Meet the TikTok tutor: 16-year-old creates viral videos helping students learn math and science
Alexis Loveraz is a 16-year-old high school junior who attends a prep school in the Bronx, New York, where he has a 4.0 grade point average. But in addition to maintaining his straight A’s amid the coronavirus shift to online school, he’s also taken on the role of helping over 650,000 other students get good grades by posting videos teaching algebra, geometry and chemistry on TikTok.
Loveraz tells Yahoo Life that he’s been assisting students at his school since his freshman year by offering additional help in math and science through text messaging and Snapchat. A few months after joining TikTok, however, he decided to produce educational content to bring his knowledge to the masses.
“In February, I did my first video promoting myself, in which I stated I will target subjects such as chemistry, geometry, physics and algebra 1 and 2,” Loveraz explains to Yahoo Life. “Later that day I left school and realized my phone started to blow up and my account started to grow in large numbers.”
He started to give his growing TikTok following the opportunity to decide what content he would create by asking what concepts he should go over within each subject. “Scholars would watch my videos to review or to test themselves with a topic, plus ask questions if they wanted, which is extremely cool,” he says. Loveraz also started focusing on SAT math problems once the March test date was approaching.
He says that SAT problems are still some of his most requested to go over (despite spring testing being canceled). However, since the coronavirus began to impact schools he’s continued to think of ways to expand his online tutoring resources to supplement virtual education. He’s even created Google classrooms for social media followers to join, for more in-depth instruction, and hopes to produce longer-form videos on YouTube.
“Since there is a combination of schools giving online assignments and classes, I want scholars to feel assurance and build confidence. So if they don't truly understand a topic they can watch my videos on topics that they might not be understanding,” he explains. “TikTok is limited to only making one-minute videos. So I wish I had the opportunity in which I could explain things more in-depth.”
Still, Loveraz remains focused on his own school work and considers these tutoring videos a side project for the time being — although he admits that he’s more recently thought about pursuing a future in teaching.
“Right now I am excited to see other students understand concepts that were once hard for them because of my help,” he says. “I am truly grateful that I am able to help out other scholars like myself.”
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