“Can I work with Chris?!”
In our Ann Arbor After-school Tutoring Program, this is a common greeting shortly after students sign in for the day. Our June 2019 Volunteer of the Month, Chris Engers, is a beloved student favorite.
Since January 2017, Chris has been an after-school tutor at our Liberty Street location. In 2018, Chris upped his volunteer commitment to TWO days each week (we are so lucky). Chris is known by students, staff, and volunteers as a go-to reliable math tutor, and he gladly takes on that title.
We also value Chris’s willingness to be a team player, to support the tutoring program as a community of learners. On any given day at tutoring, Chris can be seen floating around the room, assisting other tutors with math strategies, ideas, and lighthearted jokes.
Chris goes above and beyond as a tutor, building relationships, getting to know students as individuals, and attending supplemental trainings, volunteer dialogues and social events, and family engagement events (like last spring’s first-ever Family Board Game Night).
As a writing organization, we attract a lot of literary people: volunteers who love writing, and reading, and everything English Language Arts. But every so often, we get a volunteer who comes in and asks, “Do you tutor in other subjects too? I have a degree in Math!”
OH YES WE DO, friends. All three of our tutoring programs (at our Liberty Street location in Ann Arbor, the Detroit Robot Factory in Detroit’s Eastern Market, and the Michigan Avenue Branch of the Ypsilanti District Library) offer cost-free tutoring in ALL subject areas. This means that whatever homework or study materials our students bring in, we’ll be available to work with them to get a grip on Geometry, master metaphors, simplify Spanish, and more.
But back to Chris and math. His 826michigan stats are impressive–after much adding, we found out that he has volunteered an impressive TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE POINT TWO EIGHT HOURS.
Chris, we appreciate your dedication to our tutoring community, your patience and calm presence, your math strategies, and your great jokes.
Need further convincing of Chris’s skill? Check out our end-of-year tutor appreciation video, where Chris receives several enthusiastic shoutouts from our students.