Meet Tasya Clarke | Educator & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tasya Clarke and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tasya, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born and raised in Queens, New York as an only child with a single mother with the support of my grandmother. I. have always been encouraged to do well in school and to eventually go to college. I had a very wholesome childhood, yet at times I would get very lonely since I didn’t have any siblings. At a young age I began to genuinely think about the concept of school and how much time I spent in school and realized that I do not have a connection with any of my teachers, nor did any of them seem the least interested to develop a connection with me either. It struck me that a location that children spend the majority of their day in that they people that instruct them for almost the full year of their life, do not even attempt to get to know them. I’ve even had a teacher slap me in the face at 6 years old. The teachers that I’ve had throughout my childhood have just not been the best.

I also began to think about the concept of mentorship. I used to pray for a mentor, or a big sister as a child because I didn’t want to be alone, and I understood the importance of being led by someone that could provide the proper guidance and help position me to strengthen my weak points and increase my strengths. I prayed that if I never got the opportunity to have a mentor that I would have the ability to be that for others.

Fast forward to almost a decade or so later, I am currently am an 8th grade teacher and own and operate an online tutoring company called You’ve Got This Tutoring. Due to my negative experiences with teachers throughout my childhood, teaching was not even on the list for career possibilities. Yet my mother always knew. As a teacher, I make sure that I meet my students academic and social emotional needs. I get to know them, connect with them and celebrate them. I’ve seen so many of my students progress in their academics, just by my own ability to connect with them, and assist them in building their confidence. It was never about forcing more content down their throat, but more so in the ability to have students believe in their ability to accomplish things that come as a challenge to them.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I run an online tutoring business called You’ve Got This Tutoring. We provide one to one tutoring for students around the ages of 7-17 specializing in math and english instruction. Our students are provided with a customized learning plan/ curriculum specifically crafted for their specific areas of academic need. Our students are provided with a diagnostic assessment upon enrollment to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses to make the curriculum as fine tuned and accurate as possible. What sets us apart is that we not only care for the academic needs of our students, but also the social emotional needs of our students. Therefore, our tutors acts as mentors/ coaches for our students and assist their students in building up their personal and academic confidence. We have seen students go from being border line failing in both math and english to have gone up to achieving a B or greater with only a few weeks of being tutored by us.

I am the most proud of my staff because they exceed my expectations every time. The level of time, care and commitment that they have for their students is phenomenal.

I got to where I am today by remaining persistent and consistent in one of the darkest times of my life, having faith in God, and most importantly making an investment into myself. I started my business the summer before knowing I would lose all of the people that I once considered to be family. The summer before I knew that I would face one of the harshest and hugest betrayals of my life from a few people that I once loved. However, throughout the pain, my business was the one thing that I didn’t want to lose along with the others. So no matter how I felt in the moment, I made sure to do something that could contribute to my business growth. Through the consistency of posting on social media, this is what led me to meet my coach Natalie. Through meeting her, I gained more confidence, pitched my business and was on the track to gaining a school partnership with a college and my organization. This is where I had to make the decision to invest in myself so that I would be able to secure and uphold this new level I was going into.

The funny thing about life is that I didn’t end up getting the contract, nor any of the other 2 proposed school partnerships that came my way, but that didn’t stop the one on one clients from rolling in that were invested in their childrens overall well being. My coach has always told me that the more no’s you get the closer you get to attaining your yes. Therefore, I kept going.

Getting to this point took a lot of mindset work since I battled with imposter syndrome, insecurities and so many debilitating thoughts and habits, However, having a coach and also a therapist to guide me and help me to unpack the deep emotions that were uprising by the new levels I began to experience was essential.

Even though You’ve Got This Tutoring is not exactly where I envision it to be, I am so proud of how far we have come and the families lives that we are allowed to impact.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ve actually never been to Atlanta, but I can tell them about New York. My favorite place to go in New York is an area called Long Island City. It used to be an area filled with warehouses that developers have turned into a beautifully crafted city right outside of Manhattan. LIC has tons have beautiful restaurants and the scenic views are my favorite part. There is a park called Gantry Park that is right on the water and across the ocean there is a beautiful view of Manhattan. I’m not picky when it comes to restaurants, nor do I go to the same restaurant continuously, I love adventuring and trying new places, therefore selecting a favorite place to eat or drink is hard. Yet, my go to restaurants are usually Thai, or Japanese. Even though food is literally my definition of a good time, if you take a trip across to Manhattan from long island city and venture into SoHo there is a fun museum called the Museum of Color that is so much fun for people of all ages.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to give a huge shout out to my mentor Natalie Taylor. She has been instrumental in my growth. I met Natalie after a very harsh transition in my life and through my brokenness she saw greatness. She had a belief in me that far out weighed the belief I had in myself. The prayer that I made as a child as most definitely manifested in meeting her in my adulthood. Our relationship started as her being my business coach, but transformed into her being one of my closest friends, a big sister and most of all my mentor.

Website: www.y-g-t.net

Instagram: www.instagram.com/ygttutoring

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tasya-c-b1240b71

Facebook: www.facebook,com/ygttutoring

Image Credits
The non personal images are stock images from Adobe. The personal image is mine.