Students Helping Students Help Themselves

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Betania Adane. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

When it comes to education, it’s not an even playing field. Betania Adane, 17, is quick to point out advantages that put some students ahead of the game—money for private tutors, parents or family members familiar with the college application process, the ability to speak English and other circumstances. Over the years, she observed and experienced many roadblocks to education that peaked as she started preparing for the SAT. With effort, she not only excelled but helped others do the same.

Betania founded Thinkpros and Minority Prep last year to increase access to standardized test prep and English as a Second Language (ESL) materials for minority, first-generation and low-income students. Thinkpros is a TikTok account with 3.2 million views where she highlights question types, study guides, personal advice for exam success, etc. Fifteen thousand students in 70 countries use her resources.

Minority Prep enlists 75 volunteer tutors—with 40 more waiting to be matched—to work with students around the world preparing for tests or learning English. Betania herself has tutored more than 270 people and has developed free SAT bootcamps, group classes and review sessions. One beneficiary of Betania’s resources earned a 790 on the math portion of the SAT, a proud moment for Betania, and has recently returned to volunteer.

Betania plans to major in computer science next year and has a particular passion for machine learning after a summer program with the Harvard Open Bio Lab, in which she identified ovarian cancer biomarkers using the technology.

What inspires you to volunteer?

I used to tutor a lot. I was in my school’s National Honor Society, and I created my school’s African Association in ninth grade. We put on dances and did community service like making cards for people in hospitals. That experience showed how much of an impact I could make on people’s lives, even as a ninth grader starting a club and prepared me for Minority Prep.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Thinkpros and Minority Prep.

I try to post on Thinkpros twice a week with things that I wish I’d known before taking the SAT or what English-learners need. I also include the type of resources that are best for exam success: cheat sheets, notes, vocab guides and grammar guides. I’ll make videos offering grammar tips. I’ll guide them to the best free SAT resources that we have available on our page as well as the link for help with Minority Prep.

Every Saturday, I have a group class. After people use our resources and take the SAT, I ask if they want to help as a tutor. They can tutor ESL or the SAT. There are many people in different countries who benefit from personal tutors due to time zone conflicts. In January, I also collaborated with another student on a student app for SAT and ACT tutoring called crackd.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

For most of my life, I’ve lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is a diverse area that also has a lot of underserved people. Because I grew up in Germany and immigrated to the U.S., that’s shown me a lot of different stories as well. I saw—and experienced—a lot of existing problems, especially with the educational system. In high school, there are AP classes, the SAT, etc. and I didn’t have a family to get me through all of that.

That’s the main reason why I created Minority Prep and Thinkpros. The latter is how I advertise Minority Prep. The SAT turned into a digital format, which meant there were virtually no free resources besides the College Board. I had to spend a lot of time to find resources, and I didn’t have access to expensive tutoring and things that other people did.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

It’s all online right now, but in the future, I’d love to do in person activities as well. I want to expand to AP testing and high school content like calculus, and I’d love to add a computer science component.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

Societal issues have made many minorities feel like education is not attainable, so giving students that light and showing them that they deserve it and can succeed in high school and standardized testing is most rewarding. Their stories don’t have to end because they don’t have access to these resources.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

You’re never too young to start. I was thinking about creating this organization for a long time. It didn’t hit me to actually start doing it until I struggled with the SAT, and I saw my peers and family members struggling with standardized testing and with education in general. Age doesn’t really matter as long as you have good intentions and drive, and you know the audience that you want to help. You can do anything that you pay heart to.

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.

The March SAT is historically one of the hardest, so I want help my students relax and feel confident with our review. I’m also excited for our bootcamps. It’s hard material, but I love making topics more digestible for students and sharing tips they may not see anywhere else, especially with grammar.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

A lot of us think our voices don’t matter, or that we should just focus on going to school every day and doing what’s expected. But all of your concerns and everything that you’ve been through can be channeled into something greater for the world. I struggled a lot with learning and with, for example, the SAT and assimilating to the American education system, but I was able to channel that into something that helped a lot of other people just like me.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Betania? Find local volunteer opportunities.