Stumped? Ryan Rostami's Here to Help You With Your Homework

Name:  Ryan Rostami, 16

School: Calabasas High School

Accomplishment: The 11th-grader is a math ace.

Key to Awesomeness: Ryan is one of the leading lights of the . Every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., he gives his time to help elementary and middle-school students with their homework. Sometimes high schoolers come to the group for a little extra help, too, he said.

"Most of the kids come back and back," Ryan said, speaking at the library on Tuesday. He added that the most popular homework help requests were for "math and vocabulary."

Ryan was quick to mention that he was not the only brain behind the Study Buddy initiative; his friend Jonathan Afra involved Ryan in the group last year, and between them they increased its reach. They now tutor more than 40 students on a regular basis. It runs in the family, too: Ryan's younger brother Rusty started as a student and now, as a ninth-grader, has become a tutor himself. 

Jonathan said over the phone that when it comes to teaching methods, he and Ryan "help each other out. We always come up with the best lessons and we get a little creative with them. Humor works ... a lot of these kids are younger, they're more timid."

Local parent Jackie Hooshim was at the Study Buddy group Tuesday with her two children, Jonathan and Caroline, and family friend Alex. Hooshim said her kids have been benefiting from Ryan's tutoring for about a month. "I want them to get into the habit of coming to the library to study," she said, adding that it's fun for them, too: "It's like a play date at the library."