UF expands resources for high school tutoring via new partnership with Tutor Matching Service
A new partnership between the University of Florida and Tutor Matching Service has created the first-ever opportunity for high school students across Florida to be tutored online by skilled and certified UF tutors.
UF runs a robust tutoring program for its own students at the Broward Teaching Center, and this partnership makes available this type of service statewide for K-12 students who would like to book a private tutor.
The new tutoring resource is an addition to the resources offered by the U Matter, We Care Initiative which was launched at UF in 2011. The initiative was founded to provide students in distress with coordinated support and increased access to a wide variety of resources to improve student success.
“Our new community tutoring initiative provides a way for us to impact the K-12 community, and it also affords our UF students with important job skills and experience. We are looking forward to expanding our tutoring reach to Gainesville as well as the rest of Florida,” said Leslie Pendleton, director of UF’s Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program.
UF students who wish to become tutors can sign up online. All approved tutors must pass a background check, enrollment verification and conduct record check by UF staff. Tutors can be booked for an online or in-person tutoring session.
Minors wishing to hire a tutor are required to have parental permission and use a parent credit card to book a session. Searching by subject such as “AP Chemistry,” a list of eligible tutors will appear. Parents and students can then message or instantly book the perfect tutor. Online tutoring sessions can also be facilitated through an integrated and easy-to-use online tutoring platform called GoBoard.
“We are thrilled to be working with the University of Florida on this initiative. We have worked hard over the years to bring a user-friendly mobile app, quality messaging and booking systems, and intelligent calendar integration to colleges and universities across the country that strive to help their communities. We believe that this technology will be a huge benefit to the U Matter, We Care initiative and the wider Florida community,” said Katie Funk, assistant director of Tutor Matching Service.
To learn more about the UF Community Tutoring Initiative, become a tutor or book a session, go to http://www.umatter.ufl.edu/resources/tutoring
About U Matter, We Care
Founded in 2011, U Matter, We Care serves as UF’s umbrella initiative for UF’s caring culture and provides students in distress with support and coordination of the wide variety of appropriate resources. Families, faculty and students can contact umatter@ufl.edu seven days a week for assistance.
About Tutor Matching Service
Tutor Matching Service (TMS) is the preferred online tutoring partner of colleges and universities across the country. TMS was created in 2009 to help university learning centers facilitate tutoring to improve student learning outcomes and graduation rates, at no cost to schools. TMS is used in a variety of ways at different institutions, but is often used by parents to hire online or in-person college tutors for their children in high school. Learn more at www.tutormatchingservice.com.