Hinsdale Central junior Aryan Bansal is giving an academic assist to student-athletes through the P.A.S.S. tutoring group he leads. (Jim Slonoff photo)
What is P.A.S.S.?
As a Hinsdale Central sophomore student-athlete, Aryan Bansal could detect the struggle some of his teammates were having balancing schoolwork with the demands of pursuing high school sports.
"Kids were saying in the locker room, 'I've got three tests tomorrow and practice doesn't end until 6:30 p.m.' " recounted Bansal, now a junior. "There's no time to get to teacher office hours when you have to get to practice."
A two-sport athlete himself, Bansal understood the challenge of balancing academics and athletics, and being preoccupied with not falling behind in class instead of forging camaraderie at team pasta parties.
To address the need he came up with P.A.S.S. - Peer Athlete Student Scholars - as a tutoring service for his fellow Red Devils.
"We match in-season players with off-season athletes who have strong academic standing in core content areas of math, language arts, science, social studies and foreign language," Bansal explained. "Our goal is to empower and lift athletes to understand that if we study together, we succeed together both on and off the court or field, and that our academic strengths can only improve our athleticism."
He enlisted five other student-athletes to be on a committee to help to support the work of P.A.S.S. Each member has a specific role, such as tutor orientation or social media coordination, and they give presentations to each of the teams at the start of their seasons to spread awareness.
The team recruits tutors, often on the recommendation of a teacher, and make themselves available to all students, not just athletes. The tutors keep a time log, and those on the receiving end offer feedback to help refine the program. Data from last year showed a disproportionate number of sophomores were signing up, presumably because most of P.A.S.S. leadership were sophomores, too. That spurred more intentional outreach to other grades.
"By the end of the school year last year we had (tutored) about 50 to 55 hours," Bansal reported. "This year I think we're going to get even more kids, especially as we get into finals."
Tutor seekers fill out a Google form identifying the subject area need, times available and preferred location. Physics tend to be a leader among course help requests, Bansal noted, adding that teachers, administrators and coaches have been very supportive.
"We work in partnership with the Hinsdale Central Academic Resource Center," he said. "This is really a grassroots, student-driven initiative. We track outcomes through evaluation, we survey our students, we prep our tutors, and we partner with teachers and coaches."
Another important collaboration is with the Hinsdale Public Library, which provides meeting space for tutors and students and includes P.A.S.S. activities in their communications.
"I thought it would be good to have a partnership with a source that would allow us to bridge outside of the Hinsdale Central community," Bansal said.
All students are invited to sign up for a tutoring session to prepare for winter finals on selected dates starting Dec. 1 at the library (see Page XX for details).
"The concept is simple but the impact is awesome," Bansal said.
- by Ken Knutson
