Colorado State Offers Free Tutoring to Poudre School District

Note to Editors: This is a revised version of a story that was originally released on March 3.

Colorado State University’s Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring Program is now in its 17th year of helping students from the Fort Collins community realize their educational potential. The goal of Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring is to raise student achievement and decrease the dropout rates of students in the Poudre School District.

The Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring Program is a partnership of the Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (CSMATE), with El Centro Student Services at Colorado State.

Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring program at Colorado State offers free tutoring to students in all areas of study. A Colorado State student works one-on-one with K-12th grade students after school. Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring encourages parent/child interaction, family self-sufficiency by providing an atmosphere conductive for learning. Free transportation is offered, and there is a focus on bilingual learning.

"To me, the greatest benefits of this after school tutoring program are the opportunity for our students to be on a university campus as well as the opportunity to work with university students as mentors," said Julie Schiola, the principal of Harris Bilingual Elementary. "Hopefully, these opportunities will plant the seed that college can be a plausible dream."

The program continues to grow. In the 2007-2008 school year, the program nearly doubled in size, from the number of tutoring sessions offered to the number of schools participating.  Last year, 213 students benefited from this program from 20 local schools.

The 2008-2009 school year there are currently 160 students tutored from a total of 19 local schools. So far there are 120 Colorado State students tutoring these students.

The Bohemian Foundation Pharos Fund has contributed $30,000 to the Triunfo/Triumph Tutoring Program this year. In addition, the Dean Tsao funding added another $10,000 to this program.

The success of this tutoring program is measured in many ways. Three most important ways this is measured is by improved attendance record among students, more schools participating in the program and more Colorado State University student tutor participation.

For more information contact Dr. Christine Jones at Christine.jones@colostate.edu or (970) 491-2115.

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