Making a Difference, Kid by Kid

How Kid by Kid founder Dax Gutekunst (‘23) serves the Bishop’s community and beyond

Tate Vaccaro

According 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

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.”

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kidbykid_tutoring Friday wrapped up Kid By Kid’s School Supply Drive at The Bishop’s School! After 2 weeks of collecting supplies, the next step of assembling the kits began! The School Supplies kits will be delivered to Kid By Kid Learners on Halloween and will include a Halloween Treat. Kid By Kid Tutors are really looking forward to finally meeting their online Learners in person (masked and socially-distanced, of course!). We’d like to thank the generosity of The Bishop’s School community that enabled the great success of this much needed effort! Stay tuned for pics of kits being delivered on Halloween! October 25

kidbykid_tutoring #bishops #thebishopschool #volunteer #sandiego #donating #outreach #kidbykid #kidbykidtutoring #donateforagoodcause #bishops #missionhillssandiego #communityservice October 25

Another aspect of the online transition that Dax enjoys is receiving emails from tutors after each session. “It’s the best feeling when tutors share things like, ‘Ini got a perfect score on his spelling test’ or ‘Michelle did her homework and remembered her crayons for our math lesson’ or ‘We studied for history together and Maddie got a 100% on her test’.” Dax mentioned that Bishop’s has played a vital role in shaping his perception of service. In particular, he is especially grateful for Dr. Moseley’s help as Kid By Kid’s club sponsor. “Dr. Moseley has been a great mentor and inspiration to me. He has been immensely supportive throughout my journey in shaping Kid By Kid into what it is today.” Dax also has a great appreciation for Director of Service Learning, Mrs. Jacqueline Gomez who, according to him, “has been a great champion of the Kid By Kid cause and has been so enthusiastic and encouraging since the beginning.” This month, Dax held his first-ever all-school service drive for Kid By Kid which ran from October 12th until October 23rd. The drive divided up the distribution of school supplies among various grade levels. Sixth graders were assigned paper/ notebooks, seventh-graders brought pencils, eighth-graders brought crayons, ninth-graders brought crayons, tenth-graders brought erasers, eleventh-graders brought glue sticks, and twelfth-graders brought highlighters. His goal is to package and distribute 100 kits to Kid By Kid learners on October 31st (Halloween) and he anticipates tutors having the opportunity to personally drop off a kit to their tutee in a socially distanced manner. Dax hopes to continue building upon the many accomplishments and successes that Kid by Kid has already achieved. Despite facing obstacles amidst a pandemic, he said, “Kid by Kid has taken on a life of its own. We’ve established programs in 12 schools, are the foundation for 3 separate NHS projects, have partnered with TVIA-San Diego and have an (IRC-brokered) partnership with the Karen Organization of San Diego. I’m truly amazed at the genuine interest in helping others. My hope is to still be helping kids through Kid By Kid for many years after I leave Bishop’s.”

#AESTHETIC

On the desire for artsy home screens, school notes, and lives

Clare Malhotra

Over the last few weeks, social media sites like Instagram and TikTok have flooded with photos of aesthetic home screens created with the new iOS 14 iPhone update. While some people grouped apps by color alongside new widgets, others created entirely new app logos. Still, others made each app look the same and removed all words to distinguish between apps. With the arrival of iOS 14, the desire for these aesthetics suddenly became important to many people who saw these trends on social media. This parallels many occurrences throughout the last decade: following the invention of Pinterest and increasing popularity of social media, teenagers saw increased polaroid walls, collages, posed studying photos, heartshaped foamy lattes, Instagram filters. The desire to cultivate a personal aesthetic—in bedrooms, social media, school—became synonymous with having one’s life together, even though it’s a superficial measurement. This begs the question: what are the benefits of aesthetics or color-coordination, not just on home screens, but in organization, such as school note-taking? With the emergence of bullet journaling in 2013—a method of personal organization involving to-do lists and goals and popularized on social media with calligraphy and drawing, came the desire to transfer these aesthetics over to note-taking. But while bullet journaling stems more from an idea of organizing one’s life in a pretty or appealing way, or calming oneself through creating art, school notes require functionality. Vanessa Yang (‘21), whose bullet journaling Instagram account (@vanessajournals) has accumulated nearly 60,000 followers, explained that she takes a much different approach to school notes. “I don’t really make my notes as ‘aesthetic’ as I try to make my journal.” she said. “I know that ultimately my notes and homework are meant for me to learn, not to look cute, so utility always comes first.”

Sara Hamadeh (‘22) color codes her notes for functional purposes but doesn’t spend too much time on an elaborate title or aesthetic.

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Several Bishop’s students known for sity of Melbourne, the color green, which has a their organized notes noted similar philosophies low wavelength and an association with nature, to Vanessa, that they like organization and col- correlates with improved concentration and or-coding, but only to a certain extent. “I start- creativity. According to a different study and aned making the notes pretty because I thought it cient Chinese Feng Shui color-organizing techwould make paying attention more fun. But the niques, warmer colors, especially orange, since problem was it took too long, so I’d always miss it combines the effects of red and yellow, tend to what the teacher said next,” Nadia Bitar (‘22) remind people of sunsets and connote light and pointed out. Some people explained that they activity. This can correlate with increased focus found a middle ground where they could keep and improved mood. Finally, blue, the most their notes organized and easy to read without popular favorite color, tends to correlate with taking the productivity, time to draw “I don’t really make my notes “especialcomplementary pictures as ‘aesthetic’ as I try to make ly in highly intellectual or add unnecessary my journal. I know that work which requires a headings. “I ultimately my notes and high cognireally like to color coor- homework are meant for me tive load,” one color dinate and separate to learn, not to look cute, so psychology article notmy notes utility always comes first.” ed, “for ininto differ- stance, proent sections - Vanessa Yang (‘21) grammers based on the or academtopic,” ex- ics.” While plained Sara Hamadeh (‘22). She tends to use the some of these studies conflict about speciforganization in her notes for functional purpos- ic colors signify concentration and which es rather than aesthetics. “My notes don’t look represent creativity, most agree that comlike the fancy notes you see online,” Eliana Birn- binations of colors and overall color-coorbaum-Nahl (‘23) agreed, “because it’s pretty much dination aid in balance and organization. colored headings and highlighted words, but it This data suggests that different coldoesn’t take a lot of effort and is pretty helpful.” ors can improve mental health and intelSeveral interviewees talked about the lectual ability. Just as separating notes into way organizing sections by color helped with or- sections by color can improve organizaganization. But is there any science correlating tion and mood, keeping one’s iOS 14 iPhone color and organization or productivity? What home screen organized may make them hapother benefits may they have? According to a pier and keep them calm and motivated. study performed by Dr. Kate Lee at the Univer-