Tutor helps solve math woes

Business features online exercises, live tutoring and test preparation

LAURA EMERSON/VIEWMathematics tutor Gina Russo, left, walks Coronado High School junior Jillian McCleary through mathematical concepts during a tutoring session on Aug. 3 at the Paseo Verde Library, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway. Russo owns a tutoring business, the Math Solution, and assists students throughout Henderson with mathematics. Advertisement

Anthem resident Gina Russo helps supplement students' math education in more ways than one.

Earlier this year, she extended her math tutoring business, The Math Solution, to include an online component that has taped lessons, as well as live tutoring.

At Russo's Web site, www.onlinemathsolution.com, students can watch video math lessons in pre-algebra, algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, precalculus and calculus for a monthly membership of $9.95 or annual membership of $89. Students can watch the videos as many times as they need.

Grace Kawaguchi purchased a membership for her family and uses the site regularly to download math worksheets and problem solutions. Kawaguchi described the online lessons as step-by-step instruction.

"There are a lot of good Web sites, but I like Gina's because she follows Clark County pretty closely," Kawaguchi said. "It's very thorough."

For students who want to take one-on-one interactive lessons online, Russo offers them via Skype for $30 per hour, in addition to test preparation for the Nevada Proficiency Exam.

"It's an alternative way of getting math help," Russo said.

Offline, Russo offers tutoring for all of the above, in addition to all standardized tests, including the PSAT, SAT, SAT subject tests, ACT, GRE, GMAT, Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and the U.S. Secret Service Exam. In-person tutoring with Russo costs $50 an hour.

Kawaguchi's daughter, a junior at Coronado High School, uses Russo's in-person tutoring services occasionally to supplement her class instruction before a big test or if she falls behind because of after-school activities.

"She's wonderful, she really is," Kawaguchi said of Russo. "She's always on time."

In addition to being on time, Kawaguchi said, the tutor always is prepared with a car trunk full of math textbooks to use as reference when she's helping a student. Also, Russo isn't hesitant to contact her pupils' schoolteachers so that everyone can be on the same page with specific math techniques and strategies.

"She just makes every effort," Kawaguchi said. "It's always a positive result when we use her."

Before she opened her tutoring business, Russo taught math for five years in Las Vegas and New York, but left teaching because she wanted to get practical math experience in a hands-on way.

She became an apprentice to a traffic engineer and worked for five years using the mathematics she previously taught to students. After five years, she left traffic engineering to return to teaching, but this time as a tutor.

"I left engineering because I had the idea for the Web site," Russo said. "I wanted to reach more students."

Robert Lewis has twin daughters who have used Russo's tutoring services since ninth grade. The girls are entering their senior year at Silverado High School, and Lewis said they have straight-A's.

"A lot of it is directly related to Gina,"' Lewis said.

Lewis said Russo has more than one way of teaching a math concept, and that's what helped his daughters succeed. Lewis' younger daughter, who is entering eighth grade, also is using Russo's service.

"She's very relatable to the kids," Lewis said.

Today, Russo has owned her personal tutoring business, The Math Solution, for three years, but has tutored for a total of 15.

For more information, contact Russo at 321-1949 or visit www.onlinemath solution.com.

Contact View education reporter Laura Emerson at lcarroll@viewnews.com or 380-4588.