Seniors in Retirement Community Become Online Tutors.
CURNOW: After months and months of being cooped up during the pandemic, some seniors and pensioners in the U.S. have now found a way to engage with the outside world. The retirement community in Virginia has actually started a program that lets qualified seniors tutor students online. Kim Brunhuber reports now.</s>NEOLA WALLER, TUTOR: Hi, Lily. I'm Neola Waller.</s>KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A former high school math teacher for more than 30 years, Neola Waller now has a new pupil for the first time in a long time.</s>WALLER: I love to teach. So, having a student will be a nice change for me, and if I can help her, then I'll feel I was a success.</s>BRUNHUBER: During months of lockdown in the coronavirus pandemic, Mrs. Waller is one of the seniors at her retirement community in Virginia Beach who's become a virtual tutor. She'll be helping eighth grader Lily Yale with geometry as Lily begins the semester, like many students across the U.S., going to school online.</s>ALEXANDRA YALE, MOTHER OF STUDENT: I was concerned, because at the end of last year, Lily did have some trouble, like, getting used to the virtual learning program. It just eases my mind and know that she has the support and guidance from Ms. Waller.</s>LILY YALE, STUDENT: Instead of me having to raise my hand while being in a room with, like, over 30 other classmates, I can, like, actually ask my questions.</s>BRUNHUBER: Lily and Mrs. Waller were paired as part of an initiative developed by the Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community. It's the first to offer residents a specialized tablet named the Birdsong with content aimed at improving cognitive health and keeping seniors connected.</s>WALLER: This looked like a wonderful opportunity to engage with a student to have fun and to get me something to do.</s>BRUNHUBER: Still in its trial stages, the program focuses on retired former educators leveraging decades of experience in topics ranging from math to history, like Robert Felty. He'll be tutoring his grandson, who's a freshman in high school a few states away.</s>ROBERT FELTY, VIRTUAL TUTOR: I will help him via the tablet, Birdsong tablet, to -- to do history and tell a little bit about where I've been and my father being in World War II, in the Army Air Force. I look forward to it. And I get to see him. It's nice to be involved. What classes are you going to be taking?</s>BRUNHUBER: After years working in military intelligence, Mr. Felty says he trained more than 10,000 Navy police, teaching up to three classes a day before he retired. Like Mrs. Waller, he's been on lockdown since March.</s>FELTY: Westminster gave me a chance to reach out and do something for the community. And I like young people. God bless them. We need them.</s>BRUNHUBER: Mr. Felty plans to tutor his grandson at least once a week to start, and Mrs. Waller intends to meet with Lily two or three times weekly, for now.</s>FELTY: I might even get better at it as it goes along. What an opportunity, a big chance to maybe feel relevant and needed.</s>WALLER: It would be nice if they would do this across the nation. It would be good for the tutors and the tutorees or whatever you call them.</s>BRUNHUBER: Kim Brunhuber, CNN, Atlanta.</s>CURNOW: Beautiful connections all the way around. Thanks so much to Kim for that story. Stay with us for the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. and around the world. Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta host the "CNN GLOBAL TOWN HALL, CORONAVIRUS, FACTS AND FEARS." See it at eight on Thursday morning in New York. That's eight Friday morning in Hong Kong. Wherever you are, you can find it here on CNN. So, thanks so much for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow live in Atlanta. "EARLY START" is up next.