PHS has a wide variety of clubs and service opportunities for students who want to engage with their school community or the community at large. Between NHS, Key Club, Leo Club, and PALS Club, there are many service opportunities for Parkland students. However, these are not the only opportunities available. Two Parkland students, Aditya Singhvi and Sanika Kothari, along with Texan student Akshat Shah, founded Big Brainers in 2020.

“Big Brainers originally started as ChessMate, a not-for-profit initiative in which Akshat…gave private chess lessons since April 2020 to develop an interest in and improve the chess skills of interested students. With an overwhelming response for chess lessons, [we] came together and streamlined [our] efforts into one not-for-profit initiative,” Aditya explained. Big Brainers now offers tutoring sessions for many school subjects since their evolution from only offering chess lessons.

The non-profit’s educational services are $5 for each one-hour session. Students of all ages, including adult learners, are eligible for these sessions. Sessions are taught by highly qualified high school and college students looking to help students maximize their strengths and improve their academic skills. Tutors are from all over the country, so anyone can get involved. The money from each session is donated to humanitarian causes, such as UNICEF and the World Wildlife Fund. Big Brainers has been able to help over 300 students and has amassed over fifty volunteers. The donations collected from every session have allowed them to raise over $25,000 for their chosen humanitarian organizations.

Aditya described how Parkland students can help get involved in the program, stating, “[They] can sign up at bigbrainers.org/about-us/apply. On the form, you can choose which subjects you are interested in and if you would not want to teach but still volunteer, you can be a part of the Tech Team, Public Relations team, Project Quantum team.” The Tech Team at Big Brainers offers support for students, parents, and volunteers when they are in need of some tech help, while Public Relations deals with social media and member outreach. Project Quantum is Big Brainers’ unique initiative to make education more accessible from home.

Aditya shared the details of the initiative, stating that, “Project Quantum’s mission is to bring free educational experiences to people by producing online videos. For example, there is a series on the Big Brainers YouTube channel on COVID-19, Chess, Math, and a few more.” You can find their YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1oJCSDGfpIrmKWUrRIHuIA/ for access to these free lessons.

If this sounds like an interesting opportunity that you would like to participate in, visit their website at www.bigbrainers.org or contact Aditya at [email protected] or Sanika at [email protected].