E.C. Goodwin Junior Named President of Connecticut Association of National Honor Societies

The pandemic has not stopped E.C. Goodwin Junior Maria Caceres from connecting with her peers and striving to improve her school community.

Maria, Vice President of the E.C. Goodwin chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) and recently named President of the Connecticut Association of National Honor Societies, created the E.C. Goodwin Peer Tutoring Program with the aid of her fellow National Honor Society members this school year.

The inspiration for the Peer Tutoring Program, which is entirely run by students, came last spring during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maria and fellow NHS Vice President Layla Addy witnessed their friends quietly struggling in their academics, and when the school year began in August, they realized students were not just in struggling with their studies, but also in need of a peer-to-peer support system.

Now fully up and running, the Peer Tutoring Program helps several dozen students in a variety of academic and trade topics. Small study groups help students arrange their schedules and focus on their academic goals, while tutors work one-on-one with their peers to master content and build confidence to advocate for themselves when they are need of help. Tutors are also acquiring valuable teaching skills across academic subjects and in their trade area.

Maria is enrolled in all honors classes, ranked fourth in her class, and was accepted to the New York University Tisch Future Artists Program with a full scholarship for summer 2021.