College-level tutoring program TeenSHARP is opening its regional headquarters in Wilmington Thursday. TeenSHARP seeks out promising students of color to help prepare them for higher education during Saturday class sessions at the University of Delaware.
“Quite frankly, we’re looking for what we call unapologetic nerds,” said Founder and CEO Tatiana Poladko. “We’re looking kids who love learning for the sake of learning, who are excited by learning, who want to also intellectually engage with the challenges that exist in the community.”
Over the summer, TeenSHARP helped launch the Delaware Goes to College Academy seeking to provide guidance to hundreds of high-performing, low-income students across the state of Delaware.
It’s new Delaware regional headquarters at the Community Education Building in Wilmington is another step in the group’s development. It will house staff, and provide space for close to 300 students enrolled in the programs to study and receive academic advising throughout the week.
Paladko says students will have an afterschool opportunity to “Review their academic performance to date. Identify their specific academic goals they need to be working on. Assist them with different subjects they may be struggling with. Work with tutors and mentors that our scholars are assigned to.”
Poladko says she hopes the new headquarters will soon evolve into the area’s first community college access center, available to all students.