BranchOut! Howard County Chapter: A Rigorous Year of Teaching and Growth
Howard County is a tight-knit Maryland community where lots of resources are provided to its residents. BranchOut! is proud to contribute to the effort in supporting this community since 2019.
Eric Duan, a senior at Glenelg High School, and Ethan Gao, a junior at River Hill High School, have been long-term members of BranchOut!'s Howard County (HoCo) chapter. Under their leadership, they directed the multi-programmed HoCo chapter by organizing volunteer assignments, managing emails, and keeping track of the extensive programs, in addition to tutoring the students of their respective programs.
The HoCo chapter has the widest variety of programs in BranchOut!, mainly partnering with the Howard County Public School Systems to provide individualized assistance to struggling students or classroom help to teachers. As a chapter, BranchOut! students participated in the Black Students Achievement Program (BSAP), Innovative Pathways program, Extended School Year Academic Intervention (ESY), and StarTalk.
Programs such as BSAP and Middle School Math Advancement offer accelerated and enrichment opportunities for students from grades K to 9. Various topics and courses are provided, ranging from engineering to martial arts. BranchOut! mentors support students by providing material throughout the week and answering one-on-one questions. Additionally, HoCo mentors also partake in ESY (supporting grades K-7 students) and Innovative Pathways Credit Recovery (for high school students of grades 9-12), where they help out as teacher assistants, keeping the learning environment fun along with other mentors. They offer courses for credits as well as classes for those seeking extra help in all standard curriculums. BranchOut! in the HCPSS community have served over 800 students.
Each of these programs has a group of mentors designated who work together and collaborate with students, encouraging them to grow and develop a passion for learning. Even mentors themselves have learned much from these experiences of helping others. Assistant director Ethan Gao provided his own experiences, “I chose BranchOut!'s Academic Intervention and Extended School Year program mainly because of my positive experiences tutoring, along with the rewarding skills tutoring helped me build. … not only that, the tutoring experience helped me develop my skills in public speaking and leadership, along with developing my maturity and organizational skills.”
The students that take these summer programs are paired with bright individuals to individualize assistance to catch up with the rest of the class. As a result, many students have found their experience extremely fulfilling and engaging. From the perspective of director Eric Duan, “It's been enormously gratifying to see them develop and to aid in their development over the course of the programs.” Assistant director Ethan Gao agreed, “...what really makes them stand out to me is how quickly you can see them succeed with the right mentorship. Throughout my tutoring experiences, I've consistently noticed success academically in students who are given the right tools to succeed, and that visible impact is what makes tutoring these students so amazing. Personality-wise, all of my students have had a willingness to learn that makes working with them much more rewarding, so I've never met a student who I didn't enjoy mentoring.”
BranchOut!'s Howard County chapter has been growing exponentially through its incredibly talented and hardworking mentors. In the future, more HCPSS opportunities as well as other HoCo programs are bound to develop, including STEM events at local libraries hosted by BranchOut! or the implementation of other year-round programs apart from HCAS and BSAP Saturday Math Academy.
The HoCo chapter routinely dedicates hundreds of hours for each program, with its mentors serving for many years, fueled by their passion for teaching. Just this summer, 1,435 hours were served across 21 mentors, 13 schools, and 4 programs. The compelling nature and innovation of the growing programs keep the HoCo chapter exciting and engaging for both mentors and students alike!