ATHENS, WV (WVNS) — Homework help is here for five different counties in Southern West Virginia, which includes Wyoming, Mercer, Raleigh, Monroe, and Summers.

“GEAR UP stands for ‘gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programing,’ and what that means is we are currently helping people, our students, and our cohorts, and their families graduate and then move onto higher education,” said Jennifer Frame, a Partnership Coordinator for GEAR UP SWV.

The resource, Tutor.com, which is sponsored by GEAR UP Southern West Virginia and housed at Concord University, will be available 24/7 for students, teachers, parents, and the GEAR UP Southern West Virginia team. It is available for students 13 years and up and their families for the public schools in those counties.

“We are offering Tutor.com as a way for the teachers to give a backup to what they’re doing in the classroom. It is very helpful to the parents and the guardians. It’s a 24 hour service, so if you have a student at home, that comes home and is doing middle school math and they need help with middle school math , and maybe you know, I, as a mom don’t know how to do that, but they can log on and speak with somebody who does. There’s a blackboard area on the program where the student can actually write out the math problems and the tutor will help them work through it step by step,” explained Frame.

This resource is beneficial because it will help students prepare for assignments, tests, and much more, including college. It will even help parents gain confidence while helping their children with their school assignments and their role in helping them prepare as well. It will also bridge the gap of education that students may have missed during the COVID pandemic.

“We have the seventh and eighth graders are our current students, and we will work with that cohort through their graduation. So Tutor.com is a program that we’re introducing to that group to aid in that into graduation and, you know, their programs at school,” concluded Frame.

Students who are younger and wish to participate in this program must have a signed permission slip by a parent or legal guardian. To learn more about this program, you can go onto the Concord University website and look up GEAR UP SWV at gearup.concord.edu or concord.edu/gearup. You can also go to Tutor.com.