If you tutor students or are considering tutoring, you may be wondering, “Does tutoring count as leadership on applications?” Whether you’re a high school student looking to apply for college or a college student looking to apply for a job or internship, this is an important question to answer.

The short answer is: No, tutoring is not considered leadership. 

Well, at least, not on its own. If you help a student with homework or studying and nothing more, then it’s not leadership. 

However, in this article, I’ll discuss how tutoring can be counted as leadership. If you’re curious about how to turn tutoring into something to help you stand out in applications, keep on reading!

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First, what is leadership in school?

Leadership in school is the act of guiding others in achieving a certain goal. As a leader, you’re expected to raise awareness about a cause and motivate others to contribute to it.

For more on what student leadership is and how to demonstrate leadership, check out this post.

Thus, tutoring meets the second requirement—achieving a certain goal. As a tutor, you’re helping another student improve in their studies.

However, tutoring does not meet the first requirement—guiding others—because as a tutor, you are one individual helping another student. You are not guiding others in making positive change. 

This may seem discouraging, but as promised, this article is to help you turn tutoring into something that is considered leadership. Below, you will find five unique methods of achieving this.

Method #1: Start a tutoring branch in a club

If you’re part of an academic school club, you can offer tutoring services to students at your school. For example, as part of a computer science club, you could start a program to help classmates in computer science classes.

Here are 5 simple steps to do this:

1. Propose the idea to your faculty advisor. 
2. Once approved, meet with the faculty advisor and club officers to plan out details.
3. Inform club members about the tutoring program and see who would be interested in tutoring.
4. Set up a system for students to request tutoring sessions and be assigned to a tutor.
5. Market the tutoring services at school (e.g. morning announcements, email newsletter, posters, club social media).

Method #2: Mentor students in an academic competition team

If you’re part of an academic competition team, you can develop resources and/or curriculum to mentor other students. 

For example, let’s say you’ve been part of Science Bowl for two years and have plenty of experience. You could create study guides and take a lead during meetings in explaining concepts. 

Here are 4 simple steps to do this: 

1. Come up with a plan of what resources or curriculum you intend to create.
2. Explain the details to your faculty advisor.
3. Once approved, assemble resources/curriculum. 
4. Share the resources and take an active role in teaching members of the team. 

This is similar to tutoring because it involves using your experience to help other students improve.

Method #3: Create your own tutoring service

If you tutor privately or as part of an organization, tutoring doesn’t count as leadership. However, if you start your own tutoring service, it is considered leadership because you created an initiative to help others.

Here are 5 simple steps to help you out: 

1. Determine who your target audience will be: What age group will you be tutoring? Where will the students be located? What subject areas will you be tutoring in?
2. Plan out how the tutoring will work. Will the tutoring be virtual or in-person? How will students request sessions?
3. Create a brand for your service. This involves creating a name, logo, and mission statement.
4. Remember, the first requirement of leadership is the act of guiding others. As such, you’ll need to recruit other students who are interested in tutoring.
5. Once you have other tutors on board, market your services.

For a detailed guide on starting your own organization, check out this post.

Starting a tutoring service is a fantastic leadership activity because it’s highly scalable. As you increase the number of tutors in your organization and reach more tutees, you’ll open up opportunities to expand your services beyond tutoring.

Method #4: Establish a tutoring partnership with a local organization

Another way to turn tutoring into something that counts as leadership is creating a tutoring partnership with an organization. A partnership involves regularly visiting an organization and bringing other tutors to help their students. (If it’s just you, then it doesn’t count as leadership.)

Here are 6 simple steps to do this:

1. Do research on local organizations in need of tutoring services. This is usually listed on their website. 
2. Once you’ve found an organization, send an email about your interest in tutoring to a suitable staff member. 
3. If they respond positively, set up a meeting time to tour the facility and meet the staff. 
4. After tutoring a few times, propose the idea of bringing other tutors. 
5. Reach out to other students who may be interested in tutoring. 
6. Work with the staff and tutors to set up a schedule for tutoring at the organization. 

Like Method #3, this is a good way to turn tutoring into a scalable leadership activity. Once you’ve established a trustworthy relationship with the organization and have plenty of tutors, you can help the organization in ways beyond tutoring.

Method #5: Plan and teach classes

Teaching is not exactly tutoring, but it’s closely related. The basic concept is the same—you use your experience to help other students learn something new. If there’s a subject you’re passionate about, you can turn it into a series of classes to teach other students about it. 

For example, if you enjoy creative writing, you can plan a series of classes to teach other students creative writing skills. Eventually, you could have your students craft their own creative writing pieces and submit them for competitions!

Here are 5 simple steps to do this:

1. Determine what the goal of your classes will be. Will they be introductory or more advanced classes? What new skills should students gain by the end of the classes? 
2. Create a broad outline of what topics you intend to teach. 
3. Set up a schedule and assign topics to each class session. 
4. Plan the curriculum in detail. Create any resources (e.g. slideshows, study guides) if necessary. 
5. Market your classes to the right audience.

Conclusion on “Does tutoring count as leadership?”

Tutoring on its own does not count as leadership. However, using any of the five methods explained in this post, you can turn tutoring into a meaningful leadership activity. So which one should you choose?

If you want the tutoring to remain within your school, you should go with the first two methods. By starting a tutoring branch within a club or mentoring students in an academic competition team, you can leverage the resources and audience already existing at school. 

If you would like a scalable leadership activity, you should go with the third or fourth methods. By creating your own tutoring service or establishing a partnership with a local organization, you create the opportunity to expand services beyond tutoring.

Finally, if you would like the greatest flexibility, you should go with the fifth method. By planning and teaching your own classes, you have the ability to teach whatever you want to others.

But no matter which method you choose, you’ll be demonstrating leadership abilities and helping more students than you could by tutoring on your own.

For more information on student leadership, check out these posts:

• Importance of Student Leadership in High School and Unique Ways to Show Leadership
• How to Start an Organization in High School in 4 Easy Steps
• How to Promote a School Club—11 Easy Ways to Attract Members

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