The Seahawk

Issue date: 1/8/09 Section: News

Andy Wittman, a current freshman at UNCW, was at a loss as to how to pay for college. His grades and test scores were considered average at best, so he knew that college scholarships were out of the question. He mulled over student loans but felt they were too risky and a regular paying job would not cover his tuition.

While he was in high school, Wittman realized that homework was still an ongoing difficulty for most students as they currently struggle with particular subjects. He felt that this was something that he could work towards alleviating, so he created a website to use free of charge called Recycle Your Homework (http://www.recycleyourhomework.com/). It allows high school and college students to share their homework and have their questions answered.

The website was under construction since February 1 and recently launched December 1.

"I created Recycle Your Homework because students don't always have time to go to a tutoring center or visit a professor during office hours while doing homework," Wittman said. "It provides a quick answer and explanation while tutoring and office hours provide a more in-depth explanation to a question. It also assists high school students who may not have these luxuries."

The premise of the site is that all students have both strong and weak subjects and they may pose questions on the site regarding their weaker subjects and answer and respond to questions posed by other students. Students are allowed to ask as many as they want, but are required to answer at least one question from another student.

Once someone answers a student's question, it will be e-mailed to them. The student then has the option to accept the answer or, if not happy, send it back into the database for a different answer. The site also has a section that allows for more difficult questions to be answered by a teacher or professional.

If there are questions that another student cannot answer, then they must click on the link "Answer For Cancer" which donates money toward cancer research. Students will not have to pay for the donation. Each time an advertisement is downloaded, a small donation is made.

Only a few subjects are currently available, but students are able to request more subjects through the website.

"I hope that Recycle Your Homework will help students to spend less time on homework while getting more out of it," Wittman said.

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