Since its launch in 2021, TriTogether, a non-profit virtual tutoring organization, founded by Simmons alumna Hannah Sieber, has grown immensely. Some of this growth is due to the organization broadening who it serves in the community beyond children in foster care and now including children in kinship care and those who have been adopted out of the foster care system.
Sieber, Class of 2014 and the executive director of TriTogether, founded the organization after being a teacher for 3 years and realizing she “hated it,” but still wanted to take part in education.
Raised with “philanthropy being a huge value,” she was encouraged to create TriTogether when she joined a “Women in Business” Facebook group.
Also in the group was Mary Nogueras, founder of The Gifted Crate, an organization that supplies birthday presents to families involved with the Department of Children and Families. Since its origination, TriTogether has tripled in size, now providing service to 15 students and having about 20 tutors.
“If I’m gonna do this, I should do it right,” said Sieber. “I should give it my full heart.”
For Sieber, this has included outreach to several schools, education departments and farmer’s markets, as she’s the only team member based in Massachusetts. This outreach has led to beneficial donations for the organization, which does not receive any federal funding. Sieber also meets with each student and their caregiver to talk about their goals and match them with the correct tutors, as well as interviewing tutor applicants.
Alyssa Kuhn, a junior majoring in Chemistry and Data Science, began volunteering as a tutor at TriTogether this school year and finds the experience “really rewarding.”
“I enjoy seeing someone feel ownership of their learning and seeing someone evolve from feeling down to feeling good about themselves,” said Kuhn.
Also working as a peer tutor and teaching assistant at Simmons, she pursues the “challenge” of teaching, hoping to one day become a professor.
That dream is shared with Theo Hatfield, who graduated from Simmons last year and is now Head of Programming at TriTogether. Hatfield first began volunteering at the organization during his sophomore year due to it “aligning with my morals,” as well as the fact that it was more “experience in education,” alongside his time as a peer tutor and teaching assistant at Simmons.
“I’ve always been very much a proponent of educational equity,” said Hatfield, who used to recruit fellow college students to begin volunteering.
Since his senior year, his role has consisted of helping train the tutors and checking in with them after each session to talk about the student’s progress. Hatfield’s time at TriTogether has increased his comfortability with tutoring subjects they were initially worried about, as well as teaching him that “any subject under the sun” has a student who struggles with it.
Hatfield makes sure to inform possible applicants of this mindset, clarifying that tutoring isn’t relegated to only math and science, encouraging all students to apply as TriTogether continues to grow.
“I’m very proud of the way the organization has grown in the last couple years,” said Hatfield.
