Tutoring at CCDOC

In 2020, The Harvard Club of Chicago began working with the Cook County Department of Corrections’ (CCDOC) Alternative Programs & Education Department on developing and delivering a tutoring program for qualifying detainees. The initial session launched in March 2021 with 13 alumni volunteers serving as tutors.

Since then, the successful program has expanded substantially with an increase in volunteers and offerings. We are currently seeking additional team members for our GED Prep tutoring classes and Financial Literacy when these next sessions begin.

Please see below to learn more!

The Tutoring Program

The program assists students in preparing for the High School Equivalency or GED with support offered in the broad subjects of math, social studies, language arts (reading and writing) and science.

Leadership and Oversight

An HCC Steering Committee, co-chaired by HCC Director and former President Bruce Hochstadt (AB ’81) and Director Diane Marks Longoria (AB ’99) and Jennifer Mindrum (JD ’17), provides programmatic oversight and makes recommendations for future enhancements and expansion.

Brianna Suslovic (AB '16 and PhD candidate at The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice at the University of Chicago) leads our day-to-day operations as Program Manager. The Honorable Deval L. Patrick (AB’76, JD’82), Professor and Co-Director, Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School, and former Governor of Massachusetts serves as senior advisor to the program.

Results

Our 2022 GED-prep course resulted in 58% of students initially passing the exam and receiving their High School Equivalency degree. The remaining 42% of students passed all but one subject test (initially satisfying four of the five tests) and went on to pass the needed subject test upon retesting. As a result, 100% of this class of students have earned their degree.

Our 2023 GED-prep course resulted in 31% of students initially passing the exam, and another 46% passing all but one or two of the five subjects. Our hope is to provide individualized tutoring to this group in the needed subject(s) when our classes resume in September.

These positive results reflect our students’ strong efforts and our tutors’ significant impact.

Financial Literacy

HCC volunteers completed a nine-week 2023 Summer course on Financial Literacy for 15 detainee students, following the popular Summer 2022 FinLit course. The curriculum entitled "Key Concepts to Understand to Develop Financial Literacy" was created by our tutoring team, including a member of the Harvard College Class of 2025. The sessions featured relevant articles along with content on budgeting, saving, investing, taxes, credit, fraud, insurance and economic issues, e.g., inflation, and concluded with individual presentations by our students. The course has included guest presenters from the community with fascinating backgrounds and success in investments, entrepreneurship and real estate development. 

Tutors Needed: We are seeking additional team members for our GED Prep tutoring and Financial Literacy classes when these next sessions begin in September and October of 2023.

Learn More/Volunteer

Please email Bruce Hochstadt and Diane Longoria if you are interested in learning more, serving as a tutor and/or mentor, or joining the HCC Steering Committee for this initiative. 

In addition, we are looking for candidates to serve as Program Manager beginning in late 2023.  This is a paid, part-time position overseeing the day-to-day operations of the tutoring program, including coordinating logistics between volunteers and the Department of Corrections.  Please contact Bruce and Diane if you are interested in this opportunity.

We are excited to continue this important program for an underserved segment of our Chicago community.