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Alphabetical Listing (by Page)
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For this site to be successful, we would like to see as many of the more than 4,000 people who volunteered at the AAC join. Please feel free to distribute information about this web site to former volunteer tutors, editors, peer tutors, and others who contributed between 1992 and 2004.
For information about how to join (open to anyone who assisted at the AAC), see "About Us."
Welcome to the web site for former AOL Academic Assistance Center (Homework Helper) tutors, peer tutors, volunteers, Community Leaders, and managers. Here you will have a place to rekindle friendships, seek new opportunities, and exchange stories about those wonderful years (1992 to 2004) when we helped millions of students achieve success.
Email: yzpat@windstream.net
Dates: 1993 until 2005 (the bitter end)
Areas: All of them (rooms, boards, pages, KD, peers etc.)
Positions: Teacher, host, Teacher Page Mgr, Asst Program Manager, Program Manager
These were some of the best times of my life! I know that I encountered some of the best folks I have ever or will ever meet. I miss it! :/
MsEdFun, AACMsEdFun, LDRSAACMsEdFun
And probably a few others --------
1996 – joined the Homework Helpers as a tutor
1996 – became a member of the original Peer Tutoring Committee
1996 – became ARL for the elementary math room
1997 – Took the Rainman class on a dare, and won a prize for my collection: "Pictures of a Tragedy – The Holocaust"
1997 – Took over the management of the AAC News area and began to create special collections for this area.
1998 – Hal asks me to work with Steve in the KD to develop special collections for which I eventually wrote more than 5,000 articles.
1999 – Became a teacher pager forwarder
And so on and so on until the eventual demise of the AAC. I miss it every day.
I was very eager to contribute to the AOL community and participated as an online volunteer in 1995 at 14 years old. The AAC was my online "home away from home" and Hal provided a lot of mentoring and guidance through those teenage years. Because the AAC was without a Peer Tutoring program, I consistently wrote and encouraged AOL to consider such a program and it eventually kicked off. However, I don't believe I ever got the opportunity to be a peer tutor. I eventually volunteered in many areas of the AOL service but not formally for the AAC.
Outside of AOL, I graduated from Hinsdale South High School in Darien, IL in 1999 and moved to Las Vegas to go to University of Nevada, Las Vegas and study Hospitality Administration. During my college years, I worked a number of jobs in the hotel industry including for Southwest Airlines and Marriott. I applied to join AOL Community, Inc. in 2000 as a Team Coordinator. I stayed with ACI for nearly five years before the transition and worked in the International and Travel areas of the service.
After graduating from University of Nevada, Las Vegas I began an internship in Human Resources for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. My first property was the Westin Maui in Hawaii in 2003. I continued on as an HR Coordinator and eventually became a Human Resources Manager for Starwood. My experience became increasingly more specialized as I worked in international and island locales. I spent 9 months at the Westin and Sheraton Grand Bahama Island to convert that to Starwood management. I worked in other locations such as Vieques, PR, Portland, OR and Hollywood, FL to name a few. I was involved in the efforts post-Katrina to help re-open the Starwood properties in New Orleans. I also had the opportunity to be responsible for the international recruitment efforts of a new build St. Regis Resort in Bora Bora hiring over 200 staff for the resort. My other opening experience includes the Resort at Singer Island in Florida and most recently, the W Atlanta Midtown which opened in March.
I left Starwood just a few weeks ago to lead Human Resources for the Hotel Angeleno, a 210-room boutique hotel in LA's Brentwood neighborhood. Hotel Angeleno is part of Joie de Vivre hotels - a boutique collection of hotels throughout California. I currently live in Pacific Palisades and am excited to be living back on the west coast and discovering life in LA.
My name is Karen Polak. I am pretty sure I started with the AAC in 1996, but it may have been '97. I used to participate in the history contest which Steve ran, and he recruited me. During my time with the AAC, I worked in the following areas: Answering Teacherpagers, room leader for the College and AP History room, running the history contest, writing articles for the KD and Special Collections, editing and creating special collections for the KD. The names I used are AACTchrKAP and LDRS AAC TchrKAP. I am not sure exactly when it is that I quit due to not having enough time, but I think it was 2000 or 2001, but it may have been a little later. Time flies...
A career 6th grade teacher (English and Social Studies), Hal joined the AAC in 1993 as the 36th AAC volunteer (PrfHenry). Initially he assisted with Teacher Pagers and in the Room (we only had one). With the growth of Mark Hulme's responsibilities (Mark was the AAC Coordinator and ran AOL's online classes), Hal was asked to be a Pager distributor, then to handle tutoring applications. By going throughout AOL seeking people who had "teacher" in their profile, Hal sent out more than 500 e-mail, brining in over 50 new volunteers within 3 months.
In December, 2003 with the number of Teacher Pagers having risen from less than 20 a day to over 100, Hal was appointed as Teacher Pager Coordinator (TPCoord). When AOL asked Mark Hulme to concentrate on online classes and to select a new AAC Coordinator, Hal was chosen (AACCoord). By that time we had reached 150 tutoring volunteers and more than 500 students a day used our services. Seeing the potential of the AAC, AOL called Hal and Mark in to Tyson Corners, VA for a meeting to learn new development tools ("Rainman") and to meet each other and with the in-house masters. Starting 1998, Hal was using screen name "DuxHal" as his formal AAC-ACI management name.
