The Columbus School’s National Honor Society is inaugurating Boost Learning, a social service opportunity where High School students guide Elementary School students in distance learning through educational videos.

Students who volunteered began working on videos on September 9th, which will be published on a Youtube Channel created by the school. Boost Learning will help high school students struggling with social service requirements due to the pandemic, but also elementary students who are not exposed to English as frequently anymore.

“We found a way to have High School students help us by providing more opportunities for english exposure and to have kids work with other students,” Diana Mitchell, Early Years Principal, said.

By collaborating with principals, NHS created a rubric to evaluate how many social service hours a student will receive depending on the video’s overall quality, creativity, and material. Based on a 20/20 point scale, members will only be awarded the maximum of three social service hours if all the criteria is met.

“We want this program to be long term, that is why we are working with the scale, so that all members can complete their hours while actually contributing,” Isabel Mora, NHS President, said.

Initially, Boost Learning was aiming for tutoring only in High School. Yet, they noticed that High School Students were particularly expressing more interest towards working with Elementary Students. As a result, the program would integrate the TCS community despite distance learning.

“Our school is often really divided, and I think it is better when we teach younger kids because they will look up to you,” Andrea Cardona, NHS Communicator, said. 

The NHS board strived to find a way in which the program would allow all organization members to participate. At first, these videos would be done exclusively by NHS, but then they reached the conclusion that this would not allow a greater impact. The decision generated the creation of groups of approximately five volunteers, which would be assisted by an NHS member who is also responsible for grading their submissions.

“NHS always wants to take leadership in social service, but we knew that if we only included NHS members, not many videos could be made,” Juana Diez, NHS Vice-President, said.

Both school directives and NHS members want Boost Learning to be a long-term project, even when we return to campus. After all, high school students will be developing communication, media, and planning skills while elementary students can have an easier time in online classes.

“If it is hard for us to be on the computer all day, it must be even three times harder for them,” Cardona said.