We recently connected with Aquarius Cain and have shared our conversation below.

Aquarius , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

As an educator, I’d completely change the academic model from being focused solely on teaching students how to read, write, and do math to a more wholistic approach. We can prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career by allowing them to explore more of their talents, skills, and abilities and blending that with academics. I would make sure that the educational system exposes students to a multitude of skills in addition to allowing them to get first hand experience with career and college exploration beginning from elementary through high school. Students need more than just knowledge of careers and then have an expectation to choose a career based on that knowledge. As they grow and develop, the education system should be able to see what the students naturally excel in whether it is public speaking, writing, drawing, singing, athletics, science, math, etc. by offering different classes for them to take. These classes can blend the core subjects of reading, writing, and math to help them develop in those areas. As students get older and progress, there should be a continuation in strengthening and honing those skills and continuously exploring more skills, talents, and abilities that the students may have. Additionally, we can prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career by teaching them life skills: study skills, test taking, teamwork, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, problem-solving, conflict resolution, home economics, etc.

Aquarius , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the STEAM Queen, the Overachiever, and the Lover of Learning! Initially, my lifelong goal was to become a Pediatrician; I attended Morris Brown College and majored in Biology and was accepted into an early medical school program at Boston University. After attending, I realized that was not my calling.  At the suggestion of former teachers, during a moment of transition, I decided to teach high school science. I absolutely loved it! I began to reflect back on when I was tutoring as a Freshman in college where I volunteered to tutor local high school students and college classmates and how I was always the teacher when we “played school” when we were younger. This was my calling! I taught high school science, but after 6 years of teaching and a final year of immense hardships within the school system, I left in order to take back control of my passion and purpose. I started my own tutoring business so that I could give back in a way that I felt made a difference.  It was the best decision that I made!

Achieve Success Tutoring, LLC (AST) is a company that provides expert tutoring and educational enrichment services using out-of-the-box strategies that advance the learning and academic skills students need to succeed and compete in the 21st century. We service K-12, college students, and adult learners in all subjects both in-person and virtually across the nation and internationally. We provide courses in college preparation, test preparation, and study skills. We include a large focus on S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, art, math) learning and exploration. AST’s S.T.E.A.M. programs provide career exploration activities and training that support planning for college and other careers by conducting workshops, seminars, summer camps, and clubs for after school programs, recreation centers, youth organizations, and families. We provide support to homeschoolers through the Overachiever S.T.E.A.M. Academy.

I began homeschooling my son in 2016 when he was in the 2nd grade and now we have an active homeschool community and virtual homeschool, The Overachiever STEAM Academy, in which we assist in the education of K-12 students in a non-traditional school environment that fosters meeting students where they are and helping them to progress and excel at a comfortable, yet challenging pace. We focus on exposing students to STEAM.

At Achieve Success Tutoring, we solve the problem of academic failure, lack of confidence, and lack of motivation and preparation that students may experience in the classroom or at home. Our services are set apart by the unparallel customer service provided to each and every client as they are treated like family. We foster an environment of being a member of our family and being treated as such where each person feels supported, cared for, and knows that we take our students’ best interests to heart. We go over and beyond their basic needs with personalized support and learning plans.

If you’re looking for just homework help, we’re not it. If you’re looking for continuous growth academically where students learn to take control of their learning and become overachievers, then we’re the best choice. We help students and families achieve their academic and career goals by providing them with the tools, confidence, and skills needed for success. We partner with for-profit and non-profit organizations to assist them with providing academic and stem-related opportunities to students and families who cannot afford or have limited or no access to it.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My business partner, LaTishia Jordan, started out as one of my business coaches/mentors. For 11 years, I was running the business by myself, wearing all hats. Being an African-American female in the tutoring industry in my area left me practically alone with no support. One day, I decided to do a search on Facebook for other Black-owned tutoring businesses and found LaTishia’s group. It felt great to be in a group with like-minded individuals who supported one another’s business without competition. I received lots of advice, tips, and encouragement that helped me to grow my business. After a few years of being coached, LaTishia and I became friends. In 2020, I remember simply being tired of doing it all by myself. I was talking to her about it and it dawned on my that we practically had the same company providing the same exact services, just in 2 different locations. It was then that I proposed that we join forces and combine our businesses. She thought about it and agreed. We now run the business together in both Georgia and Tennessee after consolidating our companies. It’s been a great business decision for both of us.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the idea of “work-life balance.” What I’ve learned in being an entrepreneur, mother, wife, student, teacher, etc. is that there is no such thing as a work-life balance. Society has us thinking that we can somehow manage and balance it all at once and we wear ourselves thin trying to find that balance. We never get there! When I started the business, I was a new mother, had just quit teaching, and was enrolled in a Doctoral Program to works towards a Doctorate Degree in addition to being a wife. I was stretched in all areas and worked really hard to be the best at all of them simultaneously. I was unable to manage them all well because something had to take priority over other things and I had to put some things on the back burner and let some things go altogether. I had to re-evaluate my life and see (at that point in time) what was the most important and beneficial. At that time, it was obviously my newborn child, my marriage, and the business because that’s where my new source of income would come from. I let go of pursuing higher education because it would not result in additional income immediately. I learned then that there is no work-life balance, but a work-life cycle where the important things take shifts in your life and you create a system that supports those shifts. I would take my son with me to tutoring appointments when needed. He understood that in the evenings Mommy wasn’t available because she was working. I had to schedule time for my then husband and maintain a stable marriage. I had to learn to take breaks from the business and put it on autopilot by hiring others to take on some of the workload. This made more sense and was less stressful than trying to do it all at the same time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.achievesuccesstutoring.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/achievesuccesstutoring
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/achievesuccesstutoring
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/achieve-success-tutoring/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/therealAStutor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMdg-ZKuiJcNx9lvjrNn8eQ