“Final exams begin next week. Need help organizing your studying?”
Often in the spring I imagine that ideas, plans and potential experiences float in the air like the petals of cherry blossom trees. Like the short-lived season of these trees, most ideas quickly recede into the backs of our minds before we bring them to fruition. But a person who grasps opportunities may catch one of these drifting leaves before it falls to the ground. Jacob Feit (YC ‘27) was playing games with his friends on the second days of Pesach when a new idea struck him. After chag, he didn’t hesitate to reach out to his friend Nachum Weinstock (SSSB ‘29) and put the idea into action.
Feit is a math major in YU on the actuarial track, as well as an athlete on YU’s tennis team. He tutors students in math and gives tennis lessons. Yet he found that despite apparent interest from students in these kinds of services, it is consistently difficult for providers to get their names out there.
Feit partnered with Weinstock, an experienced coder and finance major in Sy Syms, to create a website called ASK. The website serves as a site for students to offer their tutoring, haircutting, or coaching services, and for students seeking those services to message with and book providers. The website is currently completely free for both students and providers, although Feit predicts that if he expands the website to other campuses he will explore different options to monetize the project. While the services listed are currently localized to the men’s campus of YU, Feit hopes to expand to Stern’s campus as well as those of other universities.
ASK has an internal messaging system, such that any student with an account can connect with another student who may be able to help with a specific subject. It also allows tutors to organize their time by preventing people from signing up for a time slot that is already taken. Quality control is ensured by clients leaving reviews and star ratings, and users can see how many times any particular tutor or instructor has previously been booked.
I asked Feit how this website competes with or compares to YU’s existing peer tutoring system. Peer tutoring is obviously attractive because it is free, but Feit shared that some students will elect to pay for a service provided at a different time or with a different provider. Feit spoke to Dean Joe Bednarsh and offered to integrate peer tutoring and the writing center on his website. Bednarsh liked the idea and considered a potential partnership. According to Weinstock, the current peer tutoring system is often an ignored feature that YU offers, and he hopes that by integrating with ASK, more people would benefit from this service.
The creation of ASK was a learning experience for both Feit and Weinstock. They both noted that the time from the initial spark of an idea to the actual implementation of the website was very short, and that is because they had an idea and ran with it. Feit said that, for him, the most important factor in creating this website was simply “having a mission and believing that the idea would work.” According to Weinstock, the problem was clear. “Finding a tutor was way harder than it had to be, students had to scroll through WhatsApp chats in hopes of finding someone reliable and there was little transparency about pricing.” He shared with The Commentator that he feels gratified to have worked on a project that solves a real problem he noticed in his community.
With finals approaching, Feit and Weinstock hope that students check out their website and see how it can be helpful to them. Students have already signed up, posted their services and connected with other students on ASK through the private messaging system. But the more listings, the more students and the more reviews left on the website, the more robust and helpful the website will become.
Photo Credit: Elza Koslowe (screenshot from the website)
Photo Caption: Main page of ASK website
