For almost 30 years across the United States, Huntington Learning Centers (HLC) have helped hundreds of thousands of children succeed in school.
For the past two years, local HLC franchise owners, Frank and Montse Fabregas have been offering subject tutoring and test prep to students from kindergarten through high school.
Lassiter High School parents Frank and Montse Fabregas are both natives of Barcelona, but met an ocean away at Columbia Teacher’s College in New York. Both teachers, Frank, who has two degrees, extensive experience teaching primary grades and has led a corporate training company, GECSA, for more than 10 years, and, Montse, an engineer seasoned in teaching multiple science curriculums, moved to Marietta two years ago, with a desire to support academic success to more children than just those they could reach inside one classroom.
“I see so many children struggling with reading, with math and ultimately, their self-esteem,” reflects Frank, Executive Director. “Every child can soar at school and some just need help to fill in the gaps, basic skills in one area or another that prevents them from being successful learners. Tutoring children is as much nurturing and supporting them as individuals as it is teaching them subject matter. We know that by using a custom designed program targeting each child’s learning style, we can transform the children who saw school as a label of shame to proud, confident and eager learners.”
East Cobb has some of the highest-ranking schools in the state and parents here make their child’s school success a priority–key reasons the Fabregas family chose to make East Cobb their home. Frank observes, “But there are students, smart students, who aren’t reaching their potential because there are some specific skill sets they lack, or in many cases, they have them but they need a “reboot” to get back on track.”
The certified educators at HLC are passionate teachers that share their reading, language, math, science, special education and foreign language expertise. Each child receives a personalized academic assessment in all subject areas, which is vitally important. Parents may be concerned about math grades but the team at HLC recognizes that reading comprehension is the building block of all learning and can impact a child’s ability to excel in other academic areas.
Through specialized testing, teachers determine at what level each child is and pinpoint the specific skills they need to achieve school success. A focused curriculum is assigned specifically for that student and the personalized tutoring begins. After fifty hours of the program, another assessment determines what strides the student has made and the results have been “simply amazing”, says Frank. “It never ceases to thrill me, to sit down with a worried parent to go over the test results at the end of their child’s program. We enjoy their surprise and delight when they see, for example, their child soared from testing at 40% of grade level in reading comprehension to 95%. And what happens when a child experiences that kind of success? An explosion of new-found self-esteem and a new attitude toward school. Excitement replaces dread when waiting for the report cards to come home,” says Frank, “I believe all children truly have it within them to be an honor student. I see the transformation here all the time. As an educator, nothing is more rewarding.”
HLC works with the youngest learners from kindergarten to second grade, many struggling with phonics and reading and with older children who may be deterred by organizational and study skills. High school students needing support and strategies in all subjects, particularly those preparing for those all-important college entrance tests illustrate the impact of the skills acquired with higher scores on the ACT, SSAT and the SAT tests.
When asked what really sets the Huntington Learning Center technique apart from other programs, Frank says “We have a proven assessment and curriculum model that is custom designed for each child’s individual learning style. Children are not all cut from the same cookie cutter, so their study plan should be as individual as they are.”
Frank compares learning to working out in a gym. As he explains, “The treadmill alone will not help you reach your
fitness goals. You can start with that and then add other work outs, increasing your strength over time. It is the same with learning. Beginning with comprehension skills, you practice until you master it and then move on to the next
exercise to strengthen your mind. It cannot be monotonous or boring. Learning can and really should be as fun and
invigorating as playing a sport.”
Children with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders and dyslexia are embraced with the same commitment to individualized instruction. Huntington Learning Center also welcomes students who may not be struggling, but are voracious learners eager to excel. Huntington Learning Center offers advanced tutoring and foreign language classes in Spanish, German, French, Arabic and more.
Tania, an East Cobb mom states, “My son, Nick, was struggling a lot in 3rd grade, his grades were not good and we decided to help him and signed him up at Huntington. Best decision we have ever made in terms of his education. Nick now has very good grades and we couldn’t be happier about how the program handled his academic situation.”
Huntington Learning Center is in the East Cobb Crossing shopping center, 4381 Roswell Road, Suite 240, in Marietta/East Cobb. For more information, visit www.huntingtonhelps.com/center/east-cobb or call 770-977-3112 for an appointment.
