Potencia Inc.
Organization Details
Potencia leverages civic engagement to improve access to personalized English language education for adult learners. Tutors are organized into chapters and trained throughout the 10-week semester in cultivating leadership and intercultural skills through the Potencia Tutoring Handbook, workshops, and community events. In three years, we aim to establish 50 chapters with 1,000 trained tutors to serve 2,000 active learners powered by our mobile app. In five years, we envision serving more than 10,000 adult immigrants.
Impact Story
Potencia began in 2019 as a class project for two non-native English-speaking students, Amanda Wang and Jun Yoon, in the Tufts University M.S. in Innovation and Management program. Our journey began with a vision of a more inclusive society, where language barriers would no longer hamper community integration, and economic opportunities. The co-founders recognized the pressing need for accessible language education as we witnessed the challenges faced by millions of adults striving to participate fully in society, but hindered by language barriers. In Greater Boston, only 5% of the adult English learning needs are being met by existing services (The Boston Foundation, 2019). This language divide is impacting the fabric of our society, affecting everything from economic mobility to health outcomes and social integration.
Our solution is to leverage civic engagement and train civic-minded college students and corporate employees as volunteer English tutors. Organized into chapters at their schools and businesses, tutors work 1:1 or in small groups with learners who pay a modest fee per class for commitment to learning, while scholarships are available upon application. Classes are online or in person and focus on building confidence and improving English communication skills. Since 2019, Potencia has expanded its tutor base to college students from six universities in Greater Boston who have contributed over 1,100 learning hours to their communities.
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