Business Profile: Mathnasium of Yorktown Heights

You can limber up in variety of ways in a gymnasium.

At Mathnasium, students have the opportunity to shape up their math skills.

Brewster resident Kaz Tanahashi opened Mathnasium in March to help students struggling with math. He was joined in the business by Peekskill resident Marina Zale, who is center director and an instructor.

Tanahashi said he chose the Triangle Shopping Center for his new business because it is located in the center of northern Westchester. Mathnasium is a national franchise chain, he noted. His students come from northern Westchester, from such communities as Yorktown, Chappaqua, Pleasantville, Croton-on-Hudson and Peekskill.

Mathnasium provide assistance for students in grades one through 12 in math only. Monthly programs are offered during the school year and currently, summer programs are being provided. During the summer, parents can choose to bring their children when they desire, but classes meet twice a week, Tanahashi said.

Mathnasium offers lessons “building the framework of learning,’ Tanahashi said. Rather than just memorization, students at the facility learn math concepts, he said.

“The first thing is to figure out why exactly they’re struggling,” Zale explained. “Each student comes in with a different problem. Some may just feel like they just don’t get it anymore so they’ve given up. Others are really trying but they don’t have the basics, the foundations, the number sense that they really need.”

Other students have “a mental block” when it comes to math, Zale said.

One-on-one teaching and small group classes are offered at Mathnasium with ratios of either three students to one teacher or four students per teacher.

“When they come in we assess what they need” by analyzing strengths and weaknesses, Tanahashi said. “Based on that assessment we create a learning plan.”

Zale is a veteran tutor and teaching assistant who has taught pre-school through college level students. While she is the primary educator at the Yorktown facility, Zale has several other responsibilities. “I do pretty much everything,” she said. “I help with marketing. I help with answering parent questions. I interact with students, help run events.”

Tanahashi, who was born in Tokyo, Japan and moved to the United States more than 30 years ago, does not teach. He previously provided strategic plans for corporations.

Tanahashi said he had a specific goal for his new business. “I’d really like to expand because this is a franchise,” he said, noting he would like to open additional centers as satellites for his Yorktown establishment.

Mathnasium of Yorktown Heights is located at 94 Triangle Center in the Triangle Shopping Center. For more information, call 914-302-7950, visit mathnasium.com or send an e-mail to yorktownheights@mathnasium.com.

Neal Rentz