**This story won third place in the Lone Star Writing Contest!**

“Mom, I want to come back to tutoring next week, please!” said first-time attendant of the Wylie Math Tutoring program. Surprised, his mother told him he would have to miss baseball practice to go back to tutoring. “Well Mom, I would much rather go to math tutoring than practice.”

Wylie East High School senior Jaxson Hill started the free math tutoring program at the beginning of his sophomore year in 2016 when he saw a need for math homework help around his school.

“I combined my love of math and my desire to help others to form this program,” Hill said. “Private tutoring can be $50 to $60 an hour, and I saw a need for some free help for students around Wylie.”

Hill asked two friends if they would be interested in being tutors for his program. They agreed, and WMT was formed. The first year began at the Woodbridge clubhouse, where the three tutors helped two to five kids per week.

Fast forward to today, the program has moved to the Smith Public Library, where a conference room provided for free by the library hosts around 27 to a record 38 kids, plus 11 tutors each week.

“I like being able to help and work with kids. I already want to be a teacher and tutoring kids makes me want to do that even more,” freshman tutor Macie Delgado said.

Other tutors who help weekly include eighth-grader Hannah Hansen, freshmen Brian Satterwhite, Macie Delgado, Hannah Reagan and Ryah Hill, sophomores Brianna Beamer, Iris Kurz, junior Samara Huckvale, and seniors Taylor Davis, Madi Reagan and Jaxson Hill.  

These students offer free weekly tutoring help at the library Wednesdays from 5:30-7 p.m. They help students in third through 12th grades with homework, test reviews and so much more.

No registration is required, just show up at the Smith Public Library with an assignment, put on a thinking cap and prepare to love it so much that missing baseball practice for math tutoring is the new norm.