Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on hand for the first-ever graduating class of "homework helpers" Saturday.

The congresswoman launched the program in Nov. 2020 to connect students to virtual tutors during the height of the pandemic.

"So today we are celebrating kinda our graduation from the Homework Helpers Program that we put together during the pandemic," Ocasio-Cortez said. "So when many of our kids and our school system transitioned to remote learning, a lot of kids in our community really struggled with that transition and so we organized tutros and connected them with kids."

Students like Avah Martinez say her grades got better with the program.

"If I didn't understand it, she would explain it more to me," Martinez says.

The Homework Helpers Program also connected students to courses in culinary science, early literacy, theatre and computer coding.