Free tutoring for Baltimore City students. All grades and all subjects. I graduated high school in 1997 and went to UMBC, but after 3 semesters, I quit.
A little about me: My name is Joe Sparenberg and this is starting as a dream and hopefully will flourish. I am a senior at UMBC majoring in biochemistry and biology and took a strange path to get to where I am today. After a 10 year hiatus, I realized how much I missed school and I was not following my dream. In 2008, I went back to CCBC taking 1 class and have continued part time since then. I wi
ll either get my degrees in December or May, depending on if I go full time or part time this next semester. After I get my BS, I will go for my PhD in Biochemistry/Drug Design. I also work summer camps and before and after school programs involving science, so I do have experience with working with kids of all ages. A little about the tutoring: I have lived in Baltimore City for 33 of my 36 years in existence.When we had the riots here in Baltimore, my first thought was that a lot of problems could be solved by education. I did my research. Baltimore City has a population of 622,793 and 21.1% of them are under the age of 18. The population broken down by race: 63.3% black, 31.6% white, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino (also included in the white), 3.1% Asian/Hawaiian/Alaskan/Native American, and 2% that identify with more than one race. That should mean that 63.3% of the high school graduates are black, yet that is not the case. The number is closer to 35%. Then, when you look at high school numbers overall it gets even more alarming: Baltimore City high school graduation rate (all races) is 73.5% compared to 87.5% (Maryland – overall). High school seniors' average SAT scores were more than 100 points below state and national averages for each of the three testing components. AP exam pass rate was 27.3 percent, less than half the state's nearly 61 percent pass rate and the national rate of 57.1 percent. The city also has an 8.4% unemployment rate. I have been traveling through the city to get to the school I was teaching at this week. The way everything looked every day made me think: I need to do something. Houses boarded up everywhere, businesses closed, people on the streets. I have no money to help, I really wish I did. However, I do have my brain. So I decided to start this. My strongest points are Chemistry, Biology, Math, and History. I will be able to help in all other classes. If there is something that I cannot do, I can find someone to help.
08/31/2015
