Dear Ms. Bailey,

I want to dedicate this post to Katrina Bailey, and how her tutoring/mentoring helped ME to parent intuitively.

Since Thalia has been in the 6th grade, Katrina has helped to shape Thalia’s study habits, perspective on coursework, and allowed her to fail. To be more specific, being accountable for her (in)actions.

Thalia is an exceptional student, but like most kids, they think that just being smart is all you need, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Working with Katrina, Thalia did not score high enough on the SHSAT to secure a spot at one of the elite high schools in NYC, and will be taking her SAT this Saturday for the 3rd time.

Why is this a good thing? It has allowed Thalia to learn how to adapt, pivot and figure out how to do better. It also taught her that in order to get the reward, you have to put in that work.

As her mom, I have learned to communicate with her about where her struggles, whether it’s time management, understanding the work, and helping to guide her on how to be proactive, instead of reactive.

She’s taken it and run with it, and now will go to her teachers for assistance when needed, and if she gets a bad grade, instead of moping, she can identify what went wrong and will work to fix it.

I couldn’t have done this without Katrina and her team, which includes, Thalia, Jasmine, Juanita etc.

Now that we’re prepping for college, I’m comfortable knowing that academically, Thalia has the tools to succeed, and that wouldn’t be possible without Katrina.

Testimonial from Natacha Pierre, Mother