At the start of the academic year, Palo Alto High School unveiled a new program with the goal of helping students achieve their academic goals — acting as a replacement for the Tutoring Center and Academic Resource Center, both of which have been retired to make way for the new Tower Learning Center.
Located in the renovated Tower Building, the TLC is intended to create an environment for Paly students to study and learn, providing peer tutoring services and bringing in adult volunteers with that objective in mind. In addition to moving out of the trailers where the Tutoring Center and ARC were located previously, the TLC is also considered an extension of the Paly Wellness program — aiming to expand beyond purely subject-based tutoring services, and helping students to thrive as individual learners.
According to intervention specialist and math teacher YJ Lee, the goal of the TLC is to provide resources, integrating into the larger network of student support services.
“Think of the Tower Learning Center as part of a three tiered system,” Lee said. “You’ve got the Wellness Center, which is focusing on your mental health and your wellness; the nurse, focusing on your physical health; and finally, the Tower Learning Center, where we want to focus on academic health.”
While the ARC and Tutoring Center previously provided mainly peer tutoring services for students who were struggling with individual classes, Lee said the TLC will aim to orient them towards a more broad perspective.
“We’re trying to get students to see the bigger picture,” Lee said. “We want to think of peer tutoring as a component of the learning, but we also want to add other things — if you need help with organizing your notes or making the best use of your time, we want to help.”
Despite being a new resource, the TLC is being received positively by teaching staff. Math teacher Sarah Gilmore said the TLC is receiving notable support from the Paly math department, despite the program’s newness.
“The math department is bolstering it [the TLC] quite a bit, because we have a lot of students that either want to go in and showcase how much they know, or are struggling and want a safe space to struggle productively — not unproductively, as they might have been,” Gilmore said.
Students who have studied in the new space have had good experiences as well. According to senior Tony Chung, an early attendee of the TLC, spending time in the new space was worthwhile.
“I really loved being in the Tower Learning Center,” Chung said. “They had all the textbooks that I needed for every class I had. I went there with my friend to study for a physics test, and I think it has a very good environment for you to focus.”
As the TLC finds its footing in its first year of existence, the hope is that it can be a valuable resource for students who need a helping hand.
“We’re trying to shift the culture, and just normalize asking for help,” Lee said. “Everyone needs help sometimes — even adults.”