Racine Public Library's After School Math Club

Wisconsin student helps his peers understand math. (Racine Journal Times, 3/14/2011)

Excerpt:   Fifth-grader Sandeep Reddy approached the library counter with one question. He wasn't inquiring about a book to check out, as you might expect of someone his age. Sandeep was asking if he could run math programs for students.

"It was the first time I've had anybody in elementary school come forward with a program idea and have it very well organized," said Becky Spika, program coordinator for the Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St. "We met and I just was like, 'Ah! This is great. Thank you.' "

Sandeep, of Racine, ended up leading a math workshop and now, as a seventh-grader, he's in the midst of leading his fourth student math group at the library. Sandeep said he came up with the idea for the math groups and continues to lead them for one reason: to help others.

"I want everyone to have the same advantage in their life. It's not fair for them to not understand or not have their friends help them or be shunned in their classes," said Sandeep, 12, explaining he started helping dyslexic friends with math in fifth grade at The Prairie School, 4050 Lighthouse Drive, which he still attends. "I didn't just give them the answer. I pulled them in the right direction so that gave me the thought, once I was older and could think beyond my school, that I could help others."