Our Mission
To develop an interest in mathematics, increase college readiness, and promote successful future careers for children from kindergarten to 12th grade who lack educational opportunities and resources.
News
2021 Annual Report
IntelliChoice has three primary programs:
a. On–site tutoring: It was closed due to the pandemic.
b. Online tutoring: All classes are virtual. There are two 90 minutes sessions at 10 am and
2 pm on Saturdays.
c. SAT Prep Camp: This is an intensive SAT preparation course held during summer break.
Classes run for 2 hours per day from Monday to Friday for 4 weeks in July. UT Dallas has
covered this story on the engineering home page. See below.
Enrollment
In the 2018–2019 academic year, the tutoring program continued its rapid growth, with 1,087 students and 800 volunteers registering online. We have about 400 weekly sign-ups for the online class now.
2021 SAT Prep Camp
We held the SAT camp from July 1 to July 30 from Monday to Friday, two hours a day virtually
this year. 57 high school students were registered. Two volunteers were involved. This is a 4-week
long SAT preparatory camp designed to help underprivileged high school students perform well
on the SAT, so they can pursue their dreams of attaining higher education. Teachers focus on building
a strong foundation for the subjects tested on this exam. Students learn effective test-taking
strategies. We encourage students to register for the August SAT following the camp. IntelliChoice
covers half of the SAT fee for students taking the August test.
2021 Donations
Total Donations: $59,646
$10,000: Bank of Hope, Gil Sik Lee
$5,000: Wyn Laidig, Eugene McDermott Scholars Alumni Association
$2,500 – $4,999: Open Bank, New Song Church, Byung Joo Lee, Byung Woo Lee
$1000 – $2,499: Ho Sung Cha, Yang Ho Kim, Consular Office of Korea in Dallas, Susan Boyle,
Yun Won Kim, Damion Kistler, Heungsik Kim, Kyung Kyu Kim
$500 – $999: Song Il Pak, Gregory Marchiafava, Bilal Akin, Jaesung Ryu, Kwi Hyun Yoon,
William Coco
$250 – $499: Joo Dong Lee, Kyungeun Kim, Sunyoung Yi, Phillip Thompson
100 – $249: Anil Bhatia, Hae Chan Lee, Sung Tae Kim, Ericsson, Young Ho Sohn, Pearl
Gutierrez, Hyun Joo Nam, Wooram Park, Woo Yeol Choi, Chadwin Young, Kamran Kiasaleh,
Haeja Seo, Sangwoo Kim, Sandeep Upendra, Diane Spradlin, Texas Instruments
Thank you to all of our donors!
Enrollment
In the 2018–2019 academic year, the tutoring program continued its rapid growth, with 1,087 students and 800 volunteers registering online. We have about 400 weekly sign-ups for the online class now.
Major News
Online Registration
We have moved to an online system for all student and volunteer registration: www.intellichoice.org/sign-up.
Online face-to-face and one-on-one tutoring
We have conducted face-to-face online tutoring since 2018. This program offers new options for both remote students and tutors. Now due to the pandemic, all tutoring sessions are virtual. Classes are 1:2 ratio of tutor to students.
Financial Literacy
Our long-time sponsor, Bank of Hope has conducted financial literacy training for 15 students or families of Intellichoice in 2021. They have also done it a few years ago for a group of high school students where they covered saving, credit score, loans, etc. Parents like this program because their children seem to have a better response to outside sources.
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson
who is an education advisor and branch manager at Intellichoice and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas elected to the IEEE MTT-S President (https://mtt.org/january-2022-wim-column/). Congratulations!
New branch opened in 2021
Nashville, Tennessee Branch. Opened in December 2021 and so far, 25 parents have registered. The branch manager is Dr. Gashaw Bekele who is a professor of Geography at the Tennessee State University in Nashville.
Student Organization
There are several Intellichoice high school and university student organizations such as UT Dallas, West Plano High, Coppell High, TAMS, St. Mark’s, SEM, TAG, Hebron High, Hockaday.
chapters. The student organizations have been developing their leadership, volunteering as a team, recruiting new volunteers from school, and supporting each branch. This group effort helps retain and develop student tutors.
Engineering School of University of Texas at Dallas has covered Intellichoice
summer SAT program
https://engineering.utdallas.edu /engineering/news/archive/2021-fall/engineering-students-tutor-high-schoolers-for-sat/
Our twin students, Tiobsta and Soliana Ayele
have received a scholarship of $86,721 per year per student for 4 years from Northwestern University in Chicago. Our hope is to help every student succeed as they have.
College-admitted students received IntelliChoice scholarship awards
We deposit the money into a 529 college fund designated for the good students; the money is released only when the student matriculates into a college. The purpose of this scholarship is to encourage our students to attend college for future career development.
