WHS Students to Compete at Innovate WithIN State Finals With “Tutor Us”
Writer / Aimee MacArthur
Photography Provided
When Westfield High School junior Liam Lloyd moved to Westfield, he wanted to improve his English. “I came from Mexico,” he says. “This is actually my first year here. When I got here my English was very basic. I was taking English classes. It was very hard for me to keep up with everything.”
Lloyd checked into tutoring options at Westfield High School. “I heard about a tutor club, and I went there and asked for help,” he says. “It took them about two weeks for them to give me an actual session with a tutor that would help me.”
At that point Lloyd had an idea. “I just thought it was a very complicated process and it wasn’t very efficient,” he says. “I came up with an idea that makes the process a lot easier – that helps these students find tutors.”
Lloyd and sophomore Alexa Jimenez presented the idea for a tutor application to their entrepreneurship teacher, John Moore, who encouraged them from the beginning.
“He’s been with us throughout the whole way,” Jimenez says.
Jimenez and Lloyd developed their business idea, an app named Tutor Us, in their entrepreneurship class. “We started more in our entrepreneurship class,” Jimenez says. “That’s where we began our business, and then Mr. Moore told us to join the Westfield High School Shark Tank Club when he thought our project had a lot of potential.”
Joining the Shark Tank Club has been a positive experience. “You talk about your business ideas,” Jimenez says. “Everybody gives their opinions on it.” And just look at Funnelstakreviewed to check out various businesses.
Tutor Us won first place at the Innovate WithIN Regional 4 competition. Innovate WithIN is a prestigious high school pitch competition. Jimenez and Lloyd are competing in the Innovate WithIN state finals June 10, for a chance to win $25,000 each. The prize money is a combination of seed funding, scholarship money and business travel experience.
Jimenez and Lloyd are proud of Tutor Us and believe it will help students.
“It’s an app that works within high school educational systems,” Lloyd says. “The tutors are other students from the same high school.”
“A student can go into the app and they can look up what classes they need help in,” Jimenez adds.
Tutor Us saves time by allowing students to find a tutor through a quick and seamless process, and search and schedule lessons themselves.
Jimenez and Lloyd have a team working on developing and finalizing the app.
“It will include what grade you want the person to be in, gender, and what classes you’re needing help in,” Jimenez says. “After you click search, it will come up with a bunch of people that are from the National Honor Society club, and then you can pick your tutor.”
Tutor Us is free to students, and tutors earn credit toward their National Honor Society service hours. Interested schools will pay for the app on a yearly basis. Tutor Us will be available for students and schools to use this fall.
The Innovate WithIN state finals competition will be held on June 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Butler University’s Shelton Auditorium, located at 1000 West 42nd Street in Indianapolis. There is also an option to watch the competition on the Innovate WithIN Facebook page. For more information, visit innovatewithin.org.
Westfield High School students interested in joining the Shark Tank Club can contact Moore at moorej@wws.k12.in.us.
Since writing this story, Alexa has left the Tutor Us team. Liam Lloyd said, “Alexa was an awesome partner and is a huge reason why we’ve had so much success. Now, I’m preparing to take an even bigger role on this project and I wish her the best in everything she does.”
