The addition of the student-created Branson peer tutoring app on campus this year provides students with an efficient and reliable method of getting academic assistance from their classmates across subjects.

“The app automatically pairs someone who wants tutoring with a tutor,” said Zachary Cummins ‘26, one of the creators of the app. “[It] sends both of them a conjoined email … and then the tutor reaches out to the tutee.”

Last year, this selection process was more challenging because “they sent an email to all the available tutors” when someone needed help, but “the tutors never responded to that email,” Cummins said. The new method holds tutors more accountable.

In addition to addressing the challenges of tutor assignments, the app gives prospective tutees a way to easily express their availability and which subjects they need support in.

When students open the app, they can quickly input their open blocks, as well as when they are available before school, during lunch and during Flex.

The app also showcases all of the possible classes students can request help in, such as in math, science, English, history, languages and time management.

These opportunities to receive extra help would not be possible without the peer tutors, who are nominated by teachers.

Moreover, every tutor has to have passed the classes they tutor in with flying colors and stand out to teachers as someone who is “able to explain [the topic matter] in a way that people can understand,” Cummins said.

“[Peer tutors] have a better understanding of what the classes are like from [a student’s] perspective and what [someone] might be having trouble with,” Cummins added. Taking these classes helps tutors explain the material in ways that worked well for them and communicate information differently from the teacher.

Not only has the addition of the peer tutoring app helped spark opportunities for students to teach their fellow classmates, but, as Cummins said, made it “a lot easier for people who want to have tutors to get tutors.”