Children and parents alike have faced unique struggles in the past year under quarantine; many caretakers have taken on a new responsibility: teaching their children at home. To lend a hand, two friends on the pre-medical path at UC Davis — Vikki Krysov and Michelle Balshin — launched StudentSphere, a student-sourced, volunteer tutoring program intended to assist students in grades K-12 during the pandemic.

The idea was born when Krysov witnessed her older sister, a single parent and an essential worker, struggling to help her daughter with remote schooling.

“It was really challenging for me to hear that she was having so much difficulty and that there were plenty of people like that in my community. I really wanted to do something about it,” said Krysov.

Now a year in, StudentSphere hosts virtual mentorships between 350 mentees and 500 college mentors from 78 universities nationwide, including UCs and the Ivy League. 

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