Bruin graduate founds tutoring company in light of budget crisis
UCLA alumnus Dustin Brown started a tutoring company, Leopold Bloom, with two other UCLA graduates after the cutback to the Covel Tutoring service.
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 27, 2009 9:00 p.m.
After students frantically approached Dustin Brown in search of a tutoring service on campus, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Most tutoring services on campus are impacted because of the budget cuts and are difficult to get into, so Brown wanted to provide a service for students.
Leopold Bloom Company is a tutorial service founded by Brown and two other UCLA graduates that encourages students to “bloom” academically while providing them with a service that helps enrich their learning.
Brown said the name “Leopold Bloom” came to him from one of the characters in the novel “Ulysses,” as well as from the idea that this company “bloomed” from the budget cuts.
Brown, who is president of the Leopold Bloom Company and a recent UCLA graduate, founded the company when the tutorial he worked for, the Composition and ESL Lab in Covel Commons closed because of budget cuts.
Since Brown had been a tutor when he was an undergraduate, he felt it was important for students to have a place that offered effective learning that could not be subject to closure by administrative means.
Brown and his team worked to come up with a philosophy, training method and a system of convenience and efficiency and were able to have the company up and running by the first few weeks of school.
“We came from a background where we are affected by the cuts going on, and we are trying to create something for UCLA students who want to be tutors, as well as for UCLA students who are looking for tutors,” Brown said.
Brown said he hopes that in the future, this company’s model will be integrated into the university so that students won’t have to pay for tutoring.
“I think that tutoring is extremely beneficial because it provides an opportunity for students to sit down with a student or a graduate like me ““ somebody who has been in their shoes and walked the walk ““ and will touch base with them,” said Roberta Wolfson, a former Daily Bruin reporter and chief learning officer for the company. “This is a place where they can go to really improve themselves.”
Currently, Leopold Bloom has been working with the Navy ROTC students since the program was able to fund tutoring. The company is student-oriented, and one-hour tutoring sessions cost $35 per session.
“We pride ourselves on being student-oriented,” Brown said. “We give our first student sessions for free so students can see if they are compatible with their tutors.”
Brown has also started outreach programs at local community colleges to provide students with help on their personal statements, fulfilling other requirements and preparing them to transfer to a university. He said he also hopes to build a network through the local community by integrating this model of tutoring at other universities such as Cal State Northridge.
Brown said the first step tutors take when meeting with a student is to evaluate the kinds of problems the student is going though in their classes. The tutor then outlines goals for each session. Brown said that their process relies heavily on the idea that there might be some “impasses, which is a fundamental gap in a student’s knowledge.” By being able to recognize these gaps, Brown said that students are able to achieve better learning with retention.
Brown said they try to use the philosophy of collaboration, which allows the tutor to be a guide rather than taking an authoritative role.
In addition to offering one-on-one tutoring sessions, they also try to hold writing workshops in dorms, in some sororities and fraternities and for student groups and organizations. Brown said that Leopold Bloom Company is willing to set up any workshops that students might find useful.
He also wants to provide students at different college campuses with employment by offering them the chance to become a tutor. Current tutors are rated and commented on through the company Web site. Tutors meet with students at any public place on campus.
“Most of the tutors that are at Leopold Bloom have had tremendous experience in tutoring,” said Shreyas Patel, math and sciences tutor for the company and UCLA alumnus.
Patel said that since most of the tutors are from UCLA and tutor for classes they have had in the past, this enables them to cover specific material as opposed to general concepts.
Wolfson said they currently have a number of tutors who have worked at different tutorials at UCLA.
“We are here for the students,” Brown said. “That’s what I learned to do here at UCLA, to create something that is beneficial for both myself and the students around here. That is what I’m trying to do with Leopold.”
