Meet E. Marissa Scott-Wills

Today we’d like to introduce you to E. Marissa Scott-Wills.

Marissa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember, I have loved math. As a kid, my dad always told me, “Math is a game. Once you learn the rules, the game never changes.” This has been one of the strongest pillars in my heart for teaching and tutoring math. I remember being at home during the summers and my mom giving my sister and I math problems. We would compete to get the right answer first. I am 4 years younger than my sister and we could go head to head. As I got into middle school and high school, I realized that math was going from simple to complex. I never lost love for it and I was always up for the challenge. Algebra, Geometry, fractions, Trigonometry, you name it! I learned fast, and it stuck better than any other subject I had in school. In high school, I started to help my classmates who were falling behind or lost continuously in math. By my junior year, I was known by several students as the person who can help you pass. As most of my “clients” in high school had part-time jobs in fast food, my compensation was usually gift cards to their job.

When I graduated from Mountain Pointe in 2009, I started tutoring elementary school students to make extra money as a college student. What I found was not only was it fun, but I was good at it. The students I was working with started bringing home A’s and B’s from failing grades. A year later, I wanted to work with a tutoring company and found that I was never qualified because I had not received my degree yet. So in the summer of 2010, I started Scooter’s Tutors. What began as a small mission to fund my living expenses as a college student has grown into a great operating business. For the first few years, I would travel to student homes and tutor them 2-3 times a week. What I found was students were sometimes waiting until our sessions to attempt to complete homework or assignments. They were relying on tutoring and that was an adverse effect from what I wanted for them.

I began looking at ways students could access tutoring resources and keep a record of their progress without actively being in a session. I tried different options from voice recording sessions to individualized lesson workbooks and that is when I found a webinar platform worked best. With the webinar, I can record video and audio of sessions for my students. They can playback sessions when they need refreshers or reminders of certain techniques we have covered. Introducing the webinars into my tutoring sessions has allowed my company to reach more students per semester because I can schedule them without adding traffic and travel time in between my students. In 2019, I began developing targeted tutoring sessions for the most common challenged areas I have seen over the years. I called these sessions “Academic Clinics.” Currently, I have 4 clinics that are available covering math topics, writing development, getting ready to read for kids 2-5 years old, and balancing school and life for students who need help organizing and scheduling their studies with extra-curricular activities, church, and family life. Scooter’s Tutors continues to grow its social media presence and has been ready to expand our reach to as many students as we can.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest challenge I have faced along the way as a small company has been getting clients. Originally my services were only known through word of mouth. So I would get only one student per semester or academic year. When I launched my social media pages, I started to see a huge increase in the demand for tutoring. With this increase, I had to find a way to provide services to various students when I was the only tutor available—wanting to spread my service area and expand without losing effectiveness. By myself, I was limited, but in the last two years, I have hired two amazing tutors to join my mission. This has allowed my company to provide service to more students in one semester than we have been able to reach with me alone.

We’d love to hear more about the company.
Scooter’s Tutors is an online and mobile tutoring company that focuses on giving students the tools they need to be self-sufficient in all their academic endeavors. We are an affordable alternative to traditional tutoring companies. We specialize in English, Math, Writing, and Success! With Scooter’s Tutors hosting tutoring sessions online via webinar systems, we can offer a more flexible schedule to our students. They can log in from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. We offer sessions seven days a week, and with our meeting happening on a free webinar system, you can receive tutoring from any computer or mobile device.

As a company, I am most proud of the positive reviews and success stories of my clients. Success is seeing the students “get it”. It is when the light bulb of their understanding goes from off to shining brightly. When I get a text from a student who just got their first A on a test, when I do a grade check with students and they have raised a class 20% in 3 weeks, when students can confidently tell me the answer to questions during sessions, that is my mission being accomplished right before my eyes.

What were you like growing up?
As a child, I was never a huge follower of crowds. I had my three close friends and while I was friendly to others, I didn’t need a big bunch to have a good time. I was always looking for ways to help, teach, and interact with people. In school, I was often the student people looked to work in groups with because I could lead without leaving anyone in the group out. I was the child who constantly asked “how?” and “why?”. My desire how things worked, were processed, or came to be drove my love for learning. As a student, I was very active in class and maintained useful reports from my teachers. Outside of school, I loved to dance. I was the youngest of six dancers to be in the inaugural dance ministry at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. I danced at several MLK Candlelight services over the years. In middle school, I began cheerleading as another outlet for my dancing love. In high school, I still danced. I joined and held offices in several clubs, including the Black Student Union, Future Teachers of America, HERO, and RIZE Step Team. From entering high school until adulthood, I have been tutoring math.

Pricing:

• Semester Tutoring $450
• 5 sessions of ACT/SAT/ASVAB Test Preparation $225
• College Math (MAT081-MAT257) $300

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scooterstutors.com
• Phone: 832-857-0048
• Email: scooterstutorsaz@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scooterstutors/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scooterstutorsaz/

Image Credit:
Alona Ray, Evelynn Scott-Wills

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