The JLI in Worcester focus on interns, tutoring and mentoring programs, for high school students to help develop the students skills so they can make it through high school and then college. Andrew Quirk says that this are not problem students, but students "that were missing some kind of of support group to make it through high school. They are not neccesarily problem students."
For an hour every week, 15 high school students get tutored mostly in math and science. However, theimpact the WPI tutors have in the students goes beyond the academic subjects only. According to Quirk, "Studetns were really excited when they found out we were continuing the program this year. They really like it. One of them mentioned on a evaluation form: ' my teacher lectures to me and he tells me how to do a problem... but this was a student who is not a professional teacher but someone who took the time out of his/her day to sit down with me and show me how to do each problem individually and that not only help me on the subject but also got me interested on other subjects...This is someone who made it to college and I can make it too. I can reach that goal.'" The WPI students are not only then serving as tutors but as role models for these young students.
Quirk also mentioned that they were also trying to help the students to make it to college, " WPI students have taken what they have gained in the classrooms and passed that knowledge to help somebody else. We have to help these students to get where we are now[college]" And they mean the seond to last week of C term they hosted fifteen students for two days. Students got a tour of all WPI facilities sat in some college classes with their tutors. The program has been so successful so far that the SHPE chapter at WPI was among other 10 chapters to receive the ACE awards from out of the near 150 SHPE chapters spread all over the nation.