The Matching Process
By Aidan Chui
SNTutoring is run by our team of nine volunteer coordinators: two parents, one college student, and six high school students. SNTutoring was founded by FCSN members during quarantine when they decided that the pandemic limited the usual crucial interactions that FCSN’s neurodiverse students had. However, this wasn’t just for FCSN members, as SNTutoring is open to anyone who is interested. The virtual platform makes it convenient for anyone who would like to participate and contribute.
All statistics are organized with the platform Zoho. As of 5/3/2024, we have 134 active classes. Since the beginning of the program, we have had 733 classes.
Once a student or tutor puts in a request for a match, their request stays in our database. Some criteria for a successful match include the available times of both parties as well as subjects of interest. We have classes that span a wide range of STEM and humanities subjects.
The matching process could be instant or take a few weeks, but once we have made the student-tutor match, we contact them swiftly.
The tutor will be responsible for contacting the parent in regards to class times, frequency, and platform. In our introduction email, we will include questions that both parties answer, so they get to know each other.
After this point, our main role will be support. Our core team doesn’t oversee every class, but we have platforms and weekly check-in emails that will hold tutors accountable to their promises. We will, however, provide class resources, ideas, and answer any questions if needed. It is a comprehensive library, and we have experienced tutors contribute to it for engaging classes. There will also be occasional celebratory events that may be in person or virtual.
The most common problem we run into as the coordination team is the class tracking and the payment process. The many late-to-no class tracking entries and payments make it difficult for us to approve volunteers’ hours and fully support FCSN programs. We are trying to take new measures and implement new policies to avoid these inconveniences, which is part of our goal of continually finding ways to improve and enhance our program.
SNTutoring 