom time.
           
“It’s my goal is that the project will continue beyond this year to provide a community service and learning opportunity for Southwestern students and quality mentoring as an educational aid to students at the high school,” said Topham.