When New York natives Anil and Maila Singh decided to move their young family to Northeast Florida, they wanted to launch a business that would contribute something of value to their adopted community.
They discovered that, even in one of Florida’s top-rated school districts, parents wanted additional learning support for their children.
“One of the reasons we moved here was because the families here value education and family,” explained Anil Singh. “That’s something we wanted.”
The Singhs decided to do something in education. They explored their options and settled on opening a Sylvan Learning Center franchise at three locations in St. Johns County.
With a professional background in technology, Anil Singh was impressed with how Sylvan incorporates technology into its learning plans and curricula. In fact, all students begin their journey by taking a 60- to 90-minute computer-adaptive assessment that helps to identify areas that need attention and then customize a learning plan specific to each individual child.
“You’re going to get a bunch of questions, and as you’re getting them right or wrong, the test is actually adapting to you and your personality and your strengths and weaknesses,” said Singh.
This aspect puts Sylvan decades ahead of its competitors, some of which are beginning to follow its lead.
Sylvan also emphasizes the importance of motivation and building confidence. Even bright students taught by expert instructors can fail to achieve their potential if unmotivated. But research demonstrated to Singh that students in Sylvan programs tended to adopt constructive changes in attitude.
“They love doing their math, reading, writing, sciences,” he said. “They want to try.”
Contributing to this process is Sylvan’s mandate to keep the teacher-student ratio low: typically, one to three, or one to four. Compare that to the ratio for Florida classrooms, usually 18 to 25 student per teacher.
Another factor that sets Sylvan apart is its choice of tutors.
“We don’t use high school kids or college kids,” Singh said. “All of our tutors are professional teachers. All are required to be certified, to have an active license or to have held an active license.” The latter is in the case of retirees.
Singh hires St. Johns County teachers first, but if there are vacancies, he plans to add those from nearby counties. All tutoring is in person at the centers.
In keeping with the Singhs’ commitment to community, their franchise donates 50 hours of tutoring to eight students associated with St. Augustine Youth Services.
“We want to be good stewards of our community,” Anil Singh said. “This is where we live; this is where we play. This is where I want my kids to live and play. We want it to be a nice place. That’s one of the reasons we came to St. Johns. It’s a beautiful community with a lot of beautiful people. Everybody’s good-hearted at the end of the day.”
While most students attend tutoring after school, homeschooling families typically schedule themselves for midday. Homeschoolers can use Step Up funds from the state of Florida or any scholarships specific to tutoring or homeschooling toward these lessons.
In addition, the centers offer SAT and ACT preparation for teens.
The Singhs opened their first center at 13000 Sawgrass Village Circle, Suite 15, Ponte Vedra Beach, about three weeks ago.
A fun-filled grand opening with ice cream, games, face painting, balloon animals, prizes and a surprise superhero will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 17. Bonus tickets will be awarded for RSVPs made by May 3. RSVP to 904-373-0128 or hello@sylvanofstjohns.com.
The second center is located at 585 International Golf Pkwy., Suite 7, St. Augustine. A grand opening will be held Aug. 2. The phone number is 904-907-2721.
A third center will open later this year in Julington Creek.
For further information, go to sylvanlearning.com.
