A new tutoring company is using one-on-one instruction to help students with their STEM classes.
The about two-week-old tutoring company, integrateU, based in Orlando and Gainesville, is helping students excel by providing intensive, one-on-one academic attention.
Saajan Panikar, current chief operating officer and Gainesville branch manager, and Josh Kaplan, current CEO and Orlando branch manager, created integrateU in November 2011 with the intention for it to serve a different purpose.
“It started out primarily as an academic networking site and then evolved into a tutoring company,” said Panikar, a 23-year-old UF alumnus.
Noticing that local tutoring companies, namely TutoringZone and Study Edge, didn’t offer much study help for science, technology, math and engineering courses, commonly referred to as STEM courses, Panikar and Kaplan decided to create a service that catered primarily to these subjects.
According to the company’s website, tutoring services are $30 an hour for individuals, $20 an hour per person for groups of two to three people, $15 per person for groups of four to five people and $85 in total for groups of six or more.
“We felt that they were really underrepresented,” Panikar said. “Once you got to a certain point, there really were not tutors for these certain types of subjects.”
Students create an account on the website and then complete a profile with details including contact information, employment history, a personal statement and accomplishments.
Students book tutoring sessions using the service’s online reservation system at www.integrateu.com.
Contact information is exchanged through the website, and meet up in a public location for the session, Panikar said.
Nicholas Bevelock, a 21-year-old microbiology and cell sciences UF senior was recently hired by integrateU’s Gainesville branch as tutor for several science subjects including microbiology.
“In our opinion, it’s much better than sitting in a lecture hall of about 100 people just listening to someone talk about the subject for an hour,” he said.
“We definitely see ourselves as a more cost-effective option than TutoringZone or Study Edge,” Panikar said.
