Meet Claire Wang, the teen connecting 10,000 girls with free tutors

Claire Wang’s grandmother left school in the second grade to work, despite wanting to become a teacher. Hearing that story changed how Wang viewed her own education and helped inspire her to build an international tutoring initiative.

In ninth grade, Wang and her best friend, Vivian Lu, co-founded Future Female Scholars. The organization connects underserved girls around the world with volunteer tutors and now offers free one-on-one tutoring to more than 10,000 students. Its network includes more than 2,000 vetted tutors in over 70 countries.

Now a high school senior, Wang spends 35 to 40 hours each month working as the group’s co-founder and co-CEO. She registers and vets tutors, matches students with volunteers and oversees the organization’s online presence. Its Instagram account has more than 145,000 followers, and it has partnerships with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, Krispy Kreme and TrueLeap.

Wang says tutoring students in Morocco and France showed her that young people in different countries often share the same concerns, including standardized tests, college applications and the desire to learn. She also credits persistence for the group’s growth. In 2024, Future Female Scholars had about 300 Instagram followers and around 10 tutors. Wang and Lu continued working through school days, summers and holidays, learning that progress comes through consistent small improvements.