LAWRENCEVILLE — Mindy Layton was picking up a pizza at Cosmo’s Original Little Italy in downtown Lawrenceville when she noticed the business next door: College Nannies & Tutors.

Her daughter, a student at Central Gwinnett High School, had been struggling with a couple of subjects — particularly math — so Layton decided to send an e-mail to the Lawrenceville Learning Center for more information.

“I can’t help her do the math,” Layton said. “It’s tough when you feel you can’t help your child with their homework, so I thought we’d at least give (College Nannies & Tutors) a try.”

Layton and her daughter met with the owner and managing director of the center, DeNita McGuinn, in March and identified the areas they wanted to work on. They decided to have tutoring sessions twice a week, and McGuinn focused on finding a tutor that would work well with Layton’s daughter.

“We focused on building up her confidence and her grades improved significantly in the six weeks she attended the sessions,” Layton said.

Layton said her daughter went from a failing grade to an average just below 80.

“She’s tutored before with other people, but I honestly feel she’s been most comfortable with (the Lawrenceville Learning Center tutor),” Layton said. “The thing that makes me the happiest is I’ve seen improvement in the grades. ... (And) when my daughter gets a decent score on a test, it makes her feel better.”

College Nannies & Tutors is a company with franchise locations throughout the United States. The two locations in Georgia are both located in Gwinnett — the new Lawrenceville center and one in Duluth.

The company gets its name because it hires college students to provide tutoring and nanny services, McGuinn said. Most of the employees at the Lawrenceville center attend Georgia Gwinnett College.

The nanny portion of the business is focused on providing after-school nannies who can help children with homework and get them ready for lessons, McGuinn said. The company hires people who can serve as role models for the children.

With tutoring, McGuinn said she works with families to create customized, one-on-one sessions. They focus on everything from kindergarten reading support to SAT and ACT preparation, as well as developing skills such as organization.

“We create a learning plan that works with the family’s goals,” McGuinn said.

During a recent tutoring session, Winn Holt Elementary student Adrian Oglesby worked with the center’s lead tutor, Autumn Hendry, to review math concepts before taking a standardized test.

“This feels better than just being in class,” Adrian said.

Adrian said he had 44 students in his class, so it was hard for him to learn some concepts. But working one-on-one with Hendry, he was able to spend more time on concepts that confused him.

Hendry said the experience of tutoring children is one she hopes will help her in her future career.

“I want to be a teacher once I graduate college,” she said. “This is a good way to get the
experience.”