About 90 members of the Electric Boat Management Association have signed up to offer free tutoring to local middle school and high school students, but only a handful of the volunteers have been called.

Organizers say lack of awareness has contributed to the lack of phone calls.

The idea came to fruition in 2012 as the association, a dues-paying organization of salaried employees, was thinking of ways both to give back and to enhance the company's image, according to Erick Cushman, vice president of the association and its community activities director.

One of the goals of the association, made up of mostly engineers, is outreach, which it carries out in a number of ways such as fundraisers.

But in the past that outreach didn't involve tapping into the "huge resource," as Cushman put it, of talented and educated workers at EB.

Joe Silva, 50, who's been an engineer at EB for 17 years, started tutoring last year as a way to connect and give back to students struggling in math.

Last school year, he tutored a sixth-grader who was falling behind in the subject.

The student's parents later told Silva that he'd ended the year on a high note and with improved grades.

"It made me feel really good, actually," said Silva, who is from Waterford.

The tutors help with homework and also test prep. The hours and times they meet with students vary from once to a couple hours for weeks on end.

The students are generally struggling with science and math.

Cushman said science, technology, engineering and mathematics, more commonly known as STEM, is certainly a focus for the association.

But many of the volunteers have also indicated they can help in other subjects too like history and English.

The association worked with EB management and lawyers as well as school officials to fine tune the details of the program.

Tutors meet with students at their home or a public place like a library, at the discretion of the student's parents, and the superintendent or chair of a local Board of Education must approve the program in their schools before students can participate.

At this point, 10 school districts have approved the program, according to Cushman, who said he's working on the other districts in the area.

East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, Mystic, New London, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Salem, Stonington, and Waterford have all approved the program, according to Cushman.

"These are successful engineers who, frankly, can serve as role models for our kids," said Groton Schools Superintendent Michael Graner, emphasizing the dual tutoring and mentoring benefit.

Graner said the tutoring program is simple and not overly bureaucratic, and that Groton is happy to be a part of it.

"I'm a huge believer in when kids know that there's a goal out there like becoming an engineer... (when they) lock onto that notion, it makes schoolwork so much more relevant," Graner said.

During the 2013-14 school year, the volunteers tutored six students for a total of 47 hours.

Those tutored were a mix of middle school and high school students and mostly went to school in East Lyme and Waterford.

Last school year, volunteers tutored eight students for 31 hours. The students, mostly high-school aged, were from schools in Groton, Ledyard, Old Lyme, Stonington and Waterford.

Local schools don't necessarily have a formalized tutoring program, especially after-school hours. So the volunteers can fill that void, and are a free alternative to costly private tutoring.

Alisha Strayer, 28, an engineer, signed up for the program shortly after she moved to the area a few years ago.

Strayer said volunteering for the program is her way of giving back and also allows her to brush up on those skills she's not using all the time.

She waited several years before someone called her for tutoring help, and suspects she was called because her name starts with "A."

Over the summer, Strayer tutored a high school student in pre-calculus and trigonometry.

The female student didn't do very well in her math course at the end of last year, Strayer said, so she and Strayer spent time preparing for this school year and the placement exam.

The biggest challenge, Strayer said, is when the homework assignments don't match up with the textbook, or the method the student was taught in class doesn't correspond with the textbook or what Strayer learned herself.

In New London, officials at the Science and Technology Magnet High School are particularly interested in the tutoring program, according to Ivelise Velazquez, interim chief academic officer for New London schools.

Officials there were waiting for September testing to be done so that they could identify the kids with the greatest need.

"We want to graduate kids who are prepared to go to engineering schools," Velazquez said.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman