A high school senior in Palm Beach County is spending his free time helping kids who might otherwise fall behind in school, one math lesson at a time.
Benjamin Kaufman, a senior at American Heritage High School, has tutored more than 40 underserved students since his family moved from Chicago to Boca Raton two years ago. He spends his time volunteering at the Milagro Center in Delray Beach, a nonprofit that works with children who don’t have easy access to the kind of educational support many other students take for granted.
For Kaufman, the reward isn’t just about getting the right answer on a worksheet.
“My favorite thing by far is seeing how happy they get when they realize they can do it,” he said.
A Passion That Started Back Home
Kaufman’s interest in tutoring didn’t start in Florida. Back in Chicago, he was once on the receiving end of tutoring himself. He also took part in math competitions growing up, which eventually led him to start tutoring other students. When his family relocated to South Florida, he wanted to keep that work going.
“I realized here that they have a very similar problem,” Kaufman said. “That a lot of students, in underserved communities, were not getting the math instruction they needed.”
Many of the kids he works with at the Milagro Center come from immigrant families, and language barriers often make schoolwork even harder for them to keep up with.
“To me, it means that they have not been provided the same opportunities other students have, so I’m just trying to do my best to fill that gap,” he said.
More Than Just Math
Kaufman says his goal goes beyond helping students catch up in class. He hopes that by working closely with younger students, he can encourage some of them to eventually become tutors themselves.
“I’m trying to do everything I can to try and teach about teaching and get others into it and to get these students back up to grade level,” he said.
He also wants his lessons to leave students with something that lasts well beyond a math lesson — confidence in themselves.
“I know that these students are going to remember this one teacher made a huge impact. He believed in me, he knew that I could do it,” Kaufman said.
For a high school student balancing his own coursework, the time commitment is worth it, he says, because of the difference it makes in someone else’s life.
“Knowing that I’m making an impact on others is the greatest use of time for everyone,” Kaufman said.
Reporting based on information shared by Milagro Center volunteers.
