DEMANDS
* Seminary students have challenges with certain subjects.
* When a subject is difficult it is hard to keep up. So a student might fall behind. And then it is more difficult to catch up.
* Usually much more time and energy is spent doing the assignments in the most difficult subjects.
* Frustration, aggravation and depression may be experienced.
* Grades can go from bad to worse.
* The professors can help a little but they are not mandated to tutor the student.
* Most seminary students have very limited funds to hire a tutor.
* Not getting help in a timely fashion can lead to withdrawing from (or flunking) a class.
* Doing poorly (or flunking) a class can harm (or end) a scholarship
* Passing certain classes are required for graduation.
* The understanding of subject matter in class could be required as building blocks for future classes as is teh case with Greek or Hebrew.
Extra struggles in difficult subjects cause stress that spills over into other areas like family, health, ministry, etc.
* Possible subjects for subsidized tutoring might include
academics like:
Greek, Hebrew, theology, church history, etc.
computer skills like:
Word, End Note, Power Point, Bible Works, Accordance
languages like:
English for TOFEL, French & German for PhD
foundational skills like:
research, technical writing, preaching, teaching
SUPPLIES
* After a seminary student passes a class they are eligible to become a grader for that class.
* On the campus there are more than enough students that are qualified to tutor the classes that they passed.
* Plenty of seminary students can use additional income.
* One of the challenges for a seminary student to find outside employment is that it needs to coordinate with their class schedule. It would be easy to coordinate a tutoring schedule with fellow students.
* Besides students the other possible persons that could tutor seminary students include: graduates, pastors, missionaries, retired persons, subject matter experts, and many more.
* There are seminary graduates that are struggling to find livable income from the local church, mission field or church planting. Tutoring could serve as a tent making kind of a trade. This could give them income while they also provide their services to those who cannot afford to pay.
* There are seminary graduates that have a corporate job or own a business. Their need is not financial. But by tutoring it keeps them sharp and involved in meaningful ministry.
CONNECTIONS
* The name of this is SUBSIDIZED Tutoring. If this were a fully commercial operation then the person receiving the tutoring would pay the going market rate. But that is not an option with most seminary students. Therefore Four Bridges Ministry will include designating funds for this project when approaching the support partners.
There will be a tactful appeal on the Four Bridges web site for financial support partners to designate this fund.
* The founder will actively solicit large contributions from major donors for this fund. This will bring in many thousands of dollars because he believes this is one of the very best philanthropic investments.
* Along the way testimonies will be gracefully requested from those who gave and received the tutoring. Quotes from this will be on the web site with links to full texts. This will inspire more donations and intercessions.
* An Advisor Board from appropriate disciplines will be enrolled to oversee the design, implementation, operations, improvements and other things.
The Advisory Board will be accountable to the Board of Directors of Four Bridges and will have access to the many and various experts on the ever-growing Board of Advisors.
The mandate and guideline for the Advisory Board is part of the Blueprint that is used to guide the ministry to Launch Day.
Some of the parts of the Blueprint include: 1) screening process for prospective tutors, 2) contract with the tutor, 3) ways to match tutor and tutoree (person receiving tutoring) , 3) reporting (of progress, problems, needs, wants, etc.)
A strong recommendation is that the one receiving tutoring receive an invoice that states the wage range that tutors are paid and the administrative percent. They are invited to pay a TOKEN payment of one dollar per hour. Plus they can GIVE a DONATION if they like.
There will also be an option for the student to pay the full price. The Four Bridges system of matching with screened tutors, reporting systems, prayer coverage and access to the special resources for them make this have high value. Full price allows many more to participate because the donated funds do not limit the tutoring hours.
There could be a system for support partners to place funds into an escrow account for that student so that tutoring is readily available. The contributor to this fund would not receive a tax deduction. They could get their money back at any time. This money would automatically be sent back to them upon the student’s graduation. There would be a small administrative fee. Such support partners could include a parent, grandparent, home church, friend, etc. It will be promoted as a tangible way of saying, “I am there with you if the going gets tough. I cannot personally help you with those seminary subjects. But I can make a way for a qualified tutor to work with you.”
Currently some tutoring takes place in the student center. That offers a combination of privacy and pubic exposure. There is a female professor that tutors Hebrew there to women and men. So meeting in the student center or the dining commons are options.
There are some seminary students that tutor high school students. Usually they go to their home. Meeting at the residence of either party could be an option.
There are sales representatives and businessmen that use coffee shops like Denny’s to have meetings that last an hour or more.
There are consultants and coaches that use the phone plus email to provide their services. (thus geography is not an issue)
The younger generation is using Instant Messaging with increasing frequency.
Web cams bring in another possible dimension.
Consider that the seminary has several extension campuses. There are those who can give and receive tutoring there and/or here.
Along the way Four Bridges will work with those who give and receive tutoring to cooperatively develop learning aids. They will volunteer their time and talents to help us cooperatively create effective tools like flash cards, quizzes, interactive games, etc. These will become part of the assets of the ministry. Those who are involved in tutoring will be given proper pass codes. They will have free access to the PDF files and similar materials. The product development team will craft ways to give away a generous sampling over the web and sell memberships to access more of the same. These materials will always have an evaluation and feed back form. This will be used to make revisions and improvements. The modules that have been proven to be most effective will be sold as part of an interactive CD or DVD.
Four Bridges is aimed at developing proprietary software that will be licensed at a reasonable rate to Christian organizations. This is a small but important part of the overall system. Yet we do not want to get weighed down with Human Resources kinds of challenges. Fortunately there are various vendors these days that can take care of clerical, financial, tax reporting, health insurance, etc. And as we learn how to work with them then we can guide others who license our future software how to keep focused on what God has given them a passion about and farm out the rest.
FUTURE
* Later this system could be used at any school – seminary, Bible college, university, high school, middle school and elementary school. Private schools can use this to help level the playing field.
* The challenges for the Four Bridges Ministry Research & Development Service is to develop, test and improve it then release it in various forms. Those forms that teach the system could include: PDF files, web site, print, CD, interactive DVD, etc.
