Students are creating free tutoring services to help during COVID-19

Alex Yan and Arvin Ding, seniors at Irvine’s Portola High School, have held free weekly in-person tutoring sessions for elementary and middle school students since they started their organization Math at the Library in 2017.

When COVID-19 hit, their team of high schoolers quickly transitioned to online tutoring and later banded together with two other student volunteer organizations — Girls Empowering Girls, founded by Annette Yuan, a junior at Irvine High School, which offers one-on-one English conversation practice with language learners, and Code Champion, a coding class Ding started with his sophomore sister Cindy Ding — to form the nonprofit StudySmart Youth Services.