Bayside teen awarded Senate proclamation for virtual tutoring nonprofit

IMG-5074-1200×874-1

A Bayside teen was recently honored for creating a nonprofit that helps fellow students who switched to remote learning during the pandemic.

On Thursday, Aug. 19, Senator John Liu presented a New York State Senate proclamation for exemplary service to the Bayside community to 17-year-old high schooler Tae Kyu Lee, who formed Pass the Torch back in 2020. As of July 2021, the organization has provided free, virtual, one-on-one tutoring to students through 3,000 academic and extracurricular lessons.

The idea for Pass the Torch was born out of Lee’s personal philosophy of valuing diversity and different perspectives. The then-sophomore at Horace Mann High School had been interested in learning about educational inequality, which became more pronounced when schools were forced to offer remote learning, resulting in his some of his classmates struggling to keep up with this sudden shift.