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By Nancy Schroeder

Strong Foundations

A young black man in a blue sweatshirt sits across from an older man in short sleeves. The young man is leaning over a piece of paper, reading.
Caleb and Brian look over some homework.

Meet tutoring duo Caleb and Brian. Caleb was in fourth grade when the two began meeting over zoom due to COVID restrictions; they now meet weekly in person.

Caleb is a current eighth grader and is as sweet as they come. He spoke to how he got started at Learning Edge–he struggled in math and reading. He described how “Mr. Brian” gained the trust of both Caleb’s mom and Caleb himself as they got to know one another. Caleb said that Brian is good at “narrowing things down” for him.

Brian is a physician by day and he got involved as a tutor after his oldest daughter had volunteered as a Learning Edge tutor throughout high school. “The fact that she had three years with the same student and got to know them attracted me to Learning Edge,” Brian explained. Now Brian and Caleb are working on their own four-year relationship, and Brian says he enjoys “exploring with Caleb what his strengths are and where he has opportunities.”

One such opportunity early on was in math. When asked how they worked on math, Brian produced a stack of flash cards and they both said “math facts.” The two drilled math facts frequently and Brian said he recalled a moment that it seemed to “just click” for Caleb. Math facts have formed a foundation for advanced math skills and now Caleb’s confidence and grades in math are solid.

A white man and a tall black boy stand next to one another, posing for the camera and laughing.
Tutor Brian and Eighth Grader Caleb

From relationships to academic skills, we look forward to seeing how these two continue to build upon the strong foundations they’ve set as Caleb heads into high school next year!

Filed Under: News, People and Places, Spotlight: Volunteers, Students, & Staff

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Learning Edge is a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides free one-to-one tutoring to more than 100 students primarily in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s West Side

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