Hamere Abate UT Dallas $1,200
Valeria Dupree Univ. of Arkansas $500
Ruth Bekele Univ. of Houston $500
Bemnet Bezuayeh Collin College ,362
Fekimeriam Nahusenary W. Collin College $570
Biruke Babi Univ. of North Texas $604
Kdist Melaku UT Arlington $603
Mahlet Gadissa Prairie View A&M $625
Edlawit Melaku UT Arlington $601
Delina Tewolde Univ. of North Texas $674
Precious Dawson Dallas College $2,642
Xochilt Leon UT Arlington $2,490
Kayleigh Edwards Texas Southern Univ. $2,739
Engineering Majors Tutor High School Students for SAT via Zoom
While many college students were catching up with social lives and soaking up the summer sun, two students in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas led a virtual summer SAT preparation course.
Isaac Brooks and Tori Moore are volunteer tutors for the annual course sponsored by the local nonprofit organization IntelliChoice.
Biomedical engineering sophomore Tori Moore tutored this summer through Zoom to help high school students prepare for the math portion of the SAT.
“I tutored a lot in high school, and I really enjoy it,” said Moore, a sophomore pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering. “I love that eureka moment when a student gets it.” IntelliChoice offers a free 30–day summer virtual SAT camp to rising 9th through 12th grade students. Fifty–seven Dallas–area high school students signed up and logged in for two hours of class each weekday morning in July.
Moore, a Eugene McDermott Scholar from West Palm Beach, Florida, prepped for her own SAT with success but said the guided practice can be more efficient and create better results. “Doing practice on your own is valuable but having someone who can answer questions that may arise as you are working is beneficial,” Moore said. “I found that when I was doing my own preparations, any time I was confused on a topic it would take a good deal of time to track down an answer.” Moore, who has tutored for IntelliChoice since Fall 2020, led one hour of SAT math instruction via the Zoom platform daily Monday through Friday. Brooks, a computer engineering junior who also shares Moore’s love of math, but led an hour daily covering
the verbal portion of the SAT. Both have completed their calculus requirement and speak fluidly about Math SAT
content including algebra, geometry, statistics, probability, and graphing. The tutors used the Zoom platform with a combination of Khan Academy tutorials, Microsoft OneNote, virtual whiteboards, and other digital tools such as Google Forms. They integrated survey questions for checking understanding and enabled chat to give immediate feedback. “Tori and Isaac used online examples from Khan Academy or scanned examples from the SAT book we are using,” IntelliChoice founder Dr. Gil Lee explained. “There are a lot of nice resources, and this online class was a great opportunity to use their technical skills to present the material in the best way possible.” IntelliChoice offers year–round math tutoring and was cofounded in 1993 by Lee, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Jonsson School, and his wife Dr. Jung Lee, a professor of instruction also in the Jonsson School Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The free tutoring was provided through the nonprofit IntelliChoice, which is co-founded
by Dr. Gil Lee, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Jonsson School.
Prior to COVID–19 closures, IntelliChoice served students in public libraries, community centers, and schools throughout the Dallas area and in Austin, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Arizona. Ten on–site tutoring centers became available in September 2021 as virtual tutoring continues. There have been as many as 800 tutors comprised of college and high school students in past semesters, with in–person sites having multiple tutors
and a site manager. Brooks, an IntelliChoice tutor since fall 2019, tutored students at Dan F. Long Middle School in Carrollton–Farmers Branch ISD. “I started working with mostly sixth graders and middle school students, and I loved every second of it,” he said. “I found that teaching math concepts was only half the battle. You also have to make sure students are staying on task and working on things that are challenging to them.”
Isaac Brooks, a computer engineering junior, tutored high schoolers this summer for the verbal portion of the SAT; Brooks has been a math tutor through the IntelliChoice program since the fall of 2019.
It is easier to give immediate feedback and encouragement to look at tougher problems when tutoring in person, Lee said. Without facial cues or body language, it is tough to measure boredom and true participation in an online setting. “What has been useful is they [Brooks and Moore] set up an anonymous Google Form where students can submit feedback on the structure of the class,” Lee said. “They also used polls to gauge the student’s understanding of the questions they asked. These helped them to stay in touch with how the students are feeling about the class and how
confident they are with the material.” Summer prep students each received a hard copy of The Princeton Review SAT Prep and were assigned “homework” each day. The SAT is broken up into three sections and lasts 180 minutes. The cost is $55, and IntelliChoice reimbursed $30 to students who submitted official scores after sitting for the August test. Brooks, who grew up in West Fargo, North Dakota, had summer jobs and didn’t always
feel enthusiastic about prepping and studying while school was out. He said that the students being tutored are truly inspiring for using their free time for academic pursuits. “When I see high school students taking two hours out of their summer mornings to study for the SAT with us, I feel good about their work ethic and their potential to do well,” Brooks said. “The fact that they show up every morning and work hard is a testament to their diligence and academic focus.”
IntelliChoice, Inc.
PO Box 796052, Dallas, TX 75379
www.intellichoice.org
IntelliChoice is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization registered in the state of Texas.
EIN: 30-0282507
Board Members
Dr. Gil Lee (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas)
Mr. Abhay Sawant (Entrepreneur and investor)
Dr. Dan Heitjan (Professor and Chair of Statistical Sciences at Southern Methodist University,
Professor of Population & Data Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical School, and Director of
the SMU/UTSW PhD program in Biostatistics. Fellows of the American Statistical Association,
Mathematical Statistics, and Society for Clinical Trials)
