For four happy years, Life Academy of Health and Bioscience (a 6th-12th PUBLIC school in Oakland, CA) has offered 1-on-1 tutoring to middle school students who need help with their writing skills.  Our tutors were NOT teachers or even adults from the community, they were middle and high school students with excellent writing and collaboration skills, who were trained to help their peers. It is OUR Writing Center, and it is primarily run by our students themselves.

May 2019


Every Tuesday and Thursday from September - May, between 11-17 tutors come to work at the Writing Center.  They work intensely with students who need writing and other academic support. Last year, over 522 students were served and 96.5% of them reported that their tutor was “Extremely Helpful” or “Helpful” in exit surveys.  We had many repeat clients, and there was almost always a waiting list to see a tutor -- especially before the due dates of major middle school projects! 

May 2018


Our hope and plan is to reopen the Writing Center for this school year with help from generous donors and community members -- YOU!  Our implementation plan for 2019-2020 is to begin work on September 3rd, 2019. This year, we are specifically training our tutors to best support students with learning differences/disabilities, and we want to better serve those students.

We will remain open throughout the school year, until the middle of May 2020. The Writing Center will be open twice a week, for one hour. Our tutors will be supervised and provided with feedback on how to improve their tutoring, as all sessions will be facilitated by me (Ms. Oliver -- 8th Grade Humanities teacher and Writing Center Coordinator), Ms. Goulder (8th Grade Humanities teacher and reading specialist), or Ms. Kelly (6th Grade English teacher and English Language Development coach).  And, as always, we will continue to gather data from clients and from tutors to improve our Writing Center.

March 2017 (at the California League of School Conference at which our Writing Center Tutors were accepted to present on our Writing Center)


We aim to reach and serve over 600 middle school students this year. Your generous funding will make sure that our tutors are compensated for their valuable time. 

Last year, we were able to give each tutor a $10 hourly stipend. Our 2018 - 2019 stipend total was $5,460. This year, our goal is to raise $6,000, with the hope of continuing to grow the ranks of our tutors, to serve the ever-increasing demand for support.

Please help us continue our work.

Thank you,
Eva Marie Oliver


An exciting piece of news -- two of the tutors who helped open the Writing Center in September 2015 just graduated from Life Academy! Lesly will be attending UC Berkeley this fall, and her sister, Glenda, will be attending Stanford University.

May 2016





Testimonials:

“I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your hard work this year. You all make so much learning and teaching possible at this school, where kids come in underserved and not able to read or write at what is considered “grade level.” Plus, many kids here do not have access to after school tutoring programs. So, YOU all make a difference in the lives and education of our students.” -- Lisa Kelly, 6th Grade English teacher


“You guys helped me with my brochure for Ms. Kelly’s class and my essay, and I got good grades on them after working with you. Thank you!!” - Mekhi, 6th grader


“I like that they could help me when I need help, and I like that they can teach me new ways to solve problems that I don’t know how to solve.” - Martin, 6th grader


“Thank you all for helping us for this year. I hope you all have a good summer. Also I’m really sad I can’t come tomorrow (Tues, May 6th.)” - Ryan, 6th grader