Mid-Project Report: Low Income Tutoring (March 2018)

Agape Fish Fund partners with O'Keefe to provide tutoring and Christian mentorship to low-income students in East Palo Alto, California. 

College Ambitions

​What do these colleges all have in common? They are schools that our students aspire to attend. 

Our low-income tutoring program serves elementary and middle school students, and some of our previous students are now in high school. But we can tell how the East Palo Alto students who have attended our program have college ambitions that differ from their peers in the area. It is very exciting that we have the privilege of encouraging these students at such an early age.

Marcus Givens, the Development Officer of O'Keefe's parent ministry BCM, shared the following: 
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I want to share with you a very encouraging conversation I heard, when I recently visited CREATE Studios, our STEAM (science, tech, engineering, arts and math) program. Kids were doing their homework, and I had the fun of helping a very bright young lady, whom we’ll call Delfina*, with her algebra.

Maybe what stood out the most was the seemingly everyday conversation about colleges. I sat next to Delfina, who wants to be an engineer or maybe a doctor. She wants to go to Stanford, but knows it's tough to get into. This didn't phase her of course. She began to explore other schools, and other students, while working on their homework, chimed in.

Another student, who's a hands-on type of guy, said he was interested in being a mechanical engineer, so I explained why Cal Poly (either one, but Go Broncos!) is a great option for him. Dawn, a new volunteer, talked about her experience working in Ivy League admissions offices, and then students tossed around MIT, UCLA and other schools.

Praise God! I know there are probably dozens of young people the same age (11, 12, 13) who live in EPA but aren't even thinking about college, let alone these great schools. They aren't part of BCM though, most likely. I told Waniya (program manager) what a great job they're doing in ministering to our youth, and I walked out of there with a smile.

*name changed

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Hope College Students Visit

On Monday, March 19th and Thursday, March 22nd, we also hosted 5 college students from Hope College. It was a pleasure to have them join us and give our students a chance to interact with college-age tutors.

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Attendance Awards

​Congrats to Emiliano and Gilberto for their attendance awards!