Connecting enthusiastic volunteers with passionate students
Study Buddies ~ Estudiamigos
We connect volunteer community members (high school or older) in the Santa Rosa and Sonoma area with elementary and middle schoolers for regular (and free) "buddyship" - a personalized combination of tutoring and mentoring. Buddies meet with students at least once a week to help with schoolwork, give general support and encouragement and have fun! The pandemic has exacerbated educational inequities and 1:1 support can really help students succeed and thrive. At Study Buddies, we work hard to train our buddies to be caring, responsible and attentive and we try to support buddies and families however we can.
1:1 Buddyship
Study Buddies helps community members connect with one another to form impactful and transformative 1:1 relationships. Through this relationship, buddies and students are both able to learn and grow. Now more than ever, students are missing out on personalized attention and support. A buddy can be a powerful and motivational role model. Check out our testimonials for more about this experience!
Community
Our program works because people in this community care about one another. Creating and nurturing community is important to us and we see buddyship as a way for people to connect in a meaningful and deep way. When buddies join our program they are initiated into a supportive and affirming community. We help buddies connect and support one another. We also work hard to support each family involved in our program, offering any advice and resources that we can.
Our Mission
Study Buddies models a bilingual, accessible, equity-oriented tutoring service, emphasizing personal connection as the foundation of educational and personal growth. At Study Buddies, we facilitate one-on-one connections between volunteer tutors and low-income students, who meet for tutoring and mentorship sessions on a weekly basis. Our hope is to reduce the education gap between students who can’t afford private tutoring and their wealthier counterparts, particularly during the COVID pandemic.
The struggle for low-income students to receive quality education is not a new one, and it will not be solved by remedial tutoring alone. Instead, we at Study Buddies are invested in a radical reimagination of what an empowered, intersectional, anti-racist society looks like. Accessible and connective educational programs like Study Buddies serve as a small but crucial component of this reimagining.