OPEN GATE provides daily one-on-one tutoring by university students who have been trained in seven specific strategies for teaching English literacy. OPEN GATE tutors are university students. Most are studying in the education field, and are carefully selected and paired with students who frequently share their background, language, and/or life experience.

As well as providing academic guidance, OPEN GATE tutors serve as important role models. Often a child’s tutor is the first person he/she has ever met who has attended college; as such they send a powerful message about the importance of education in a child’s future.

Each year, tutors attend the OPEN GATE Tutor Training Program at San Diego State University(SDSUt0 that has been developed and implemented by Dr. Margie Kitano, Associate Dean at the SDSU College of Education, and her team of professors. The two-day program is based on current research on gifted and second language learners and is redeveloped each year based on findings from the previous years’ evaluation. Tutors are trained in teaching English literacy. Training also includes the nature of gifted students and challenges faced by low-income students from diverse backgrounds.