MAKING A DIFFERENCE, KID BY KID How Kid by Kid founder Dax Gutekunst (‘23) serves the Bishop’s community and beyond Tate Vaccaro
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ccording to a study from the Migration Policy Institute, among America’s low-educated parents of young children, 77 percent are immigrants or refugees. In San Diego alone, immigrants and refugees account for 39 percent of parents residing with at least one child under the age of 18. Refugee parents are five times more likely than their native-born relatives to lack a high school diploma or equivalent, leaving a vast majority of this number lacking the income necessary to afford an education for their children. Dax Gutekunst (‘23) is battling this issue with his nonprofit organization, Kid by Kid. Kid By Kid offers free online, one-on-one tutoring for immigrant and refugee children in San Diego who face academic, social, and cultural challenges in assimilating to the United States. From the moment Dax stepped onto campus back in 2017 as a new 7th grader, his unquenchable curiosity for global education and his keen interest in service-learning were apparent. He immediately immersed himself in the wide array of on-campus opportunities that Bishop’s has to offer, trying everything from Middle School Film Club to Junior Model United Nations. Among these extracurricular activities was tutoring Karen Refugees at St. Mark’s Church in City Heights, a program led by Director of Global Education Dr. Moseley. “I really wanted to try something new, something I’d never done before.” he explained. “And that’s when I saw one of Dr. Moseley’s flyers for tutoring Karen refugees.” Dax’s interest in tutoring was influenced by the time he spent working with this program, spending his Tuesdays tutoring refugee children after school. “I really enjoyed the program—it was the highlight of my week.” he said. Dax continued with the Karen Refugee Tutoring Program into his 8th-grade year, and in that time, he started thinking about taking his passion for tutoring a step further. During the fall of 2018, Dax began to explore the different tutoring opportunities available to refugee families in San Diego and found an overarching problem in his research: there were no weekend tutoring programs to help refugee kids. Thus, Kid by Kid was born. Founding Kid by Kid, especially as an 8th grader, was no easy feat. “Starting a company or a movement is a multi-faceted process and each step needs to be deliberate,” Dax said. “Being young works in 2 different ways. On the one hand, no one takes you too
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seriously. On the other, however, many people want to help kids succeed and it just takes asking a question or sending out that email to get you to the next step.” After sending out countless emails, reading up on a variety of books (Dax personally recommends NOLO - How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation), and attending a multitude of seminars, Dax’s vision for a weekend tutoring program gradually became a reality. An arduous and time-consuming process, Dax experienced moments of doubt in carrying out his initiative. “There were times when I was discouraged and I felt like I wasn’t making any improvement or progress, but with the help of Dr. Moseley’s guidance and the support of other organizations, I found that when one door closed, there was always another that seemed to open.” And a big door that was. Through Kid By Kid, Dax has been able to assist over 50 elementary and middle school-aged children by providing them with student mentors who guide them in weekly, oneon-one tutoring sessions on Saturday mornings. Dax proudly leads over 70 Kid By Kid tutors (74 to be exact), under half of which are students from Bishop’s with others from Francis Parker and Pacific Ridge School. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes communication and alignment of schedules when trying to configure dates with Learner Families,” he explained. “Often, there are communication barriers such as language or technology issues. All of the weekly messaging leads to the culmination of lessons on Saturdays.” Following the pandemic, Dax has shifted Kid By Kid, which previously hosted in-person meetings, to an entirely virtual platform. Although Dax misses the sense of camaraderie that tutees and tutors experience when meeting in person, in some ways, the virus has been a blessing in disguise. “Kid By Kid’s shift to its online format enables the opportunity to bring together more learners and tutors than ever before. Virtually, it’s been much easier for me to step in for tutors who have something come up last minute,” Dax continued, “for example, this past Saturday, I tutored a 4th-grade boy named Maleek in math. We worked on math for quite a while so I thought we’d take a break. I showed him how to play sudoku and he loved it! We played for an extra 30 minutes after the lesson.”
