Every Monday and Wednesday, a small group of National Honor Society students can be seen eating lunch in the back room of the counseling office, where college visits often take place. These students are there for a reason: they’re tutors, willing to help any student who walks in and asks for help on any of their assignments. On Mondays, senior Colleen Bontrager and junior Sara Schafer are available during first lunch.

“I’m very good at a lot of things, and I like helping people,” Bontrager said.

The tutors are eager to assist students who need help in certain areas.

“Lunch tutoring is a great opportunity to use time built into your day to get extra help in classes that you’re struggling in,” counselor Nicole Dowland said.

This extra help is there for students who don’t have the time before or after school because of other activities. Anyone can be in lunch tutoring, and it isn’t just restricted to those who are failing.

“If you have a C and you want to get it up to a B, or you have a B and you want to get it up to an A, or if you just have a question on one unit, or you have a question on your homework from the night before, you can come in and get any type of help,” Dosland said.

Even though athletes are usually the kinds of students who are encouraged to raise their grades, this lunch tutoring has no connection to the mandatory tutoring after school for athletes with poor grades.

“The only downfall is that it is during lunchtime, so if you’re struggling, you’ve got to put in the time and effort to get your grades up,” Dosland said. “…You do have to sacrifice a little bit of social time.”

This may have contributed to the small amount of students who actually attend lunch tutoring, according to Dosland. However, the schedule for tutoring is flexible.

“If kids want to do it more than twice a week, we can arrange for it to be Tuesday and Thursday as well,”  Dosland said.

The idea, says Dosland, is for students to get help in their classes three times a week: Monday and Wednesday during lunch, and then Thursday during seminar.

The real struggle is that not many students are willing to come down for help.

“I actually have to turn away tutors,” Dosland said. “There is definitely enough tutors for one-on-one help, if not two-on-one help.”