After spending last year as a part-time academic tutor, Ethan Feinberg saw an opportunity to build a business. Over the summer, he taught himself how to build a website, he gathered a team of talented student tutors, he filed the paperwork to form an official Limited Liability Corporation, and Brain Train Tutors was born.
“I think I just like things to be done right,” says Feinberg, a senior at Highland Park High School (HPHS). “I had a good amount of friends who were qualified to tutor. Then, I had a more formal kind of interview, they had to sign a contract, so there was definitely a more formal aspect to it.”
Brain Train has a stable of 20 tutors, qualified juniors and seniors, 13 from HPHS and 7 from Deerfield High School. They offer tutoring services in mathematics, science, social studies, English, Spanish, and electives like Intro to Business, Intro to Engineering, and Intro to Financial Accounting. They offer both one-on-one sessions and a group format if students want to gather as a study group.
Though Feinberg mentions the affordability of the services they offer as one of their most attractive features, the thing that really elevates them is the ease and intuitive nature of the website he built, which makes scheduling sessions an absolute breeze. Under the Book Now tab, a user chooses from Highland Park or Deerfield. On the next page, you click the subject in which you’d like a student tutored. The next, you click a time increment for the lesson, anything from 30 minutes to two hours. Pictures appear of every tutor available to teach that subject during that time period.
A separate tab features a one-paragraph bio of every tutor, their year in school, their strongest subjects, whether they play sports on school teams, and fun personal tidbits so parents can find the best match for their child. After picking the tutor of your choice, a calendar appears where you can click on an available day and available time slot. The final page has you enter your information and the name of your student. Click Book Now and that’s it. You get a text and an email confirming your appointment and a follow-up reminder an hour before the tutoring session is scheduled to begin. Its all done over the website at your own convenience. It’s also convenient for the tutors who work with Brain Train.
“It is very helpful to connect with students through Brain Train Tutors,” says Avery Spitz, a senior at HPHS. “I input my hours every week and automatically get a text if someone has booked me through the website. The system is very efficient, giving me updates before each session and telling me exactly what subject I am to tutor. I really enjoy helping younger students understand material. It has been a really fulfilling experience.”
For Feinberg, starting, developing, and maintaining Brain Train has been an education in its own right.
“This whole venture has been a great experience,” he says. “I think you have to have ambition, but you have to be realistic and work hard each day to get to those aspirations. This experience has led me to realize that it’s not so easy to be successful in business, but it’s definitely possible through hard work and working efficiently.”