alymurray

5 ms·

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UPchieve (YC W21 EdTech Nonprofit) Is Hiring Engineers and a Head of Engineering(upchieve.welcomekit.co)
1 points by alymurray 4y ago
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UPchieve (YC W21) is hiring a tech lead and senior engineers(upchieve.welcomekit.co)
1 points by alymurray 4y ago
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UPchieve (EdTech Nonprofit, YC W21) is hiring senior engineers(upchieve.welcomekit.co)
1 points by alymurray 4y ago
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UPchieve (EdTech Nonprofit, YC W21) is hiring senior engineers(upchieve.welcomekit.co)
1 points by alymurray 4y ago
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UPchieve (Edtech Nonprofit, YC W21) is hiring our first product lead(upchieve.welcomekit.co)
1 points by alymurray 4y ago
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by alymurray 5y ago
Do you mean that you didn't want to be labeled "low-income"? If so, I relate. There were definitely periods when I was growing up that I was eligible for free or reduced price lunch but was too embarrassed to accept it. We tr
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by alymurray 5y ago
If I'm understanding your question correctly, it's neither! It's something you'd draw on with your mouse or trackpad on a laptop. We also have other tools you can use to make it easier to tutor math (e.g., ability to add
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by alymurray 5y ago
Nice!! Thanks for sharing your experience! Completely agree that virtual tutoring (with no audio/video) definitely helps eliminate some of the potential for discrimination bias.
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by alymurray 5y ago
We've considered it, but one concern that I have is that the paid tutoring space is actually pretty saturated. We'd then be competing with all of those other sites to acquire middle and high income student/parent customers. M
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by alymurray 5y ago
Woo, I am so excited to hear that you signed up and already tried taking a quiz! Appreciate all the feedback, and we will definitely work on the things you mentioned. Feel free to reach out via the AC community slack if you ever need anythi
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by alymurray 5y ago
Great suggestions! We partner with some other nonprofits similar to QuestBridge (e.g., College Track), but we're not yet partnered with QuestBridge. It sounds like we should be though—it's awesome to hear how impactful they were o
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by alymurray 5y ago
Thanks! I hope we end up sustainable too. :) I also did a lot of paid tutoring for more privileged kids in HS and college, so I can relate. Fortunately that experience ended up being very useful in starting UPchieve! Based on your past expe
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by alymurray 5y ago
I completely agree that students in other countries need this too! We decided to start with just the US for two main reasons: 1) we thought the more narrow focus to start would increase our chance of success, and 2) we don't feel we&#x
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by alymurray 5y ago
Woot! I love that sentiment. :) Hope I get to meet you on our volunteer community slack or at one of the (optional) volunteer meetings in the future!
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by alymurray 5y ago
Typically students find us and use us on their own (no parental involvement). We don't market our site towards parents at all. The result is that most of the students using our site actually DO want to be there, and they are often very
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by alymurray 5y ago
Completely agree that this is what it comes down to. We see it as our responsibility to make it hard to use the platform in that way, and of course to respond appropriately if something does happen, but ultimately we cannot control the beha
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by alymurray 5y ago
Hey Peter! :) Thanks for asking! Some of the things we want to do over the next year include: 1) Expand to offer more subjects. Students ask us all the time for tutoring in English and history. Someday we hope to offer tutoring in every com
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by alymurray 5y ago
We'd love to figure out ways to reward volunteers for their service via badges/certificates, letters of recommendation, or potentially even college credits (e.g., if we could convince teaching colleges to give their students credi
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by alymurray 5y ago
Volunteer side is open to anyone, anywhere (assuming they are 13+, can get through our screening process, and can pass one of our certification quizzes). Student side is currently only open to low-income high school students in the US who a
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by alymurray 5y ago
Do you mind me asking what site you tried doing online tutoring for? I'd love to hear more about your experience (both the positives + negatives)! On our site, students seem to really like the text-based communication because it create
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by alymurray 5y ago
I like your idea about recording the whole session, and it's something I think we should do for numerous reasons, including student safety, volunteer training, and the ability for those recordings to be used for academic research to be
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by alymurray 5y ago
Great ideas, thank you for sharing! I'm also really excited about the potential of current student users to become tutors in the future. Community service is a great way for high school students to build their college applications too,
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by alymurray 5y ago
Thank you so much for sharing your personal connection! I really relate and wish I'd had more mentors growing up too. But at least we can change that for future students! I look forward to hearing your feedback and if we're lucky
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by alymurray 5y ago
I knew it was only a matter of time until we got this question. Thanks for asking—it’s important and definitely something we’re concerned about! We try to prevent abuse through a few measures: 1) The platform is only available to students w
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by alymurray 5y ago
We give volunteers review materials to help them brush up, and to be honest... even the best tutors have to Google things occasionally to refresh their memories during a live tutoring session. :) But yeah, it does take some investment on th
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by alymurray 5y ago
Woo, first comment! Thanks, endisneigh. Supply is definitely going to be a challenge for us in the long term. We think we’ll need over a million volunteers someday to support all 8 million low-income HS students in the US. However, at least
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Launch HN: UPchieve (YC W21 Nonprofit) – Live tutoring for low-income students
160 points by alymurray 5y ago|66 comments