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Math Tutor Helps Divide And Conquer

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Coralea Atienza hopes to be a veterinarian's assistant one day, but first, she must pass the GED.

That need persuaded Atienza to seek help from tutor Chantel Mijo, who runs her own small business offering help to those struggling academically.

"In the past six years, I've had tutors and they were either too busy with their lives or something," Atienza said. "It didn't work out with them."

For the past few weeks, Atienza has been working with Mijo on her math skills, preparing to take the General Educational Development test in November. Atienza has a separate tutor for English, her toughest subject.

Atienza, who has a learning disability, graduated from Land O' Lakes High School in 2001 with a special-education diploma. A GED would qualify her to enroll in community college classes and work toward becoming a vet tech, she said.
Atienza contacted Mijo after seeing her business card pinned to a community bulletin board at a restaurant in New Tampa.

Mijo's business, Divide and Conquer, is less than a year old and her client base is fewer than a couple of dozen people, most of them high-schoolers hoping to get a leg up on college exams and the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. She's optimistic about the future, however.

"We're still in the setting-up stage, building our client base," said Mijo, a former professional civil engineer and University of South Florida graduate.

Mijo's business is one of about a dozen in Pasco County specializing in tutoring, according to county business licensing records.

Divide and Conquer is Mijo's attempt to build a business out of something she has been doing for her friends since she was in high school. She left a brief career as a civil engineer to return to tutoring.

"I enjoyed the theory more than the practice" of engineering, she said. "I also enjoyed the idea of working for myself."

After several months of meeting clients at libraries across the Wesley Chapel-New Tampa area, Mijo set up an office six months ago at the Seven Oaks Professional Center off State Road 56. Since then, she has hired two other tutors - one full time, one part time - to handle subjects beyond her higher-mathematics specialties.

Christian Paredes, also a recent USF grad, handles writing and middle school subjects. Jessica Hernandez covers anatomy and physiology.

To get her business off the ground, Mijo has spread the word through fliers circulated at high schools and at businesses teens frequent. She also would like clients from USF and from Pasco-Hernando Community College.
Mijo is the company's expert in calculus, Advance Placement-level math and physical sciences - topics she hopes will bring her future clients from local high schools.

"Generally, if someone has trouble with something, it's going to be math," she said. "More than anything else, math is something where you need the first step to get to the next step."

Many of the people who come to her need help because they have missed a key step in the process of grasping mathematic concepts, Mijo said. She has her own theory about why that happens.

"Sometimes the teachers, because they've been teaching it so long, never explain the basics," Mijo said.

OTHER AREA TUTORING BUSINESSES

Huntington Learning Center

WHERE: 7844 Land O' Lakes Blvd., Land O' Lakes

CALL: (813) 996-5952

WEB SITE: http://land_

o_lakes.huntington

learning.com/home.cfm

WHERE: 8647-1 Little Road, New Port Richey

CALL: (727) 847-1244

WEB SITE: http://new_

port_richey.huntington

learning.com/home.cfm

Sylvan Learning Center

WHERE: 38420 Fifth Ave., Zephyrhills

CALL: (813) 782-8219

WEB SITE: http://

tutoring.sylvanlearning .com/centers/33540/index.cfm

WHERE: 8601 Regency Park Blvd., Port Richey

CALL: 1-888-418-8376

WEB SITE: http://

tutoring.sylvanlearning .com/centers/34668/index.cfm

Happy Kids Daycare

WHERE: 2748 Windguard Circle, No. 101, Wesley Chapel
CALL: (813) 929-6191

Club Z! In-Home Tutoring

WHERE: P.O. Box 1439, Lutz FL 33548-1439

WEB SITE: www.clubz tutoring.com

Polar Bear Tutoring

WHERE: 1801 Regal Mist Loop, Trinity

CALL: (727) 359-9690

E-MAIL: polarbeartutor @aol.com

Kumon Center

WHERE: 21226 Mariner Place, Land O' Lakes

CALL: (813) 909-9122

WEB SITE: http:// center.ikumon.com/ showpage.aspx?url =90504

WHERE: 2547 Windguard Circle, Wesley Chapel
CALL: (813) 907-8645

WEB SITE: http:// center.ikumon.com/showpage.aspx?url =90650

WHERE: 9494 U.S. 19 N. Suite 13, Port Richey

CALL: (727) 847-5500

WEB SITE: http:// center.ikumon.com/showpage.aspx?url =90607

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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