Our Story
The Brandywine Learning Center's mission to inspire learners was founded in March 2003 by classroom teacher, Gina DiGiacomo. Our philosophy is that each child should be approached as an individual with a unique set of learning strengths and needs, an innate learning style, and particular interests. Committed educational mentors, who are dedicated to assisting each child to achieve their goals, staff BLC. Julie Spak, a member of our amazing staff, writes in her mission statement, "Our students discover how they learn best, develop strategies to address their learning challenges and enjoy the feeling of academic and personal success."
We are much more than a tutoring company. We go far beyond teaching math, reading, writing, and other subjects. We teach life skills. We teach success. For every hour we spend tutoring we spend multiple hours preparing, talking to each child's teachers and parents, working with guidance counselors, creating materials, collecting books from the library that we feel will captivate our students, studying IEP's, report cards, and SAT results. We are always brainstorming innovative ways to encourage students to motivate themselves.
Our philosophy is heartfelt--to inspire a passion for learning! We strive to teach students to identify and abolish roadblocks! We work holistically by creating a triangle of success among students, their classroom teachers and parents! We fill each learner's educational toolbox and teach them how and when to use the tools! We motivate!
Our Approach
We work with learners ranging from pre-school through post-college age. We provide PSAT and SAT test preparation, and learning services for children with academic and study skill needs. The format is one-on-one for private tutoring and small groups for SAT preparation courses. We provide tutoring and teaching for all subjects, homeschool programming, enrichment offerings, and study skills. Our clientele include children from public, private, parochial, and home schooling programs.
Being part of a learner's support team expedites success. When we start working with a student, we connect with the school and family so that we can align learning with classroom and home practices. The goal is to not only breed success within the walls of the learning center, but to give the learner the needed tools, confidence and knowledge for success in life.
We work to facilitate learning and interest through student's interests and learning styles. For example, a student learning fractions may be asked to cut a recipe in half, then make the recipe in the BLC classroom kitchen. The learning from this would then be compared to the type of problems presented in class. The student and mentor work to see how the recipe activity and the paper-pencil work require the same thought process.
Aside from private offerings, we provide programs through local park and recreation organizations such as DARC (Downingtown Area Recreation Consortium), West Chester Area Recreation Department, Horsham Recreation Department, Towamincin Parks and Recreation Department, Upper Gwynedd Parks and Recreation Departments, Radnor Parks and Recreation Department, and Doylestown Parks and Recreation.
