It isn’t a rare occurrence to hear about a Staples student who turns to a tutor to help with an upcoming test or a hard homework assignment. It’s easy enough for them, as they can facetime a tutor, meet up at the library, or even text various questions. But, what happens when an elementary school student doesn’t understand their homework assignment? 

Fortunately enough, a new tutoring service opened in the Westport Public Library (WPL) where Staples students, in addition to eighth graders at Bedford and Coleytown Middle School, can volunteer their time to provide younger students assistance with their work for no charge. 

This program started on March 6 and will run through April 27. Seven student tutors run a booth in the children’s library open on the weekdays for any elementary kid to stop by during designated time slots.  

One of the student tutors, Elena Nasar ’27, has recently started volunteering and has seen its immediate success. 

“This gives the kids an opportunity to come in whenever since there are tutors here everyday,” Nasar said. “They don’t have to pay for it and they can still get good help.”

The program was originally voted on by the Teen Advisory Board: a group of local teens who meet at the library to discuss how the library can improve services for teens. The advisor of the board and WPL Teen Librarian, Jeanmarie Ryan, originally proposed the idea in their monthly meeting. 

 EJ Crawford, the WPL’s Marketing & Communications Director, said.

“I threw it out as an option for volunteer opportunities with the library and the Teen Advisory Board was really interested,” Ryan said. 

The program reflects the purpose of the WPL and its role of serving all members in the Westport community. 

“We strive to be a community gathering space, where people of all ages can come together to explore, think, learn and grow,”  EJ Crawford, the WPL’s Marketing & Communications Director, said. “Drop-in tutoring is a natural extension of that mission.”

Through its online advertising, parents of elementary kids have recognized the benefits of the service and the program has gained immediate popularity.

“It has really picked up recently,” Ryan said, “and what’s cool to me is the amount of time the tutors have devoted to individual students.”

The program continues to benefit the Westport environment through solidarity, not charity.   

 “It really encapsulates all the best of our area,” Crawford said, “which is Westporters giving of themselves to help fellow Westporters.”