Every Child Has Potential

ASK kids Grace, Mason and Hugo are all smiles with online tutoring at the Fredericksburg Afterschool Program.

Trilogy Mentors is helping to make the grade

Missed school days and cognitive late effects from treatment mean that our ASK kids often need to work harder than their peers to keep up and are at risk of not moving to the next grade level with their peers. That’s why one of ASK’s key focus areas is education.
 
This spring, ASK launched a pilot program to address this need with area start-up Trilogy Mentors. Trilogy was founded by recent University of Richmond graduate, John Failla. His goal was to create an online tutoring program that would be accessible to all students, not just those with financial resources. He considers his tutors to be mentors because they are encouraged to develop supportive relationships with their students.

“Our purpose is to empower students when it matters most, turning their most challenging moments into breakthroughs. Our personalized online learning platform supports students of any background, wherever they are” says John.
 
The pilot program was developed to supplement the educational assistance that our patients and survivors are getting in ASK’s afterschool program. It is also a resource to help ASK kids in outlying communities that can’t reach one of our afterschool enrichment program sites on a regular basis.  The results from the first six-week session are in and it was a resounding success.
 
Within the first 3 weeks, the pilot nearly doubled in size from the initial 6 students to 11 students. In addition to increasing student engagement for ASK, Trilogy was able to increase the parental engagement as well.

“The best thing about this program is, it caters to their individual levels and academic needs. It also give an opportunity for the kids on how to use long distance learning skills” says ASK parents Gaurang and Jigna Dave.

While academic improvement was the main focus, we have seen the students’ confidence and willingness to learn also increase which is why we're looking forward to continuing this partnership in the coming year. None of this would be possible though without our donors and sponsors who generously give to ensure all of our ASK kids have the educational support they need for thriving after cancer,