Candice DeVane had a successful engineering career in her hometown of Washington DC. She made good money, worked on high end projects for a satellite communications company and lived in close proximity to her family.
But she was not in love with what she was doing, so she left it all behind to pursue her passion.
Fresh off of earning her MBA, DeVane and her husband, made the trek to east Chula Vista last year looking to enter the business world.
“I was looking for somewhere that would be fulfilling if I was going to spend all of my time there,” she said.
After some soul searching DeVane realized she really enjoyed tutoring students at her church. She then figured she
can not only do what she loves but she can make money from it too.
DeVane, 33, looked at different franchising opportunities, ultimately buying the Sylvan Learning Center at 891 Showroom Place #103 in Eastlake for $200,000.
Admittedly, DeVane said it may take her some time to get a return on her investment, but she is happy being a business owner and tutoring students.
“In terms of life and fulfillment it definitely has paid off,” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything more fulfilling to be doing with my day.”
She said what sold her on Sylvan over other tutoring companies was its personalized approach with students and their focus on STEAM classes, which is DeVane’s areas of expertise.
“With my background in engineering that’s the kind of stuff that I like to see integrated with students today,” she said. “Those are the skills we need for the new workplace.”
DeVane inherited a staff who are diverse in various school subjects. Every staff member is a credentialed teacher or retired who at one time held a credential while teaching at one of the local school districts.
Currently the center averages about 70 to 75 students a week who need tutoring. Students take a placement test and based on those test results the center gives a recommended set of tutoring hours for a student to reach their academic goals.
Sylvan Learning charges $55 an hour. DeVane offers discounted packages based on the number of tutoring hours needed.
DeVane said running a business has been a lot of work not just from an operational stand point, but also with promoting her business.
For now she is content with the east Chula Vista center, eventually she said, she would like to own more Sylvan franchises.
“There are lots of students in need (of tutoring) so I’d love to be able to extend my reach,” she said.
