CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After springing into action earlier this year in an effort to get North Carolina’s students back on track, a group of dedicated tutors is wrapping up its first semester on the job.

What You Need To Know

  • First group of 200-plus NCEC members wrapping up their first semester on the job

  • The high impact literacy tutors are a direct response to the pandemic's impact on education, according to the state

  • Within the next few years, the state plans to have more than 1,000 corps members in schools statewide

The tutors are part of the North Carolina Education Corps.

The NCEC is, “a response to the impact COVID-19 is having on schools, as students struggle to keep up with learning,” according to its website.

So far, more than 200 corps members are spread out across 20 districts, according to statistics from the NCEC.

Ben Iuliano is one of those tutors.

He has been tutoring fourth grader Jalani Elder since he started with the program in April. Iuliano’s first training session and meeting as a part of the program was April 1.

He joined the corps after seeing a job ad on LinkedIn. Iuliano said he did not expect the attachment he would grow to a student he never actually met in-person until late May.

For more than a month, the two worked together on one goal, becoming a better reader. Elder said it worked.

"Because, he’s helped me read and go above a reading level,” Elder said in the school library.

The two were able to meet face-to-face in late May, right as the school year and tutoring sessions were ending.

Their other sessions were always virtual. But, it did not stop them from having a good time.

"The activities we do is play games and then like after we play games, we’ll just talk about movies and stuff,” Elder said with a smile.

The tutoring did sometimes turn into a debate on the latest Godzilla movie, but the two did make progress when it came to reading and reading comprehension.

“We actually get to show them on a graph how they’ve improved. You know, making less errors, making more progress on a story, so it’s been pretty amazing because you physically get to see them become better readers every single time,” Iuliano said sitting next to Elder in the library.

Iuliano, who is a translation and translation studies master’s student, said he knows how important joining the program was, especially after the pandemic's impact on schools.

“Being in college, I’ve noticed how important something like reading comprehension is, reading fluency is, and to get kids at this age and to tutor them and hone these skills now is crucial,” he added.

He is one of the inaugural members of the corps, working part-time hours with students across the state as high-impact literacy tutors.

For a master’s student dealing with closed schools during the pandemic, it was a good way to find work.

"It is kind of a bummer to hop on that last session and you know, have to say, ’Oh, well this is our last one.' Maybe until next year, we might not tutor with them again. So it is a bummer, because these kids are great and we love helping them become better readers, but we also love just helping to mentor them,” Iuliano added.

Students and tutors alike will set their sights on next year and what new friends they can make as they work on becoming better readers, together.

Applications for next school year’s corps members will open June 15.

By the 2023-24 school year, the NCEC hopes to have 1,000 members with one to three in every elementary school in the state, according the corps’ website.