One of the outcomes of that meeting was the expansion of the AAC to 3 Tutoring Rooms, an expanded Message Board Area (with Hal having the capability of adding more as needed), and the establishment of the multi-address TP Distribution system. To handle all of this, AACPat (Pat Burgess) was appointed as the new Teacher Pager Coordinator in August, 2004. AOL also agreed to put an ad for tutors on the "sign-on" page and by the end of 2004 the AAC had more than 400 tutors and assisted over 2,000 students a day.
His son, Mark (PrfMark, AACMark), wife Roberta, and father Joseph (AACBridge) all joined the tutoring team (and all remained with AAC after Hal was "promoted" to Program Manager of the Research & Learn Channel in 2000). After six years with two full-time jobs, Hal retired from teaching in 2000 and from AOL in 2002. He tried to return to the AAC as a volunteer tutor, but AOL, involved in several law suits from volunteers, refused that request.
Hal lives in New York's Hudson Valley, not too far from West Point. with Roberta and their three rag doll cats. After five years of volunteering locally at a senior community and assisting with the development of several Internet web sites, Hal and Roberta built Slightly Creaky (http://slightlycreaky.com/), an online site for those over 55 who want information about active living, medical care, and hobbies. He remains an active gardener and landscaper.
An eccentric chemistry teacher who worked for a time in AOL's Academic Assistance Center, mostly as PrfMark, as a tutor and a host. Starting on Prodigy, and getting hooked on online activities, Prodigy changed its rate structure, which prompted many of us to dub the service "Fraudigy" and jump ship. I switched to NVN (National Videotex Network) for a few months, but text-based online life wasn't working. I joined AOL in August 1993, and stayed with AOL until 2004.
I started with the Academic Assistance Center shortly after joining, asthe 37th member, after conferring with Mark Hulme, who ran the area. My father had joined that afternnoon and recommended this activity to me. As usually happens with things he gets involved in, he eventually ended up running the show. I was content to remain a board and chat room teacher for the time I was with them. I was convinced at one point to become a host, a post that I did not relish. I tried a few other administrative positions, but since none of them held the attraction that being a tutor online did, I left the program and AOL in 2004. I'm just not cut out to be an administrator. I had enjoyed my time there and met some great people, but other adventures awaited me.
At the present time, I have been teaching chemistry for 20 years. I took up storm chasing as a hobby in 2003, and have found it to be the most incredible thing I have ever done. I still have my three wonderful cats (one of them is cuddling on my lap and purring as I type this). I have also taken up geocaching and have released two CD's with chemistry-themed songs. I have also turned them all into music videos and I have presented at local educational conferences. "Learning Science Through Song" has been a big hit! I have not been involved in any online ventures since leaving AOL, and I am not interested in pursuing any. All I want to do is chase some storms...
You can see what I have been up to by visiting my web site at www.markrosengarten.com. Here you will find my music, storm chasing stories, pictures of my cats and other diverse items of interest. Oh, and I also host New York Network's "Regents Review Live", a TV show where kids call in with questions about chemistry and I answer. There's a link to that as well.
Bill had a varied history as he worked as a photographer, oncology researcher, geology researcher and as a restaurateur ( cook,manager etc). In 1971 he left Upstate New York as a refugee from winter to take his first teaching job in rural Palm Beach County Florida. He taught in public and private schools ( including a Clinic school) until 1997 when he moved further south to Colombia in South America.
When he got to Colombia he taught in an elite private school then worked for a company under contract with the National Ministry of Education, provididing training to English teachers. After this short time position he was Coordinator of Bilinguism and Discipline at a small but ambitious school. His successes there lead to the principalship from which he retired. Working part-time on weekends and during vacations he provided training to more than 2500 English teachers.
In 1993, Mark Hulme asked him to be a part of a new concept on AOL. He was the 4th volunteer that Mark recruited. After a short while working with pages He was asked to form , manage and administer the Scholars Hall in addition to the pager duties.. He held a variety of posts with increasing responsibilities as the AAC AAC grew and grew. When Bill moved to Colombia in 1997 he continued to assist until his sign-on was hacked and due to the distance and phone problems as well as the lack of cooperation from AOL he left the AAC.
Bill has retired and actively does nothing on his finca in rural Colombia. He lives with his Colombia wife,Gloria and his large buddy Wrinkles, a 190 lb Bull Mastiff. He visits Bogota no more than necessary, about 3 or 4 times a year, much preferring the peace and tranquility of the rural paradise. His experiences are chronicled in a monthly column on the Slightly Creaky web page
Arizona
AACMrV Member from 1996 to 2003
Started out as Teacher Pager and working American History Live Room. Was ARL for the College American History Live Room, worked as a Board Member on the American History High School Board and ended my “career” at AAC as Board Leader of the American History Message Board--High School. Also submitted articles for the KD. Helped out with the Social Studies Boards newsletter.