The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
‘EMPOWER CNY’
2 teens create tutor program providing free services for students grades K-8
CANASTOTA, N.Y. » Shouldn’t all students who need help have access to it? A group of tenacious teenagers believe so and are working together to provide more equitable and accessible academic support outside the classroom for all students across CNY.
The volunteer studentrun tutor program, called Empower CNY, was started in July 2020 by Canastota resident, Sravan Kodali, and his friend, Sam Lustig, both current 10thgrade students at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse.
Their goal was simple: provide students with an equal opportunity to succeed, especially given the challenges in the middle of a pandemic.
Combining together their passion to help, expertise in various subjects, and know-how of group strategy and communication, Kodali and Lustig created Empower CNY, serving just one tutee to begin with, then slowly growing to around 10 students presently.
“I’ve always helped my brother with his work,” Lustig remarked. “He was a 6th grader when we were starting [the program]. He was struggling a lot during quarantine,” he shared.
Tutoring his brother turned out to be a positive
“Knowing that there’s someone by your side, someone who’s been through it and someone who can help you, makes a really big difference in not only motivation to keep on going, but also, just feeling better.”
— Maddy Massa, tutor and director at Empower
experience for both of them. “It was really fun, and he liked doing it, so I thought that [Sravan and I] could definitely make an impact with other kids like I did my brother,” Lustig explained.
A friend and fellow student, Maddy Massa, also a sophomore at Christian Brothers Academy, joined the program as a tutor shortly after the program’s creation. She now also serves as a director for the team along with Kodali and Lustig.
Through Empower CNY, high school volunteers are linked together with students seeking cost-free academic support. Any student in grades K-8 can apply to receive guidance in core subjects like English, math, history, Spanish, and science. More specialized subjects could also be accommodated depending on tutors’ specialties—just ask when signing up.
For right now, the organization functions completely online, offering a professional website, created by Kodali and Lustig, as a landing page for both tutors, tutees, and parents. Tutees receive one-on-one support in the online platform, but eventually, Empower hopes to branch out into local libraries, particularly in Oneida and Canastota, to provide a more cohesive group experience.
The trio has taken great strides to offer students the best experience possible. “We are harboring a safe environment,” Massa commented. Every video session is monitored, with Kodali and Lustig frequently checking in.
Additionally, the group has connected with Syracuse’s Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), an academic support service for high schoolers, to gain valuable insight and to strengthen Empower CNY’S framework. “We do have a lot of common goals with STEP, and a lot of it involves a personal connection to the kids,” Massa explained. “We met with [STEP] recently, and they were able to communicate to us kind of what they’ve been doing and what they suggest for us, and just establishing our own connection with STEP ourselves.”
While academics are important, Empower CNY understands that there are many other ways to lend a hand. The program is as much about mentorship and connection as it is about learning and comprehension, the group said.
“I have noticed, as I’m tutoring myself, the impact that we have made so far,” Massa commented. “I remember one day it was our last session before Halloween, and [my tutee] told her mom that she didn’t want to go trick or treating, that she wanted to have another tutoring session instead.” It’s moments like these that remind Massa, Kodali, and Lustig that their efforts are worth it. That, and seeing their students’ grades improve, of course.
There’s a certain comradery shared between kids of the same age sharing a grade-school experience, the teenagers explained. It can be a powerful bond. “Knowing that there’s someone by your side, someone who’s been through it and someone who can help you, makes a really big difference in not only motivation to keep on going, but also, just feeling better,” Massa remarked.
A pandemic was the last thing on a kid’s mind, she said. The best way to get through it is together. “I always devote a little bit of time to talking about my kid’s week,” Massa said. “We have a lot of time where we just talk about each other and what’s going on.”
Having attended different schools in Virginia, in Oneida (St. Patrick’s School), and now Syracuse, Kodali says he’s now applying this insight to Empower CNY. “I transitioned from a school with a little over 100 kids in my grade to just under five...four others besides me. I really understood that different communities value education differently,” he said.
His friends in the public school setting have also provided meaningful perspective. “They always said that it’s not the same level of education throughout the community. That’s something that we really want to work towards making more equitable, and that’s why we really wanted to push this program to as many students as we can,” Kodali shared.
Together, the student directors have reached out to local schools, parentteacher organizations, and libraries to spread the word and get more interested parties involved. After going through the application and interview process, around 45 volunteer tutors, mostly from Fayetteville-manlius High School, are currently signed up and waiting to help students in need. Anyone from any CNY school can apply.
“We have a lot of tutors that have volunteered in different schools and community centers. When we pair tutors with students, we really make the effort in making sure they’re the best fit. So if a student comes to us with special needs...we’ll try our best to work with them on that. Especially as we move into physical locations, it’ll be much easier to connect with the students,” Kodali explained.
Anyone interested in Empower CNY is encouraged to visit their website and inquire within. After signing some consent forms, parents can rest assured that their children are being well cared for during tutor sessions, the group assured. Sessions are available Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., with special evening hours on Saturday from 4-5 p.m.
“I’m really glad to be a part of this. I think it’s going to be amazing,” Massa said. “The kids love it,” Lustig added.
The tutor project is something the three directors are all passionate about. “We all have made a time commitment to continue,” Kodali shared, even as pandemic restrictions ease up. “We do want to continue it even as we enter college. Even if we’re not here in CNY, we would like to see students from other districts continue the program.”
Outside of this academic undertaking, the three teenage directors enjoy life in the ways any teenager would. Massa practices competitive rock climbing along with other activities such as surfing, volleyball, and skateboarding. Lustig runs track and reads science for fun, and Kodali is into math, computer science, and most recently, educational policy. Both boys also play club soccer.
The three teenagers also have their own course work to keep up with during the week on top of leading a philanthropic tutor program.
What’s in store for these three later in life? For Massa, she hopes to explore a career in forensics, but her interests are widespread. “I’m planning on experimenting with different classes and eventually I’ll find what I love,” she said.
For Lustig: “I think I want to be a doctor. I’m not sure what kind of doctor yet, but I’ll probably go to med school, hopefully.”
Kodali, with an interest in STEM and politics, said he’s “just looking forward to learning more.” He added, “Especially [by] connecting with a lot of different people through our organization. It’s helping us all grow, I think, for sure, as individuals. And that’s also something that we envision for the kids that tutor [with us], [that] they’re able to grow as people, being able to connect with different kinds of students that join the program.”
Empower CNY knows that all students deserve an opportunity to shine. As one of the directors put it, “Every kid has potential.”
Visit empowercny.org to learn more. The program is currently seeking applications for both tutees and tutors.