Georgia Southern awarded $500,000 grant for tutoring program in Chatham, Bulloch schools

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The literacy tutoring program was piloted by Georgia Southern University last summer due to a demand in tutors because of the pandemic, and now it will continue during the summer at Chatham County and Bulloch County schools. With a $500,000 state grant awarded to GSU, they will be able to train more tutors.

The grant comes from Governor Brian Kemp’s Governor Emergency Education Relief (GEER II) fund.

60 tutors will be hired from Georgia Southern University, East Georgia State College, Ogeechee Technical College, Savannah State University and Savannah Technical College to go into 10 schools in Chatham and Bulloch counties.

“It feels good because now with the additional funding that we’ve received we have the opportunity to train our tutors,” said Elizabeth Williams, GSU Bachelor’s of Science in Education Program Director.

Assistant Dean of Partnerships and Outreach Alisa Leckie at Georgia Southern said the program will help young students experiencing learning loss and college students needing experience teaching others.

“We are really focusing on early literacy development, training our tutors to actually have those tutors skills and work alongside the teachers and also working with the schools systems to design structures that make that tutoring experience positive for students and make a good use of that tutor time,” Leckie said.

For a link for interested college students to apply to be a tutor, click here.

GSU hopes to have an application to sign your children up for the tutoring program in the coming months.

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