We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Innovative Scholars. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Innovative below.

Innovative, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

In the summer of 2020, we launched a free tutoring program with a local church to provide academic support to students who missed out on months of instruction in the classroom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal was to find the gaps in students’ understanding of grade-level content and target specific standards to close these gaps. After the summer session, we realized the impact we could further make in the lives of students by continuing the process of providing tutoring services. From there, Innovative Scholars was created providing both virtual and face to face tutoring sessions for students in elementary school. In the spring of 2022, we expanded our reach to include students in middle school. We currently have three locations along with teaching virtually. Virtual sessions have allowed us to tutor students all over the United States.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Innovative Scholars is a tutoring company in Augusta, Georgia. We specialize in teaching reading and mathematics to students in Pre-K through 8th grade. All of our instructors are certified educators who have taught in various school districts in Georgia. Students who join our program receive 1 hour of one on one instruction. Differentiated lessons are created for each individual student using ongoing assessment data. Our mission is to implant the seed of knowledge by enhancing the learning of every scholar through innovation, motivation, and creativity.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the greatest challenges has been discovering a large number of gaps in students’ academic performance and communicating this information to parents. In many cases, parents expect rapid results. The truth is that although our goal is for students to perform at or above grade level, the rate of development for each student varies. After our initial meeting with parent(s) and the student, we make efforts to communicate our process of filling in gaps making sure that parents are aware that if a solid foundation is formed, it is then easier to build upon that foundation by adding other content. How do we do this? Our vision is to provide authentic learning experiences that expose our students to real-world applications and problem-based learning. We have been fortunate to witness that our strategy works and has allowed students to become more confident learners. We are molding our students to become independent thinkers.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We knew the routine of teaching because we have taught in the school system for a long time. What we have learned the most about the process of being a business owner is marketing. We would encourage business owners and entrepreneurs to join groups online that have similar goals as your business structure and decide how to effectively market your business. We often tell our students, “Smart people ask questions.” Using our own advice, we ask questions as we venture through entrepreneurship. New business owners should not be afraid to take on new challenges and set high goals. Dream big and work hard each day to make that dream come to fruition!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.innovativescholars2020.com
• Instagram: @innovativescholars
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InnovativeScholarsLP

Image Credits
Jalisia Brown, Jay Design Photography