In 1996, Larry Bross and his wife Masie Bross began an after school, one-on-one, tutoring and mentoring initiative for at-risk youth in Oklahoma City: The Whiz Kids program. In 1997, after witnessing the desperate needs of inner city kids, Masie became the Director of this outreach program. Drawing upon her passion and tenacity Masie found a way to expand Whiz Kids. The program began with the support of one church and a handful of volunteer tutors. Today, the Whiz Kids program serves 550 children at 21 different schools, drawing upon the help of over 600 volunteers from 47 partnering churches.
The Whiz Kids program helps children learn to read and provides positive adult role models for some of the community's most at-risk youth. The program matches a volunteer with a student, and the pair then meets weekly in an effort to elevate the child’s reading ability and self esteem. Many tutor/student pairs remain together for years, and some Whiz Kids students go on to complete their education and return as tutors to help other needy children in their community. Masie personally monitors each of the 21 tutoring sites to ensure the program’s integrity, but more importantly, to see and monitor firsthand the strides these children make under caring tutelage and consistent mentoring. Masie’s hands-on approach has earned her the respect of community and faith leaders, as well as thousands of volunteer tutors, students, and their families.
Masie's selfless dedication to disadvantaged youth in Oklahoma City reveals itself not only in her accomplishments at work, but also in her personal life as well. During the past ten years, Masie has personally taken some of the most troubled youth under her wing. She has paid for summer camp to keep them off the streets and out of trouble; she has provided food, clothing, and school supplies when their caregivers could not; and has given inner-city kids experiences normally outside their grasp: trips to Oklahoma University Sooner football games, concerts, hockey games, Hornets basketball games, as well as paid tuition for summer reading programs, GED classes, and the like.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Masie Bross’s contribution to the community is that this former stay-at-home mom has built the city’s largest tutoring and mentoring program. She has no college degree and no previous experience, but she has proved a quick learner and a passionate teacher. She literally stepped out of her suburban home one day with a mission to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy in Oklahoma City, and through her passion and dedication, she has made that mission a reality. In the past ten years, the Whiz Kids program has helped thousands of inner-city children reach beyond boundaries of poverty and despair, believe in their abilities, and achieve both academic and personal success.
To learn more about Masie and her cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit:
www.whizkidsok.org.
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