Tutor Spotlight: Libby Anderson

December 9, 2024

In the 2024/25 school year, Heart tutors are supporting over 150 students across 4 Charleston schools! One of our dedicated tutors in Charleston is Libby Anderson; Libby has tutored at Sanders-Clyde Elementary for the past two years and helps recruit her PURE Insurance colleagues to tutor with her! She took some time to talk with us and share her experience.

Q: How did you get involved with Heart Math Tutoring?

Libby: I have always really enjoyed working with children and through my work (PURE Insurance), we had partnered with Communities in Schools, and I had a lunch buddy at Sanders Clyde. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit that partnership ceased to exist. Then last year our Community Engagement Committee started up this partnership with Heart at Sanders Clyde, which is right in our office’s back door, and I immediately jumped on the opportunity. I also joined the Community Engagement Committee and throughout the course of last year kind of took on this partnership.

Q: Outside of math, what do you talk about with your students?

Libby: I love to hear about their families and what they’re doing outside of school. A lot of my students have been oldest siblings, so they kind of take on this protective role with their little siblings who also attend Sanders Clyde. So, we’ve talked about that a lot.

Q: How have you seen your students grow throughout the year now that you’re in your second year?

Libby: From building that relationship with them, my students became more comfortable and more excited because I think we trusted each other and had a rapport. I saw a big change from start to end of last year in their confidence. It was really cool to see that at the beginning of last year they had almost a disinterest or apathy towards math versus the end of the year, they were a lot more excited and kind of breezing through the content. I would say overall, the level of engagement and focus dramatically increased from start to end.

Also, for one of my students, since she and I worked together all of last year and now we’re continuing tutoring this year; she knows me, she knows what to expect and she is excited. When she walks into school, she’s excited to see me and it’s definitely a good start to the day.

Q: As someone who works full time, how do you balance tutoring with your work schedule?

Libby:  I am fortunate to work at a company where we have unlimited volunteer time off. PURE Insurance really encourages people from an executive level to get involved and be an active member in our community. When recruiting tutors from PURE, I could not speak more highly about what a great way tutoring is to start my Wednesdays. To start my day doing something beyond myself and it’s right out our back door. It’s so easy, important and rewarding. I feel very fortunate to work at a company that wants us to get involved.

Q: What is your favorite part of being a tutor?

Libby: Seeing my students at the end of last year versus the beginning and developing a relationship. To have consistency and the individual attention towards the students goes a long way. So, being there and the students knowing they can rely on me every week [has been a favorite part].

The students don’t view it as extra math help, they view tutoring as a cool thing that they get to do. Being able to teach them and engage them in math through this positive setting is a lot of fun. Also, the positive reinforcement built into the content, like the road map and the stickers; the students take a lot of pride in it and seeing them proud is awesome.

My other student from last year graduated from the program but I saw him in the cafeteria this morning and he ran up and gave me a big hug. It was great to see him and even though summer has passed and we’re into the school year, to know that he still remembers me and that hopefully I’ve made an impact, that really warmed my heart.

Thank you, Libby, for your dedication to Charleston students! To join Libby and her colleagues at PURE Insurance in making a positive impact in the lives of your community’s students, sign up to volunteer today.