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"I love education and enjoyed my three years of teaching psychology and algebra at Monsignor Edward Pace High School," said Hoyos, who graduated this past summer from the Evening MBA program with a 3.9 GPA. "But I wanted to do more. I knew that I didn't want to open my own education center, so I explored other opportunities in the field. Then, I thought of the idea of a tutoring company." Though other companies offer home-based tutoring, Top Tutors, in business since January, 2005, prides itself on its personalized service and individualized programs. "Most companies are like brokers, contracting out their tutors," Hoyos said. "I meet all the parents, do an assessment of the child to help guide the tutors, and am very involved with all the people who work for me. For example, I get a report on every lesson—the goal and how the child performed—and I carefully match the tutor and child." The company is new, but Hoyos already has eight tutors and big plans. In just a few short months, she has moved from doing some of the tutoring herself to focusing on managing and growing the business. "I hope to expand—maybe even into franchising," she said. "But I always will want the service to be highly personalized. Also, since my name will be out there, I'll need to make sure I have the right people working for me." The transition from school teacher to entrepreneur would not have been possible without her experiences in the College of Business Administration's graduate program. And in her case, the Evening MBA was ideal, since she was able to keep her teaching job while completing the degree. In addition, the program offered an attractive array of courses for someone without a bachelor's degree in business.
"I looked at other graduate programs, but they all were geared toward those with undergraduate degrees in business," she said. "The College offered lots of introductory business courses within the graduate program, which was very helpful to me." In addition to getting her career aspirations clarified while she was teaching, Hoyos also met one of her future tutors, Johanna Gonzalez, now an FIU student majoring in marketing. Hoyos was one of Gonzalez's teachers and her soccer coach. "I tutor students, mostly in math," said Gonzalez, who will graduate in May, 2006, tutors fifteen to twenty hours weekly, wants to pursue graduate work, and looks forward to helping Hoyos grow the business. "As we meet people, we learn about what they really want, and we design new programs to meet those needs."
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