The Opportunity Kicks Tutoring, known as the OKT group, is a group run by Augustana students which tutor refugee children in the Quad Cities area every week.
Opportunity Kicks Tutoring originally began as a local non-profit organization with the goal of letting the children of the refugee and immigrant community in the Quad Cities play soccer for free. This helps these kids, who live under the poverty line, play sports that their family cannot afford to spend money on.
Opportunity Kicks Tutoring was founded in 2012 and has blossomed into an organization with approximately 20 Augustana tutors and 20 kids. The tutors are Augustana students with Education and non-Education majors, who serve as peer mentors for the kids. The kids are ranging from grade 2nd to 8th, are a curious and active group of students.
Augustana helps expose the kids to a college atmosphere and enhance their confidence in academics and personal life by the one-on-one attention.
“Not only is it fun for a 4th grader to have a cool ‘college buddy’ but it’s also nice for Augie students to spend some time with such a fun-loving and silly group of young kids,” said Anna Tegge, an OKT executive board member.
The group meets every Thursday from 4:30pm to 6pm. OKT’s executive board organizes the lesson plan for the week. They help the kids do their homework as well as plan some fun activities for them occasionally.
“The club’s goals are to foster the importance of academics, increase personal motivation, have a healthy attitude towards diversity, and provide a safe and fun environment for the kids,” said Tegge.
For the end of this year, the group is doing a decade project. Each kid is assigned to research about an American decade with the help of Augustana tutors. They will then be writing a personal historical fiction story using themselves as the protagonist in their time period as soon as they are done with their research.
OKT also hosts a “Hullapallooza” celebration. On this day, the Opportunity Kicks kids have the chance to play with the men and women’s varsity soccer teams. After games, they will celebrate with pizza, snacks and hand picked book gifts for every kid.
OKT’s goal is to make a difference for the refugee kids around the Quad Cities as well as the community in general.
“Kids that are well-educated, connected to their community, and following in the footsteps of good role models, become better citizens and grow to be successful, productive members of society,” says Tegge.